Electrum 'we now have proof Electrum Pro is malware'

[gentlemand]

https://twitter.com/ElectrumWallet/status/993819715855405056

I had no idea there were differing Electrums battling it out. Be careful out there, kids. In this day and age I'd be buying up every major domain imaginable before launching my project but that's often horribly expensive.

[TryNinja]

For those who are wondering, they are talking about the fake Electrum who bought the electrum (.) com domain (< FAKE).

REMEMBER: The real Electrum is only available through ELECTRUM.ORG

[adaseb]

For those who are wondering, they are talking about the fake Electrum who bought the electrum (.) com domain (< FAKE).

REMEMBER: The real Electrum is only available through ELECTRUM.ORG

Well the fact that they bought another domain is a give a way that they will try and scam people.

Almost as bad as what Bitcoin.com is doing, tricking others into buying BCH instead of BTC.

Too bad they can't remove that domain under some copyright issues. I can see many people getting tricked and trusting the software from .com since it seems like a legit domain.

Something should be done.

[gentlemand]

For those who are wondering, they are talking about the fake Electrum who bought the electrum (.) com domain (< FAKE).

REMEMBER: The real Electrum is only available through ELECTRUM.ORG

Good point. I should've pointed out the real deal is .org and the interloper .com. The .com shows up a relatively long way down search results but that's not going to mean anything to a total noob.

[HCP]

What is this "electrum dot com" that you speak of?



That's the first site I've actually had this pop up on... good to know that things are working as intended

[pooya87]

In this day and age I'd be buying up every major domain imaginable before launching my project but that's often horribly expensive.

that still wouldn't solve any problems. in this day and age people have to educate themselves if they want to not-lose money. even when you download Electrum from Electrum.org you have to verify the signature of the file with the right public key. or better yet you have to compile Electrum from its source code.

[HCP]

... or better yet you have to compile Electrum from its source code.

Last time I tried that... the Windows version just wouldn't run. No errors or anything, the .exe just failed to launch.

Is compiling the Windows version any easier now with V3+ or is it still relatively complicated requiring you to use Linux and Wine to compile?

[pooya87]

... or better yet you have to compile Electrum from its source code.

Last time I tried that... the Windows version just wouldn't run. No errors or anything, the .exe just failed to launch.

Is compiling the Windows version any easier now with V3+ or is it still relatively complicated requiring you to use Linux and Wine to compile?

it is not easy at all specially when you are not familiar with the code and the tools used (python in this case, which i am not), i have encounters the same issues too and finally gave up!
haven't tried with V3+ though. maybe i give it a go this week if i had time.

[Lucius]

I think this page should be removed as soon as possible because otherwise many users will stay without theirs BTC.The site looks pretty good and the fact that there is a com domain will deceive many potential users of Electrum.I do not know if reporting this site to Google Safe Browsing can help,but it is better to report then do nothing.

Stay away from this site-it is fake Electrum and you BTC will be stolen!

[HCP]

Report Sent

Thanks for sending a report to Google. Now that you've done your good deed for the day, feel free to:

1. Take a second to rejoice merrily for doing your part in making the web a safer place.
...

Thanks for the direct link Lucius... I probably wouldn't be rejoicing merrily right now if it wasn't just a "point and click" exercise

For all the other Electrum "fans"... please do click the link and report this domain as a scam.

[Abdussamad]

https://twitter.com/ElectrumWallet/status/993819715855405056

I had no idea there were differing Electrums battling it out. Be careful out there, kids. In this day and age I'd be buying up every major domain imaginable before launching my project but that's often horribly expensive.

It cost too much: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/8a1drz/psa_electrumcom_bought_by_scammers_to_distribute/dwv3k10/

[gentlemand]

It cost too much: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/8a1drz/psa_electrumcom_bought_by_scammers_to_distribute/dwv3k10/

Interesting.

I guess it would've been difficult to foresee the potential stakes in the future. Back then it would've been a cool little project and nothing else.

If I were setting something up these days I'd adjust the name until I found all the necessary domains even if you wound up with Electerrrum.com.

I'm regularly seeing doubts about domains these days and whether people are winding up on legit sites or not. And it's doubly odd that some of these services have to be poked into saying which is their domain and which isn't.

[hatshepsut93]

What is this "electrum dot com" that you speak of?


That's the first site I've actually had this pop up on... good to know that things are working as intended

This is actually pretty cool, I guess there are some anti-phishing addons, but they are probably not very popular. So maybe a good solution would be if addons like Adblock or Ublock that are used by almost everyone, would offer additional anti-phishing feautres to report malicious site like this fake Electrum site.

[HCP]

Thomas & Co have released their full write-up (with instructions on how to replicate) on decompiling the "ElectrumPro" Windows binary which shows how they're stealing your seeds

Very interesting that this code is NOT in the Linux version... as mentioned in the write-up, this would have been in "plainsight" and easily detected.

ElectrumPro = Confirmed Scam

[Lucius]

Thanks for the direct link Lucius... I probably wouldn't be rejoicing merrily right now if it wasn't just a "point and click" exercise

For all the other Electrum "fans"... please do click the link and report this domain as a scam.

You're welcome, I hope report will be of some help to remove the page as soon as possible, although Google is not exactly fast when it comes to these things.

It is interesting that domain is created back in the year 1996, since then there was no BTC I wonder what was purpose of that name domain?I check Whois service and this domain is registered on GoDaddy, one more way to take down this site is report to their abuse service.

Any info for how much is this domain sold?I see Thomas say back in 2012 owner ask price of one house...

electrum.com is already registered*
Domain Name: ELECTRUM.COM
Registry Domain ID: 24034_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Updated Date: 2017-05-11T02:50:04Z
Creation Date: 1996-05-15T04:00:00Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2018-05-16T04:00:00Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: 480-624-2505
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Name Server: NS1.HOSTRESOLUTION.COM
Name Server: NS2.HOSTRESOLUTION.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of whois database: 2018-02-21T15:56:57Z <<<

[European Central Bank]

It is interesting that domain is created back in the year 1996, since then there was no BTC I wonder what was purpose of that name domain?I check Whois service and this domain is registered on GoDaddy, one more way to take down this site is report to their abuse service.

Electrum has been a thing since alloys have existed, nothing to do with btc.

I guess it was bought up during a domain splurge. Those early adopters must be making millions from leasing their domains.

[Abdussamad]

If you read that thread I posted above you will see that the domain was in use by a legit company in an unrelated industry. It is only in the last few weeks that the scammer acquired it from them.

[jackg]

It is interesting that domain is created back in the year 1996, since then there was no BTC I wonder what was purpose of that name domain?I check

https://www.google.com/search?q=electrum+definition
Electrum as the word is a composite containing gold or silver. Probably a cheap jewelry market or something as it does come from that origin.

[jackg]

Let's go on a journey through time, since it was asked in a pervious post.
Previous uses of electrum.com:

08-05-1999
26-03-2003 - I don't think that site was ever fully constructed
18-08-2007
13-10-2008
26-09-2012 - an energy drink!
03-10-2016 BITCOIN!!!
FAKE ELECTRUM

[HCP]

I like how they attempt to legitimise their fork:

IMPROVE YOUR BITCOIN EXPERIENCE
Electrum has been securing payments since 2011 and is one of the most popular Bitcoin wallets. ElectrumPro is free software, released using the MIT license. Anyone can run an Electrum server. No single entity controls the network.

Electrum v. ElectrumPro... Technically accurate... But a bit misleading. Less savvy users likely to think ElectrumPro has been around since 2011