[INFO} Be aware of https://privnote.co/

[krogothmanhattan]

  This was brought up in the past but wanted to make a new thread for people that are not aware of this scam site. https://privnote.co/

    I was using the cell phone and googled privnote to send in private a message to another user...and guess what was on the very top of the search results...yep the scam site https://privnote.co/



  





   So for the unaware....I pasted a BTC addy in and created the link as follows...




      






     Then when I copied the link and opened it up....voila.....a new BTC addy that I assume goes to the scammers wallet!




          





    SO be very very careful out there! Also on another note....I tried the google search the same way I did on my phone and that top results was actually the real site...not sure why the fake one comes on my cell though





    
  

[Plaguedeath]

That's scary, the scammer is clever enough to find the loophole of this kind service.

Anyway, I think it's good to mention the legit site, I mean it's good to warn other users to not use the fake/scam site, but we need to know the legit site too.

Is one of your client or you get scammed from this site?

legit:

Code:

https://privnote.com/

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

     






     Then when I copied the link and opened it up....voila.....a new BTC addy that I assume goes to the scammers wallet!




          

Scammers amaze me many times. I am impressed this time too. These scammers have good knowledge about crypto but sadly they are using it to scam others instead of giving good value to the cryptocurrency environment.

You are lucky that you noticed. But I imagine someone asked for a BTC address, you sent it via this third party site. They received scammers address and paid. Later you are going to tell the guy you have not get paid, the other guy will tell he paid. Both of you are correct but the money were gone already to the scammers wallet.

I think when you are going to give an address, always sign a message with one of your known address, suggest the other party to verify the message before sending anything.

[Cantsay]

After reading your post, I got curious and decided to check if there are other “privnote” clones that are doing similar scam, lo and behold I saw https://privatenote.io/

This was the text in inputted.


And here’s what they wanted to revealed to the person that’s going to receive the link.


This shit is really scary, imagine the amount that people are going to lose for using something like this.

[Potato Chips]

SO be very very careful out there! Also on another note....I tried the google search the same way I did on my phone and that top results was actually the real site...not sure why the fake one comes on my cell though

Perhaps you have an adblocker on your PC? From your first image --search result on your phone-- the first entry was actually an advertisement hence the "sponsored" tag. From my experience there are loads of scams on google ads.

So I personally use the firefox app on my phone so I could install ublock origin and block most ads.


Ofc, this doesn't mean I encourage people to now trust whatever is on the first result as the best approach is to always type the URL yourself/bookmark it then double check.

[holydarkness]

[...]
SO be very very careful out there! Also on another note....I tried the google search the same way I did on my phone and that top results was actually the real site...not sure why the fake one comes on my cell though  

The fake one is an ad, they paid some amount to google so their site can be shown on the top most result. Since google did not filter out scammers, it's a very common practice used by crypto scammers and phishing site to rob their victim. This is why crypto users, especially mixer users, are... ehm, I mean are-but-soon-will-be-were always encouraged to consult to the forum before they deal with a site they found on google search result, since scammers use this trick very often.

[coin-investor]

After I saw this I created a test and sure enough, they are changing the address, I'm not fond of using private notes but its worth warning people about this, scammers are everywhere and private note is one of the platforms where they can implement their scheme.
People who are using private notes should bookmark the right site and check the resulted notes to see of any changes,

Checking Whois the scam privnote is already over a year https://www.whois.com/whois/privnote.co

Domain: privnote.co
Registrar: Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc
Registered On: 2022-02-10
Expires On: 2025-02-10
Updated On: 2023-06-02

This platform should be reported to Google or to their domain registrar to stop people from falling to this scam platform.

[arabspaceship123]

You've got to know privnote.co is a site which's copied to look like privnote.com. It's trying deceive ppl to send private info which's going to be intercepted by scammers who'll steal your info. If you're sending private keys or passwords they'll hack them. It's important to say privnote.com provides a service it's a legit business.

[hugeblack]

Unless these services are open source or allow you to sign messages offline, I don't know how you can trust them. I thought it was public/private key cryptography, where you generate the private key without having to connect to the server, and the server is a place to collect the public key.
This service is a scam and you should not use any that give you private navigation without verifying everything.

[holydarkness]

You've got to know privnote.co is a site which's copied to look like privnote.com. It's trying deceive ppl to send private info which's going to be intercepted by scammers who'll steal your info. If you're sending private keys or passwords they'll hack them. It's important to say privnote.com provides a service it's a legit business.

Yes, they know, that's basically what's being discussed here, that the site copied the original one. And no, it didn't work that way, sending private keys or password. They change the address you wrote on the message with their own, thus the fund sent by the recipient of the message will actually arrived at the scammer's wallet instead of the original message owner.

[NotATether]

This is why all messages should be encrypted using PGP to eliminate man-in-the-middle attacks like this.

