Bitcoin.org suffered a breach Thursday that has already cost unsuspecting bitcoin users lots of money.
The site remained inaccessible as of 05:44 UTC Thursday, after it fell victim earlier in the day to a hack. The direct URL for the site’s Bitcoin white paper also displays a “404 Not Found” advisory.
Instead of the usual front page, visitors to the site were greeted with an invitation to send bitcoin to the “Bitcoin Foundation” with hackers promising they would double funds sent to the address.
The Foundation, in a pop-up message, said it is giving back to the community. “We want to support our users who have helped us through the years,” the message read.
Looking strange
Users first started to notice and share on Twitter early Thursday that the site’s homepage was showing a pop-up page that asks them to send bitcoin to a dedicated address.
The hackers managed to set up a scam notice on the site: “Send bitcoin to this address and we’ll send double the amount in return!” the message said, adding the slot will only cater to the first 10,000 users.
The address that has been displayed on the site has received 0.4 BTC valued at around $17,000 as of Thursday, but it was unclear if it is from any victim that fell for the trap.
Any person or entity who goes by the pseudonym “Cobra” said Bitcoin.org might be offline while they were investigating the hack. Cobra has been the site’s operator but its current affiliation remains unknown.
Common strategy
NameCheap, the domain hosting Bitcoin.org, has deactivated the domain.
Invitations to send funds with the promise of doubling the amount is a common tactic in the blockchain space. They usually appear after a web page or social media account has been breached, or if a hacker can convincingly impersonate their profile.
The Bitcoin.org domain made headlines in January this year when self-proclaimed bitcoin creator Dr. Craig S. Wright sent copyright violation notices to Cobra and the administrators of Bitcoin.com and BitcoinCore.org, asking them to take down hosted copies of his “original’ 2008 Bitcoin document.
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