What is Bitcoin-Forums.net?

[Bizmark13]

Recently I've been seeing a new site that seems to function as an exact mirror of Bitcointalk. The only real (visible) difference is that links containing "bitcointalk.org" are converted to "bitcoin-forums.net" but otherwise it's exactly the same. It shows up in Google search results but logging onto Bitcointalk.org doesn't mean that you'll be logged onto Bitcoin-Forums.net which can get a bit confusing if you have both sites open on different tabs since they look identical.

I'm too scared to log on there using my account here but interestingly, using an invalid username/password combination doesn't display the same message on Bitcoin-Forums.net. Instead, only the words "Not found!" shows up.

Anyone know what this is? Is it a phishing site? Is it a way for people living in countries that have banned Bitcointalk to access the forums?

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[bitbaby]

I doubt that it is made for users who are not able to visit this forum and I haven't clicked on the link (scared to do it) but if you say it looks exactly the same, it might as well be a phishing site.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Nothing works there. I tried to login, search and password reset, all I got is "Not Found!" So it is most probably a phishing site, I might be wrong though.

Edit: Their sites load faster than this forum. It is also possible they cloned this, blocked all features and save all the threads/posts.

Edit-2: They ain't saving posts like Bitcointa.lk, my deleted post wasn't showing in that site and also, you are right! All links which contain "bitcointalk.org" are replaced with "bitcoin-forums.net".

[grue]

I did some quick tests and it seems like they pull the pages on demand and then cache it afterwards.

[Bizmark13]

It could be a phishing site, but I don't think any phishing site would use a URL like "bitcoin-forums.net". Something like "bitcointaik.org" would be more likely IMO.

I doubt that it is made for users who are not able to visit this forum and I haven't clicked on the link (scared to do it) but if you say it looks exactly the same, it might as well be a phishing site.

There was another similar site called Data321.net which was a mirror of Bitcointalk specifically aimed at Chinese users who might not otherwise have access to this forum. I posted a thread about that one here. Thing is, that one had a disclaimer at the bottom which once translated, explained its purpose but this one doesn't seem to have any message so it's a bit of a mystery as to why it exists at all.

I tried running a WHOIS but it's got privacy protection so that wasn't much help.

Nothing works there. I tried to login, search and password reset, all I got is "Not Found!" So it is most probably a phishing site, I might be wrong though.

Edit: Their sites load faster than this forum. It is also possible they cloned this, blocked all features and save all the threads/posts.

Edit-2: They ain't saving posts like Bitcointa.lk, my deleted post wasn't showing in that site and also, you are right! All links which contain "bitcointalk.org" are replaced with "bitcoin-forums.net".

I hope you didn't use your real username/password.

That being said, it's nice to have a mirror of this forum I guess. When the forums crashed earlier this year and some of the posts were deleted, a mirror would have been very handy.

I did some quick tests and it seems like they pull the pages on demand and then cache it afterwards.

Looks like the mirror is about an hour or two behind too. This thread hasn't shown up yet for example but posts made just a few hours ago are there.

EDIT: Different pages seem to show different times. Their copy of the meta board hasn't been updated in hours but the Bitcoin discussion board has. Can't see any ads either so it doesn't look like they're trying to make any profit from it.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Looks like the mirror is about an hour or two behind too. This thread hasn't shown up yet for example but posts made just a few hours ago are there.

It is now. They may have heard you!

P.S. My post shown up when I looked just after I posted here. Are you sure it wasn't there?

Edit: Or the fetching of threads will take a little time but once it is fetched, posts will be synced fastly?

I hope you didn't use your real username/password.

No, I tried to login with an account I used early 2014(newbie).

[PenguinFire]

This is so weird...  I am afraid to even look at it based on these other responses.  hahha  What is it purpose you think?

[Bizmark13]

Looks like the mirror is about an hour or two behind too. This thread hasn't shown up yet for example but posts made just a few hours ago are there.

