Coinbase Sues German Man, Accusing Him of Maliciously Domain Hijacking and Extortion

BlockBeats News, July 28th, Coinbase has filed a lawsuit against German man Tobias Honscha in the California federal court, accusing him of maliciously squatting the domain name coinbase.de and attempting to extort the company.

Coinbase claims that Honscha used the domain to redirect users to a physical coin trading app and profit through the Coinbase affiliate marketing program, violating the prohibition in the affiliate agreement against using the term "Coinbase" in a domain name.

More significantly, Coinbase accuses Honscha of threatening that if the company did not purchase the domain at a high price, there might be a phishing attack, including risks such as "unauthorized submission of identification documents, passwords, and one-time two-factor authentication codes." Coinbase believes this is "clear extortion behavior."

Coinbase is seeking a court order to stop the use of the domain, transfer domain ownership, and compensate for losses. (Cointelegraph)