Fraudsters clone Bitmain’s website to steal cryptocurrency from miners

Amid a shortage of ASIC miners, a fraud scheme targeting buyers of Bitcoin mining hardware from Bitmain has circulated, according to experts at Kaspersky Lab.

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Malicious actors send potential victims emails claiming that they are allegedly mentioned in a Google Docs file by a user under the alias BitmainTech. Posing as sales staff, the scammers announce the start of a limited pre-order for Antminer S19j equipment.

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Source: kaspersky.com.

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Source: kaspersky.com.

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To lull users into complacency, the emails use the domain @docs(.)google(.)com.

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The message also contains a Google Docs file with an active link that, through a chain of redirects, leads to the site bitmain(.)sa(.)com, registered in March 2021, which is a clone of the legitimate bitmain(.)com.

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When the user navigates to the Antminer S19j site priced at $5017, it is immediately added to the cart. The user is then prompted to log in or register. Kaspersky Lab experts did not rule out that this method is used to build a database of addresses and passwords for later account breaches.

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In the next step the victim is asked to provide a delivery address (presumably for later data sale) and a cryptocurrency payment method – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum or Litecoin.

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After this, the criminals provide their own cryptocurrency wallet details and warn that the transaction must be completed within two hours, otherwise the order will be canceled.

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As soon as the payment is completed, the order data disappears from the personal account, and the site’s buttons become inactive.

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Kaspersky Lab advises always checking the address bar when visiting sites and trusting only information published on the brand’s official page.

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ForkLog previously reported that a resident of Amur Oblast fell victim to scammers when purchasing mining equipment. He transferred 53 000 rubles, but in the package from the seller found an old car battery.

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