The bogus invitation listed Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong as speakers for a non-existent Dubai summit.
Bobby Ong, the co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency data platform CoinGecko, has issued a public warning about a new phishing scam.
The fraudulent scheme uses fake emails that appear to come from Booking.com, inviting recipients to a non-existent “Exclusive Crypto Travel Summit” in Dubai.
A Deceptive Invitation
The phishing attempt, which Ong shared on social media, presented itself as a legitimate conference announcement, with the fake email claiming that Booking.com and Coinbase have formed a strategic partnership to launch a crypto travel service.
It listed an impressive roster of keynote speakers, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, for an event supposedly happening in November 2025.
A key red flag is that the RSVP deadline for this future event was set in the past, for September 30, 2025, which pointed to recycled or hastily constructed scam content.
Ong advised anyone receiving such an email to delete it immediately and urged Booking.com to escalate the issue to its security team.
The official Booking.com account later acknowledged the issue in a reply to Ong’s post, saying, “We regret to hear that you are receiving fake emails,” and requested details via direct message to investigate.
You may also like:
A Persistent Threat in Crypto
This incident is not an isolated one but part of a wider pattern of scams targeting crypto users. In September, Binance issued two separate warnings about different types of fraud.
In the first one, the exchange alerted the public about fake “listing agents” who were purportedly promising projects a spot on the platform for a fee.
A few days later, company CEO Richard Teng detailed a phone scam where impersonators posed as customer support agents. He said that the fake helpers then guided users through changing their account’s API settings, a process that allowed the scammer to steal funds.
The community’s reaction to Ong’s warning was one of recognition and frustration. One social media user, SkylineETH, commented on the increasing complexity of these schemes, writing, “appreciate the warning, these scams keep leveling up.”
Another user, Kevin Lee, expressed a common concern, questioning if there was a better way to handle email security to avoid even clicking ‘unsubscribe’ links in suspicious newsletters. This sentiment was echoed by Ong, who noted that the adversarial nature of the crypto world requires people to carefully check every email they receive.
Binance Free $600 (CryptoPotato Exclusive): Use this link to register a new account and receive $600 exclusive welcome offer on Binance (full details).
LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!
