“Massive” Dogecoin Christmas Heist

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In a move that would make Ebenezer Scrooge happy, or at least before being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, hackers hit Dogewallet.com for no less than 11 million Dogecoins. The haul, despite sounding huge, is only worth $6,600 at today’s prices and the owners of Dogewallet.com are promising to reimburse those affected. If Reddit posts are a source for news, that compensation has already begun. Some news sources, including Buzzfeed, are claiming that over 30 million Dogecoins were stolen.

Dogecoins gaining traction

Dogecoins were begun as a joke, or at least a whim, by its founders who put together this alternate cryptocurrency “without much real thought.” That said, they have grown more and more popular in recent weeks as “investors” look to enjoy the same investing success that many have reaped from Bitcoin investment this year. In recent weeks, Dogecoins have also gained traction in the “tipping” of those that are working to propel digital currencies into the mainstream.

The first reports of the cryptoheist came when a dogewallet.com user posted “Looks like somebody hacked and cleared my Dogewallet some minutes ago with a single transaction, I lost more than 1M!”

This was followed by dozens of additional posts that my adherence to English grammar rules forbid me to type. Ok, I”ll make one exception, “such sad :’( much lost.”

Dogewallet investigating the heist

The Dogewallet site is presently down with the following message greeting its users.

“…the attack originated from the hacker gaining access to our filesystem and modifying the send/receive page to send to a static address. We’re currently reviewing logs for information. The site is shut down right now.

“We’re incredibly sorry to all users who lost funds from the attack. Please use offline wallets as online wallets are meant for new users who aren’t using them as a storage of coins. Offline wallets are more safe and secure than any online wallet due to possible attacks that can originate from anyone, anywhere.”

This explanation is proving difficult for many to swallow including one Dogecoin co-founder who is clearly out of the loop. Writing on Reddit he says, “Why are you using a new account [to refund coins]? Why are your old accounts deleted? Why was your fb delete? This is mucho fishy.”

Whether this is quickly sorted or not, it shows both that thieves don’t care much for holidays and that cryptocurrencies stored online are always going to be vulnerable to attack.

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