QUADRIGA INITIATIVE
CRYPTO WATCHDOG & FRAUD RECOVERY PLATFORM
A COMMUNITY-BASED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT
$18 000 USD
SEPTEMBER 2021
GLOBAL
BITCOIN.ORG
DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS
"Bitcoin.org was originally registered and owned by Bitcoin's first two developers, Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi. When Nakamoto left the project, he gave ownership of the domain to additional people, separate from the Bitcoin developers, to spread responsibility and prevent any one person or group from easily gaining control over the Bitcoin project."
"From 2011 to 2013, the site was primarily used for releasing new versions of the software now called Bitcoin Core. In 2013, the site was redesigned, adding numerous pages, listing additional Bitcoin software, and creating the translation system."
"Although Bitcoin is assumed to be created by a pseudonymous identity, "Satoshi Nakamoto," the author of the research paper that gave birth to the cryptocurrency, a newer identity "Cøbra" is lately seen managing the Bitcoin.org website, social media, and community channels." "Today the site is an independent open source project with contributors from around the world. Final publication authority is held by the co-owners, but all regular activity is organized through the public pull request process and managed by the site co-maintainers."
"http://Bitcoin.org 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 Bitcoin Foundation is giving back to the community! We want to support our users who have helped us along the years. Send Bitcoin to this address, and we will send double the amount in return! Limited to the first 10000 users!"
"Appears to be DNS hijack as noted by @nukedotasia." "[I]t appears the domain was taken over. The WHOIS info was updated at the time of the hack, the nameservers + DNS changed, and if you try to visit any of the actual pages other than the index you'll get a 404. It's a completely different website save for the domain name."
"[U]nfortunately, some cryptocurrency enthusiasts may have fallen for the scam as evident from the attacker's wallet balance. The transaction history shows multiple deposits made from different Bitcoin addresses to the attacker's wallet."
"The last updated balance of the wallet was at 0.40571238 BTC or approximately US$17,000." "Scammers probably didn't make off with as much money as the BTC wallet shows as noted by @SadFrogFacts." "For context, 3 people have sent $100, 1 person has sent around $200, the rest(0.4 BTC) seems to have been sent as a way to make the “giveaway” seem legitimate, so likely scammer’s own coins."
Bitcoin.org is a widely consulted reference on the bitcoin protocol and status. In September 2021, the site's DNS was redirected to a malicious server, which displayed a scam claiming to double people's money if they sent it to a particular donation address. While no post-mortem on the source of the breach was provided, domains can typically be hijacked and changed through a social engineering attack on the registrar. It appears that close to $18k worth of bitcoin was taken, although this is controversial since the largest transfer of 0.4 bitcoin may have come from the hacker themselves. None of the funds have been recovered.
HOW COULD THIS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?
In general, be familiar with the common scams. Anything claiming to pay back more than you send them is typically a scam.
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