It is now. They may have heard you!

P.S. My post shown up when I looked just after I posted here. Are you sure it wasn't there?

Edit: Or the fetching of threads will take a little time but once it is fetched, posts will be synced fastly?

I hope you didn't use your real username/password.

No, I tried to login with an account I used early 2014(newbie).

Hmm... It looks like this thread is now there but their meta board is still about 2 hours behind so this thread doesn't show up unless you directly link to it.

I'll see how long it takes for them to cache this post.

1 min... Nope.
2 min... Nope.
3 min... Nope.
4 min... Nope (but it is showing when I click on "see all posts by this user")
5 min... Yup. It's there. Still says "3 mins" though.

EDIT: I think it only caches it if you request it in a certain way. So simply refreshing a page won't make it show up by itself.

This is so weird...  I am afraid to even look at it based on these other responses.  hahha  What is it purpose you think?

Beats me. It doesn't really seem to be a phishing site because their URL doesn't look anything like ours. It doesn't seem to have been made for ad revenue either because there aren't any ads there to profit from. Probably someone just thought it would be nice to have a 1:1 mirror of the site for whatever reason.

[theymos]

Google is stupid and has trouble differentiating bitcointalk.org from mirrors. That site is trying to exploit this in order to occasionally place above or near bitcointalk.org in search results, and then use this position to make money in various ways. It seems that currently they were paid to increase the click stats of some specific URLs, and they're doing this by putting some extra iframes in each page.

[Bizmark13]

Google is stupid and has trouble differentiating bitcointalk.org from mirrors. That site is trying to exploit this in order to occasionally place above or near bitcointalk.org in search results, and then use this position to make money in various ways. It seems that currently they were paid to increase the click stats of some specific URLs, and they're doing this by putting some extra iframes in each page.

Hmm... I always thought Google's search engine ranking algorithm penalized sites that have duplicate content. Strange to see that it isn't the case for Bitcointalk. I also regularly see Bitcointa.lk being placed higher in search results than this site too.

Didn't notice the iframes until you pointed it out. Yes, very sneaky. I can see them in the code:

Code:

<iframe scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="http://www.entekcms.com/" width="0" height="0"></iframe>
<iframe scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/JYNzzbIiI" width="0" height="0"></iframe>
<iframe scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="http://www.findhe.com/gg/ggindex.php" width="0" height="0"></iframe>

Not sure how they would be able to profit from this though.

There also seems to be some extra JavaScript at the end for StatCounter too as well as something that looks Chinese.

[grue]

Not sure how they would be able to profit from this though.

for the aliexpress link: cookie stuffing

[AltcoinInvestor]

It's quite easy to mirror a known cms website.
For instance; https://github.com/p/smf-mirror

[ndnh]

I had stumbled on it and posted somewhere about it. (Can't find it now, lol)

I was a little scared since I entered my username and password into it. (But got an error message user not found or something). I had thought I was logging into bitcointalk, since I had both sites open (Dunno how, may be from google?)

[BadBear]

I had stumbled on it and posted somewhere about it. (Can't find it now, lol)

I was a little scared since I entered my username and password into it. (But got an error message user not found or something). I had thought I was logging into bitcointalk, since I had both sites open (Dunno how, may be from google?)

I see you haven't changed your password, you should.

[ndnh]

I had stumbled on it and posted somewhere about it. (Can't find it now, lol)

I was a little scared since I entered my username and password into it. (But got an error message user not found or something). I had thought I was logging into bitcointalk, since I had both sites open (Dunno how, may be from google?)

I see you haven't changed your password, you should.

Ok. I was wondering. I will change it now to a more secure password.


Edit: Done.

[Cryptowatch.com]

Hm, I would think someone might ocassionally try to log in to "bitcoin-forums.net" as well, and then they might have their account at bitcointalk.org compromised.

Is this not some kind of abuse?