Bitcoin.org Attacked by ‘Double Your Bitcoin’ Scammers

Bitcoin Hack Scam

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Linas Kmieliauskas

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Linas Kmieliauskas

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October 23, 2023 09:34 EDT

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Bitcoin.org, a popular Bitcoin (BTC) resource that had 1.7m visits in August, has apparently been attacked by crypto scammers. The website is now not available.

A message on the website now claims that “The Bitcoin Foundation is giving back to the community” and uses the old tactics to deceive inexperienced BTC holders by asking them to send BTC and promising to send double the amount in return.

The website is operated by anonymous bitcoiner Cobra, also known for his legal battle with Craig Wright. 

Cobra confirmed that the website has been compromised.

“Currently looking into how the hackers put up the scam modal on the site. May be down for a few days,” the operator said.

https://www.twitter.com/CobraBitcoin/status/1440912752151867397

The address, posted by the scammers now shows 9 transactions and BTC 0.4 (USD 17,657). However, it might be sent by the scammers themselves.

“I would guess that the server hosting the website has been compromised as the modal does not appear in this repo,” Bitcoin Core contributor Andrew Chow said.
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Reactions:

https://www.twitter.com/DanDarkPill/status/1440888215808872452

Thankfully all the other pages are offline and are serving a 404, including the download page

— MyCrypto.eth 🦊💙 (@MyCrypto) September 23, 2021

Anyone have the ability to DDOS the site? Maybe @wiz? Happy to donate to the cause.

— FT₿ (@FullTimeBitcoin) September 23, 2021

cc @namecheap @NamecheapCEO in case y'all want to take down the scam site of all scam sites, at least temporarily (looks like the domain was updated today/stolen, possible?)

— Matt Corallo (@TheBlueMatt) September 23, 2021

Probably a matter of time and skill; same as the Twitter backdoor that was used for giveaway scams. Folks stumble across the exploit and are under pressure to use it before someone else does; writing malware has a potentially higher payoff but risks not getting deployed in time.

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) September 23, 2021

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Learn more: 
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– Man Fakes Own Kidnapping and Runs Off with USD 1.15M in Clients’ Bitcoin 

– Asian Lonely Hearts Falling Victim to Bitcoin, Tether Scammers
– 8 Crypto Mining Apps Exposed as Fakes – And 120 More are Still in Business
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(Updated at 06:08 UTC with comments by Cobra.)