OpenMonero p2p exchange SCAM!?

[dkbit98]

What happened:: It appears that OpenMonero exchange exit scammed, and between 55 and 200 xmr has been stolen!

Scammers Profile Link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3675513
Archive: https://ninjastic.space/user/id/3675513

Amount Scammed: 55 - 200 xmr

Website: openmonero.com

Website is still working so be careful and don't perform any trading there!
This member previously created account in bitcointalk forum OpenMonero (ID 3675513), he created self-moderated topic and, he was tagged for plagiarism:

Charles-Tim

2025-02-13

Reference

Self-moderated service of a shady site posted on Nigerian local board. Stay away from this person and the site he is advertising.

paid2

2025-01-17

OpenMonero is shady. They're using LocalMonero's name for promotional purposes without legitimacy, and have done plagiarism by copying the content + style of eXch's ANN. Looking at the ANN and their Terms of Use more deeply, we can also find contradictions. This service should be avoided!

icopress

2025-01-17

Plagiarism of bbcode templates and plagiarism of the LocalMonero domain name and plagiarism of branding. This project has nothing to do with LocalMonero and creates fake ads from supposedly traders who have been cooperating with AgoraDesk for years. There is no chance that your coins will be safe if you test OpenMonero.

[logfiles]

I knew something was completely off about Openmonero especially in the now deleted thread - https://ninjastic.space/topic/5522702. I guess openmonero deleted it afterward in an attempt to cover their tracks. There was nothing ever genuine about them.

I just hope no forum member was scammed?
The account deserves a flag too: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=3407

[NotATether]

I knew something was completely off about Openmonero especially in the now deleted thread - https://ninjastic.space/topic/5522702. I guess openmonero deleted it afterward in an attempt to cover their tracks. There was nothing ever genuine about them.

Well, so much for

If OpenMonero.co were to be hacked, the impact would be minimal due to its unique architecture and security model. Most vendors rely on external wallets to fund high-value trades, ensuring that their funds remain entirely separate from the platform's infrastructure while waiting for trade requests. Additionally, OpenMonero.co does not require KYC for vendors, so there is no sensitive personal information stored that could be compromised.

It turns out that your trading platform is still vulnerable if you're able to extract all funds from it including from counterparties.

Only decentralized platforms such as unstoppableswap or Bisq can be truly amended to stop exit scams.

200 XMR is quite a large amount. Where did you first hear this from? They are trying to write this directly on their site with a cheap red font.

[Trêvoid]

It is very easy, they are using someone else’s name and brand without permission. If they don’t care about stealing a reputation, they probably won’t care about stealing others money either. And now they exit scammed.

[logfiles]

200 XMR is quite a large amount. Where did you first hear this from? They are trying to write this directly on their site with a cheap red font.

No one is going to or should ever fall for such cheap scam tactics, especially after plagiarizing content for  localmonero just because it was voluntarily winding up their business.

It is very easy, they are using someone else’s name and brand without permission. If they don’t care about stealing a reputation, they probably won’t care about stealing others money either. And now they exit scammed.

Scammers never ever have any ounce of shame left in them, and most are lazy. They think plagiarism is the best way for lazy scammers

[dkbit98]

I knew something was completely off about Openmonero especially in the now deleted thread - https://ninjastic.space/topic/5522702. I guess openmonero deleted it afterward in an attempt to cover their tracks. There was nothing ever genuine about them.

I had some suspicion when I saw they cloned another p2p exchange, and they acted a nit strange.
There is no way for regular member to delete his own topics, so maybe someone reported it, or moderators deleted it for some reason.

200 XMR is quite a large amount. Where did you first hear this from? They are trying to write this directly on their site with a cheap red font.

I see now 50 to 200 XMR warning is posted on their website and claiming they got hacked,
but I first saw reports and screenshots about this posted in social media.

It turns out that your trading platform is still vulnerable if you're able to extract all funds from it including from counterparties.

Minimal risks quickly turned into maximum losses 

[albon]

I had some suspicion when I saw they cloned another p2p exchange, and they acted a nit strange.

These doubts are like a lifeline from falling into the traps of scammers. We must believe our suspicions and support them with some research that will help us either use the platform or avoid it. There are many sites that impersonate and clone well-known platforms, and they may use similar domain names, steal or imitate their templates, and even plagiarize the content of the official websites. We must verify carefully before making a rushed decision that could cost us our money on these fraudulent sites.

I have already supported the flag,, and I hope this topic becomes a warning sign for anyone considering trying their service.

[Trêvoid]

I knew something was completely off about Openmonero especially in the now deleted thread - https://ninjastic.space/topic/5522702. I guess openmonero deleted it afterward in an attempt to cover their tracks. There was nothing ever genuine about them.

I had some suspicion when I saw they cloned another p2p exchange, and they acted a nit strange.
There is no way for regular member to delete his own topics, so maybe someone reported it, or moderators deleted it for some reason.