If PGP is too complicated for you, use my tool encdec.zenulabidin.com and you can send them a base64-encrypted message and the password.

I use AES-256 with 600K rounds of PBKDF2-SHA256 password hash.

[steve5946]

Thanks for sharing this. The site looks similar to the original site. I doubt people can realize it’s a fake site at first.

[Yaunfitda]

Yes, this is not the first time that we have seen Privnote being taking advantage of cyber criminals,

Privnote(s).com Bitcoin Phishing Scam
[warning] Fake Private-note -- pirvnota.com

And I also agree with @NotATether, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4419636.0

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

I have once written about it as well, The dangers and threat of using Self destruct Private Notes.

It was like more than 3 years ago and still, scammers are trying to milk it the way they did way back.

And probably the scam criminals are still behind this "private notes" scam.

[sujonali1819]

I have once written about it as well, The dangers and threat of using Self destruct Private Notes.

It was like more than 3 years ago and still, scammers are trying to milk it the way they did way back.

And probably the scam criminals are still behind this "private notes" scam.

We can not expect from any scammer that they will stop their scamming. As long as the crypto is live, they won't stop . And yes there is a big change in getting involved the same team is behind from the beginning.

Only self-awareness is the way to be safe from these shit scams.

[albon]

I was using the cell phone and googled privnote to send in private a message to another user...and guess what was on the very top of the search results...yep the scam site https://privnote.co/

I've seen this scam site before in one of the topics on the forum, and what's strange is that the scam domain ending with .co is still alive and hasn't been dropped yet. Indeed, Google ads have become suspicious, and, unfortunately, there isn't a thorough review/check of ads for scam websites promoted by scammers, which appear in the top search results after they pay the required fees. Honestly, I find the "private note" service, allowing users to create online notes, unhelpful and unnecessary, thanks to the existence of communication apps managed by major companies, unlike these sites where we don't know who stands behind them and their privacy protection. Moreover, The matter gets worse if you use them, give important data, or conduct financial transactions through them. Anyway, we can report this scam site through the registrar >webnic.cc.

[PX-Z]

The more terrifying is this thread the same like this was made few months ago yet the site is still up. That means no one still reported it yet to its registrar as malicious/phishing which can still victimize those newbies or anyone who is privnote users.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

I have once written about it as well, The dangers and threat of using Self destruct Private Notes.

It was like more than 3 years ago and still, scammers are trying to milk it the way they did way back.

And probably the scam criminals are still behind this "private notes" scam.

We can not expect from any scammer that they will stop their scamming. As long as the crypto is live, they won't stop . And yes there is a big change in getting involved the same team is behind from the beginning.

Only self-awareness is the way to be safe from these shit scams.

That is true, that's why members here keep on giving us advise on what is the current scams so that we can stay away from it. As I have said, I have it like 3 years ago and I'm thinking that when crypto enthusiast grows and so are the scammers here.

Self-awareness, or self-education will be the way to go, educate ourselves and don't let this scammers easily stealing our hard earn crypto.

Private notes is not they way to go to share our private keys or mnemonics phrases across.

I have reported this website already: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/static/submit_success.html?hl=en

[PX-Z]

I have reported the phishing website to its hosting/registrar "webnic.cc". Let's wait their reply and let's see what's their judgement in 24 hours or more. I expect this will be settled once they replied.

Code:

Domain Name: privnote.co
Registry Domain ID: D537AF02ADE244405A9D7652E7F71BECF-GDREG
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.webnic.cc
Registrar URL: www.webnic.cc
Updated Date: 2023-06-02T19:15:23Z
Creation Date: 2022-02-10T17:00:42Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2025-02-10T17:00:42Z

[Doan9269]

I know some may be out there charming for this site and wanted to ise their service because of the function of having a self destruct to all message sent after been read, i use to encourage people that they should take their time in making research and checking on some reviews left on those sites before using them, we should by now wise up in knowing between the difference in what is good and what is not even though they appear to be good.

[arabspaceship123]

They'll continue trying to copy sites with similar designs or names. Scammers want money they don't care how they'll get it. If they're getting few ppl to send crypto private keys or seeds in messages they're intercepting it means they're getting money for free. They'll do it for as long ppl fall in to it.

I have once written about it as well, The dangers and threat of using Self destruct Private Notes.

It was like more than 3 years ago and still, scammers are trying to milk it the way they did way back.

And probably the scam criminals are still behind this "private notes" scam.

[Avirunes]

Have seen such attempts earlier as well and I think @NotATether has posted a good solution for this. I am not a frequent user of privnote (but I have used it in past) but what if such messages are done by opening disappearing messages or through normal chatting apps like Telegram or Whatsapp? It will be good if such services are eliminated with use of other trusted apps or sites in my opinion.

[arabspaceship123]

Telegram and Whatsapp are centralised services. They're collecting excessive data from their users. If all you're interested in doing is sending a message chat or phone call you're letting them take your data. They don't need to store your location or device id but they're taking it.

