Key message: The official Bitcoin.org website has been hacked, with visitors receiving a fraudulent message that the Bitcoin Foundation is giving back money to the community and that money will only be given out to the first 10,000 users. The scammer pocketed $17,000. The security failure was reported by users on Thursday morning.

Bitcoin.org and the hacker

The scammer used a fake giveaway where visitors were promised that if they sent an amount to a certain address, they would be sent back double what they sent. It was impossible to click past the fake message, so the rest of the site was inaccessible. 0.40 BTC was sent to the address that was listed in the message, a value of about $17,000. The hacker then moved almost all the funds from that wallet to two other wallets.

The Bitcoin.org site was founded in 2008 by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. It serves as a knowledge hub for the cryptocurrency and features, for example, the original whitepaper and documentation for cryptocurrency developers. According to the site’s operator, CobraBitcoin, attackers may have exploited a DNS vulnerability to gain access. Hackers are usually looking for the easiest route.

However, it should be added that this type of fraud is quite common in the crypto world. No one will ever give you double or triple your money for free. Never send anything to such addresses.

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Source: cryptobriefing.com