200 XMR is quite a large amount. Where did you first hear this from? They are trying to write this directly on their site with a cheap red font.

I see now 50 to 200 XMR warning is posted on their website and claiming they got hacked,
but I first saw reports and screenshots about this posted in social media.

It turns out that your trading platform is still vulnerable if you're able to extract all funds from it including from counterparties.

Minimal risks quickly turned into maximum losses 

Now they updated warning posted on their site

(All funds (72 xmr) have been stolen in a hack on 6/6/2025)

[dkbit98]

Now they updated warning posted on their site

(All funds (72 xmr) have been stolen in a hack on 6/6/2025)

They apparently removed everything now, I can't see any warning messages on their website, as if this alleged hacking event never happened.
What is more concerning to me is that OpenMonero never publicly explained what happened in forum or in social media, not that I aware off.

[Trêvoid]

Now they updated warning posted on their site

(All funds (72 xmr) have been stolen in a hack on 6/6/2025)

They apparently removed everything now, I can't see any warning messages on their website, as if this alleged hacking event never happened.
What is more concerning to me is that OpenMonero never publicly explained what happened in forum or in social media, not that I aware off.

Warning is gone now. I've been watching OpenMonero for quite some time now, and honestly, whoever's running it doesn't seem to really know what they're doing. But from what I can tell, what they've done definitely look like an exit scam. And now they continue as nothing happened.

[dkbit98]

Warning is gone now. I've been watching OpenMonero for quite some time now, and honestly, whoever's running it doesn't seem to really know what they're doing. But from what I can tell, what they've done definitely look like an exit scam. And now they continue as nothing happened.

Do you know if anyone is actually trading on OpenMonero or all all those trading offers are all fake?
Warning message is still visible on their kycnot.me community page, and they apparently have Reddit community group, but I can't find it.
All I could found was little information posted in r/Monero

[BenCodie]

Warning is gone now. I've been watching OpenMonero for quite some time now, and honestly, whoever's running it doesn't seem to really know what they're doing. But from what I can tell, what they've done definitely look like an exit scam. And now they continue as nothing happened.

Do you know if anyone is actually trading on OpenMonero or all all those trading offers are all fake?
Warning message is still visible on their kycnot.me community page, and they apparently have Reddit community group, but I can't find it.
All I could found was little information posted in r/Monero

This will be very hard to investigate as the transactions are impossible to properly identify and barely any information is available to go off of.

Whether what they said about being hacked is true or not, they should be boycotted. No one should continue to trust them until their code is open sourced, and until the "vulnerability" is identified and fixed.

Now they updated warning posted on their site

(All funds (72 xmr) have been stolen in a hack on 6/6/2025)

They apparently removed everything now, I can't see any warning messages on their website, as if this alleged hacking event never happened.
What is more concerning to me is that OpenMonero never publicly explained what happened in forum or in social media, not that I aware off.

This definitely says that they exit scammed a lot more than they were hacked, which is a shame. Open sourcing and identifying a vulnerability would have been enough to at least retain benefit of the doubt.

[Trêvoid]

Warning is gone now. I've been watching OpenMonero for quite some time now, and honestly, whoever's running it doesn't seem to really know what they're doing. But from what I can tell, what they've done definitely look like an exit scam. And now they continue as nothing happened.

Do you know if anyone is actually trading on OpenMonero or all all those trading offers are all fake?
Warning message is still visible on their kycnot.me community page, and they apparently have Reddit community group, but I can't find it.
All I could found was little information posted in r/Monero

This will be very hard to investigate as the transactions are impossible to properly identify and barely any information is available to go off of.

Whether what they said about being hacked is true or not, they should be boycotted. No one should continue to trust them until their code is open sourced, and until the "vulnerability" is identified and fixed.

Now they updated warning posted on their site

(All funds (72 xmr) have been stolen in a hack on 6/6/2025)

They apparently removed everything now, I can't see any warning messages on their website, as if this alleged hacking event never happened.
What is more concerning to me is that OpenMonero never publicly explained what happened in forum or in social media, not that I aware off.

This definitely says that they exit scammed a lot more than they were hacked, which is a shame. Open sourcing and identifying a vulnerability would have been enough to at least retain benefit of the doubt.

Simply, there’s just no reason to trust them anymore. Definitely exit scammed!

[OpenMonero]

They apparently removed everything now, I can't see any warning messages on their website, as if this alleged hacking event never happened.

The hacking event is visible in the 'Latest News' section on the official page (see footer) and on kycnot.me/service/openmonero

Whether what they said about being hacked is true or not, they should be boycotted. No one should continue to trust them until their code is open sourced, and until the "vulnerability" is identified and fixed.

Backend code is already open source. (https://git.openmonero.co/om)

After giving it some thought, I really think the hosting provider might have stolen the funds. It felt like a sneaky trap offering affordable cloud servers with impressive performance, only to potentially facilitate malicious activity.

