Bitcoin.org appears hacked by giveaway scam

The site has fallen victim to another attack, this time by a claim it will double sent funds.

Bitcoin.org appears to have fallen victim to a giveaway scam.

• Visitors to the site are greeted with a pop-up message inviting them to send money to a bitcoin wallet. The funds will be doubled and sent back. The message claims it is because the Bitcoin Foundation is “giving back to the community.”

• The message says only the first 10,000 users can take advantage of the offer. The message includes a QR code for the wallet as well as its address. All other site functionality is currently limited as users are not able to skirt or ignore the message

• These messages are associated with giveaway scams; these schemes give false promises of doubling one’s funds after sending an initial amount to a wallet address via QR code. Victims, in fact, receive nothing in return and lose the crypto they sent.

• CoinDesk has confirmed the messaging.

• Bitcoin.org is an open-source project that aims to support Bitcoin development.

• While it isn’t affiliated with the Bitcoin Foundation, it is often the first result on search engines when looking for “bitcoin.”

• The giveaway scam’s address has received over $17,700 in small transactions as of the time of writing, according to bitcoin explorer blockchain.com.

• In June, U.K. courts ordered the site to stop hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper over copyright infringement.

• Just days later, the site was hit with a massive denial of service attack.