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Privnote, a loose network service that allows users to send encrypted messages that self-destruct once read, has been copied with the stated goal of redirecting bitcoin from users to criminals.
In a Sunday article on the krebsonSecurity cybersecurity blog, journalist Brian Krebs warned users of a phishing scam that attracts unsuspecting patients to the same edition of the website privnote.com known as privnotees.com.
However, the fake site does not display encryption messages from friends, as Krebs discovered the evidence and could “read and/or edit all messages sent through users”.
Just as worrying, it contains a script that hunts out messages containing bitcoin addresses and changes the original address into the bad actor’s own address in the sent message. This would mean any funds sent would arrive at the bitcoin address owned by the criminal, not the one intended by the message sender.
“All messages containing Bitcoin addresses will be automatically replaced by the best friend to come with another Bitcoin address, as long as the sender’s internet addresses and the recipient of the message don’t appear the same,” Krebs said in the message.
“Until recently, I couldn’t sense what Privnotes was doing, but now it’s very clear,” he said.
Krebs explained that privnote.com owners informed him that someone had created a clone edition on their site and that they were deceiving users of the valid site.
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“It’s not hard to understand why: Privnotes.com is similar in calls and appearance to reality, and there comes a time when Google searches for effects for the term “privnote”. In addition, any user who writes “own notes” by mistake in Google search can see to the maximum logical effects a misleading payment ad for “Privnote” that the best friend ends up in privnotes.com,” Krebs wrote.
A Google search through CoinDesk showed this conclusion.
By making the scam more difficult to detect, the self-destructive nature of those messages suggests that patients cannot go back and verify the Bitcoin adget that the script changes: they are sent, read and deleted. According to Allison Nixon, head of studies at Unit 221B, who helped identify and verify the phishing scam, the script only turns out to adjust the first excess of a clothed bitcoin adget if repeated in a message.
“The kind of other Americans who use Privnote doesn’t look like the kind of other Americans who will send this Bitcoin wallet in some other way for verification purposes,” Nixon said in the message. “It’s a pretty wise scam.”
See also: FBI warns COVID-1 scammers are targeting cryptocurrencies
Scams due beyond Bitcoin have increased in recent months, mainly due to considerations about the coronavirus pandemic. UK residents were warned beyond March that scams were being used to exploit worry and uncertainty through text messages and emails posing as an official fitness organisation.
“Even if you never use or plan to use the legitimate encrypted message service Privnote.com, this scam is a great reminder of why it pays to be extra careful about using search engines to find sites that you plan to entrust with sensitive data,” Krebs said.
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