A website claiming to be taking advantage of an unexplained “exploit” in Bitcoin to “generate” coins on behalf of its users has scammed more than .8 BTC to date. We tested the “service” in order to be sure that it was a scam.
Located at bitcoin-generator-2018.bid, the way the scam works is simple enough: it tells you to input a Bitcoin address where you’d like to receive an amount of BTC, which you select. You then click a button and a JavaScript runs which aims to fool you into believing that the thing is actually hacking the Bitcoin network on your behalf, and submitting transactions to the network in order to “generate” coins for you.
Do not send BTC to this address. It has received over .8 BTC and always asks the same amount for a “transaction fee.”This reporter tested it using the minimal amounts. He requested .1 BTC and watched the following script play out:
Note: this video was made after the transaction had already been tested. Here is the transaction where this reporter sent .002 to 15nLNJc9rfRhqgQMU6F9y85t3hSMG6AYwa, and address which has received a total of nearly 1 BTC and appears to transfer to another address, 3JsXew6FYHEhpcRhfHNgPrxK2kCqchsBxF, whenever its balance reaches .01 BTC or so.
Moon Bitcoin Faucet Implicated In Scam
A bit of research using WalletExplorer reveals that the second address listed above is actually owned by Moonbit.co.in, a long-standing Bitcoin Faucet. CCN has reached out for comment from the owners of that website.
At time of writing, the “transaction fee” address had received over .8 BTC, or more than $2700 even with the bear market looming and keeping prices low.
The scam website also appears to talk about addresses receiving Bitcoin from the “generator” on a constant basis. At least one of these transactions was totally fictitious – a transfer to 1J8DgCiBwWxMkNTEFXWhfVCNGVMEHEuC1N. Its last transaction was received back in October.
The blockchain is public, and generating a script to re-run old data from it would be relatively trivial. As we see here in the Javascript they call “exploit.js” on the site, the whole thing is pre-scripted, including “Connection Killed” which happens at 18%.
As you can see, it is pre-scripted.Scams and sites dedicated to scamming are nothing new in Bitcoin. This reporter was impressed by the amount of work put into this scam. If you use the chat box there, it actually works, despite the bots that repeatedly say the same things over and over.
The scam plays on the user’s impulses to get more BTC – a mix of greed and faith. New users are particularly vulnerable to scams such as this. At time of last editing of this article, the “transaction fee” transaction had received at least 8 confirmations, and no Bitcoin had been remitted, thereby verifying that this is nothing more than a scam. It’s worth verifying such things, even when scams are so obvious.
Featured image from Shutterstock. Screenshots supplied by P. H. Madore.
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