Sure, linking the monero-wallet-rpc to 0.0.0.0 was a big mistake, but even then, an attacker would still need the RPC password to get to the funds. So, it probably wasn't just that misconfiguration that caused the breach.

Plus, all  logs in /var/log/wtmp have misteriosly been truncated, suggesting someone gained direct access to the node server, stole the funds and deleted the ssh logs, maybe even the hosting provider themselves, or someone who knew exactly what they were doing.

No security is perfect, but all signs point to the hosting provider being the real culprit behind this mess

[OpenMonero]

I had some suspicion when I saw they cloned another p2p exchange, and they acted a nit strange.

You may find this surprising, but just two days after the hack, I successfully open sourced the first decentralized peer-to-peer platform fully operational on NOSTR. This new repository represents the pioneering P2P Monero exchange featuring a decentralized reputation system and a federated order book. It incorporates all the functionalities typically found on openmonero.com, excluding self-destructing messages. Importantly, anyone can run their own instance, as the backend code is entirely open-source. The implementation is straightforward to audit, lightweight (only 4,500 lines of code) and genuinely decentralized, leveraging an open protocol like NOSTR that requires no additional software.

Frontend: https://git.openmonero.co/om/openmonero-dex
Backend: https://git.openmonero.co/om/openmonero-dex-api

The primary objective is not to achieve absolute prevention of hacks, since no system can be 100% secure, but to minimize potential damage from the outset, similar to the principles of Qubes OS. This incident demonstrates that openmonero.com remains one of the most secure platforms available, capable of handling significant volume while maintaining minimal funds at risk, thus limiting potential losses in the event of a breach.

To date, approximately USD 20,000 worth of user funds have been stolen, along with USD 3,000 in arbiter funds, despite a monthly trading volume approaching half a million dollars. Had I employed a setup similar to Haveno, I estimate that losses could have exceeded USD 2.5 million making recovery efforts challenging.

OpenMonero remains one of the most secure platforms out there, thanks to its use of non-custodial trade settlements, non-custodial funding, and relatively quick trade finalization (on hour).

You can read more about the hack here: http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion/post/59e5b924658bac9124d0

It turns out that your trading platform is still vulnerable if you're able to extract all funds from it including from counterparties.

Since offers on openmonero.com don’t require any pre-funding, the potential damage remains quite limited (similar to a single McDonald's salary).

[NotATether]

After giving it some thought, I really think the hosting provider might have stolen the funds. It felt like a sneaky trap offering affordable cloud servers with impressive performance, only to potentially facilitate malicious activity.

Why didn't you use a server with LUKS encryption enabled on it to store the coins?

[OpenMonero]

Why didn't you use a server with LUKS encryption enabled on it to store the coins?

The drive has to be decrypted on startup to run any services like monerod. Once decrypted the hosting provider can use VNC or other backdoors to access the server. Luks is not effective for servers that require 24/7 uptime

[OpenMonero]

It is very easy, they are using someone else’s name and brand without permission. If they don’t care about stealing a reputation, they probably won’t care about stealing others money either. And now they exit scammed.

It was a hack, and it's very stable now,
One thing you should know is that, most of these p2p platforms go through some difficulties at first, Localmonero did, localbitcoins did and that's what made them stand strong before they shutdown after years.

OpenMonero has been running for 12 months only, so it doesn't make much sense to shut down a profitable platform and exit scam with barely $20k.

[OpenMonero]

I have already supported the flag,, and I hope this topic becomes a warning sign for anyone considering trying their service.

The OpenMonero project is still going strong and holding up pretty well against the baseless claims coming from some so-called "trusted" community members. I've noticed a few of these trusted folks on BitcoinTalk spreading misleading info, like accusations of plagiarism and exit scams. I've been open and transparent about the hack and those plagiarism claims from the start. Even with all the flags on my account, do you really think that changes anything? These accusations are completely unfounded and lack any real proof. Honestly, you can't damage my reputation because I’m all about transparency, and my vendors keep praising the support I provide.

I have no interest in exit scams. If I did, I'd be asking for pre-funding for every published offer, which I’m not. I’m also not trying to create a monopoly. If I was, I wouldn’t have open-sourced both the frontend and backend, and I've given proper credit to LocalMonero on the official site. Yet, you keep spreading false claims about a legit, independent community project. Without solid proof, your accusations mean nothing. Nobody cares about your gut feelings.

My aim is to raise awareness and teach folks that decentralized exchanges aren’t automatically more secure than regular sites. In some cases, like Haveno, they can even be more dangerous because of pre-funding and rug puller bots. More here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5533743.msg65114988#msg65114988

[Trêvoid]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5544046.msg65522499#msg65522499

It’s pretty funny how this user suddenly shows up here and starts spreading fake comments about our service  and calling simpleX a honeypot messaging app says a lot about his shady service ethics