Have seen such attempts earlier as well and I think @NotATether has posted a good solution for this. I am not a frequent user of privnote (but I have used it in past) but what if such messages are done by opening disappearing messages or through normal chatting apps like Telegram or Whatsapp? It will be good if such services are eliminated with use of other trusted apps or sites in my opinion.

[Gladitorcomeback]

I have never used privnote and honestly first time I hear about it as I never needed it. I don't understand why Google allow such type of phishing scams site to promote. Google is top search engine in the world and their team is not doing their job fairly. This is not first time I am seeing sponsored phishing scam links in the top as my brother lost 500$ almost six months ago just because of stargate scam sites appears at the top.

OP you have done a great job by alarming us whole community but you have indirectly provided back links for scam sites which help in their SEO. Kindly add scam sites in Code tag and also add real official site link also at the top.

[PX-Z]

Got a response from the registrar of this website but it looks a negative a response. It require me to send police report and lawyer's letter lmao. But anyway they said the contacted the managing parties which i don't if who are these. And i feel like this won't solve anything. So reporting it to google for not showing in the google search page is the only way to minimize their victims.

[robelneo]

Got a response from the registrar of this website but it looks a negative a response. It require me to send police report and lawyer's letter lmao. But anyway they said the contacted the managing parties which i don't if who are these. And i feel like this won't solve anything. So reporting it to google for not showing in the google search page is the only way to minimize their victims.

Good initiatives but it's not worth working on on this kind of solution here in our country it will cost money to hire a lawyer acceptance fee alone costs $100 or even more a public lawyer will not accept it if you cannot show proof that, you're indigent and a police report needs a lawyer so they can follow up the case and there's no guarantee that you will have success.
It seems scammers found a haven on this kind of domain registrar they should do an investigation right away and verify the report and if there's a violation they should flag the domain.

[PX-Z]

Good initiatives but it's not worth working on on this kind of solution here in our country it will cost money to hire a lawyer acceptance fee alone costs $100 or even more a public lawyer will not accept it if you cannot show proof that, you're indigent and a police report needs a lawyer so they can follow up the case and there's no guarantee that you will have success.
It seems scammers found a haven on this kind of domain registrar they should do an investigation right away and verify the report and if there's a violation they should flag the domain.

This is what i actually do when i saw someone posted a phishing website in this board and 95% of them got suspended especially if the registrar is namecheap but for this case it looks this site will still up for the meantime.

Yes, their requirements for fraud complaints doesn't make any sense, how much more hiring a lawyer. When in the first place, its pretty obvious that the site is phishing or a clone.

[BABY SHOES]

It turns out that the fake privnote-c* is still on the first page of Google searches compared to the real thing.

Yesterday I won a free raffle of collectibles, I tried to do a Google search because I didn't know privnote then the official one after knowing previously there was a clone about this then I made sure to search the forum, and sure enough I found this thread.

So let's not be curious and write the wrong address in the official privnote.

[hopenotlate]

It turns out that the fake privnote-c* is still on the first page of Google searches compared to the real thing.

Yesterday I won a free raffle of collectibles, I tried to do a Google search because I didn't know privnote then the official one after knowing previously there was a clone about this then I made sure to search the forum, and sure enough I found this thread.

Lol, the very same situation happened here and  yeah unfortunately it is the first option popping up when searching for privnote;  luckily I had already read this thread, many thanks Krogoth for it, and doublechecked the address.
Another hint telling something was wrong with it , it's the fact that this is a sponsored link. Google accepting money for a scam site it's really a shame and they should be held accountable for every damage they might cause to their users.

[suzanne5223]

It turns out that the fake privnote-c* is still on the first page of Google searches compared to the real thing.

Yesterday I won a free raffle of collectibles, I tried to do a Google search because I didn't know privnote then the official one after knowing previously there was a clone about this then I made sure to search the forum, and sure enough I found this thread.

Lol, the very same situation happened here and  yeah unfortunately it is the first option popping up when searching for privnote;  luckily I had already read this thread, many thanks Krogoth for it, and doublechecked the address.
Another hint telling something was wrong with it , it's the fact that this is a sponsored link. Google accepting money for a scam site it's really a shame and they should be held accountable for every damage they might cause to their users.

Situations like this are one of the problems caused by Google services not to mention the level of how they invade people's privacy, and how they didn't do adequate research and testing of applications on their Play Store and Chrome extension.
Having said that, when was the last time you guys checked the privnote on Google search engine because the fake website was taken down from my end as we speak?

[willi9974]

For me, the scam site is still at the top due to paid advertising from google

I have already reported the site to Google several times, perhaps more should do this --> please do the same


Search for "privnote" in Google and the scam site will be displayed at the top because of paid advertising.
Then click on the three dots on the right and report the ad.