irsassetprotection.com is an impersonation phishing site whose domain name invokes the IRS and the idea of tax-related "asset protection," aimed at people holding cryptocurrency. PhishDestroy first flagged it on 2026-09-07. The site has been offline since 2026-09-11, and its DNS was still inactive at the last check on 2026-10-19. The page itself was titled "How to keep your self-custody wallet secure | Coinbase," so it presented as Coinbase content even though the domain name points to the IRS.
How the scam works
Schemes like this pair official-sounding pressure, such as a tax authority or a warning that your assets are at risk, with a familiar crypto brand. The Coinbase "self-custody wallet security" title fits a common pattern. The victim is told their wallet must be secured, verified or protected, then is led to type in a recovery phrase or connect a wallet. Anyone who hands over a seed phrase gives the operator full control of that wallet. Anyone who signs a wallet request can authorize transfers that empty it.
Evidence
On 2026-09-08, 7 of 89 VirusTotal engines flagged the domain: alphaMountain.ai, Emsisoft, Fortinet, Kaspersky, Netcraft, SOCRadar and Webroot. That count is modest, but these are independent vendors that reached the same conclusion. urlscan.io returned a malicious verdict and detected Coinbase and generic crypto branding on the page, which matches the title. The domain is also on the MetaMask and SEAL blocklists alongside PhishDestroy, and it appears in 4 AlienVault OTX threat pulses.
Infrastructure
The domain was registered through Namecheap on 2025-11-03, about ten months before PhishDestroy detected it. A domain that sits that long before use is often registered ahead of time and kept in reserve. The site was served through Cloudflare's network, geolocated to Canada, which hides the true origin server behind a shared front end. It went dark within four days of first detection.
What to do
If you entered a recovery phrase on this site, treat that wallet as compromised. Create a new wallet with a fresh phrase on a device you trust, and move any remaining funds there immediately. If you connected a wallet or signed anything, review and revoke token approvals with a reputable approval checker. The IRS does not contact anyone about protecting crypto wallets, so ignore any follow-up asking for fees, verification or account details. Security teams should block the domain and watch for lookalikes that combine tax-authority wording with crypto-exchange branding.
Saved certificate metadata. Certificate dates without a timezone are shown as stored. Transport encryption does not establish that the site is trustworthy.
Primary outcomeDNS 非アクティブreason: DNS NXDOMAIN80% confidence
Attributionsource: Dns Cache
Evidence layersAvailability: DNS inactiveContent: UnreachableDNS: NXDOMAINRegistration: Unknown
Latest HTTP observation不明Probe Inconclusive20%2026-10-19 01:13:42 UTC
RDAP registration不明
Observed timelinelast reachable: 2026-09-10 22:17:44 UTCcurrent episode first observed: 2026-09-30 16:14:55 UTCobserved RIP window: 2026-09-10 22:17:44 UTC → 2026-09-30 16:14:55 UTC · 473.95hmidpoint estimate ≈ 2026-09-20 19:16:19 UTC · precision low · basis bounded
Availability, content, DNS and registration are independent evidence layers. NXDOMAIN, an unreachable origin or missing content alone does not prove registrar action. A registrar or provider is credited only when a direct technical marker identifies that actor. Report causality is shown separately.
使用技術 · 7 identified
C
Contentful
CMS
Contentful is an API-first content management platform to create, manage and publish content on any digital channel.
Express is a web application framework for Node.js, released as free and open-source software under the MIT License. It is designed for building web applications and APIs.
Cloudflare is a web-infrastructure and website-security company, providing content-delivery-network services, DDoS mitigation, Internet security, and distributed domain-name-server services.
Keep original emails, receipts, messages and screenshots in a secure place. A factual timeline helps the receiving authority understand what happened. IC3 evidence guidance ↗
Payment records — if you paid, save the receipt, amount, date, payment provider and recipient details.
Your bank or payment provider — contact its fraud team promptly through official contact details if money or card information was exposed.
地元の警察 — たとえ直ちに行動を起こせなくても、公式な記録が残される
A report is not a guarantee of recovery or investigation, but prompt, accurate transaction data can help authorities and service providers trace the incident.
詐欺による金銭の返還を装った詐欺 — fraudsters pose as recovery agents and demand upfront fees. Never share a seed phrase or pay before independently verifying the provider
About this reportSources, observation dates and corrections
This report combines saved page captures, registration and network records, scanner results and PhishDestroy reporting history. Each source keeps its own observation date. Open a source report to inspect the original result.
The AI-assisted analysis was written on . It describes the evidence available at that time; later source checks can change.
A capture documents what was shown. A scanner result records that provider’s assessment at the time of its check. Neither a valid certificate nor a zero-detection result is a guarantee of safety.
(US)
