Scam in Bitcoin and its official website! In the crypto ecosystem, scams are the order of the day (and not just in Metamask). Bitcoin.org, the oldest bitcoin educational resource site (registered in 2008, the year BTC was born), suffered a security attack yesterday in which the hacker modified the content of the web to promote Bitcoin giveaways of a dubious nature. . Remember to read our article with Tips for Investing in Bitcoin for Newbies and our compilation of 10 best tools to invest in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org scam: what happened?
Users began to notice and share on Twitter early Thursday morning that the Bitcoin.org homepage it was displaying a pop-up page asking users to send bitcoin to a dedicated address with the promise that they would receive a double amount in return (something that obviously wouldn't happen).
"It appears that Bitcoin.org has been hacked and the entire site has been replaced by a scam asking for free Bitcoin," wrote Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo in a tweet. Wednesday night hackers managed to access the site, adding a pop-up message that blocked the entire screen of the home page.
"The Bitcoin Foundation is giving back to the community!" Wrote the scammers in the pop-up window. "We want to support our users who have helped us over the years [sic]."
This method is similar to the typical crypto gift scams that proliferate on Twitter and are often started by influential account imposters, such as those of Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk.
Although the problem has already been fixed, it is important to note that all other subpages of Bitcoin.org did not stop working for the duration of the hoax, as the current home page did not allow the user to click on other pages.
In a reply on Twitter to Bitcoin Core contributor Matt Corallo, domain hosting site Namecheap decided to temporarily deactivate the Bitcoin.org domain. The address that appeared on the site right now has received 0,4 bitcoin worth $ 17.000.
Bitcoin-related scams are getting more blatant.
Bitcoin.org, which is the first search result for "bitcoin" on Google. The website was originally owned and operated by bitcoin developer Satoshi Nakamoto together with other people.
Ironically, the website aims to "inform users to protect them from the most common mistakes," according to its information page. The website even has an entire page dedicated to teaching users how to "avoid scams."
Other Bitcoin scams
It is not the first time that Bitcoin.org has been the victim of a cyber attack. In July 2021, the website suffered a massive denial of service, or DDoS attack., in which hackers asked for a ransom for an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin, CoinTelegraph reported at the time.
Cryptocurrency scams, a common trend
Gift scams have become extremely common, with hackers inviting users to send money to a specific Bitcoin wallet with the dubious promise of doubling their investment.
A surprising number of people fall victim to this fairly obvious scam every year. In particular, countless cryptocurrency scams with the Elon Musk theme have cropped up with frequency.. In one case, the BBC reported in March of a man who allegedly lost half a million dollars after falling for one of the schemes.
Thus, Bitcoin.org was offline for some time after being hacked, according to CoinTelegraph. At the time of writing this article, the website appears to have returned to its usual state.
