Mt. Gox site down for 24 hours, creditors flag scam login emails
The Mt. Gox claims site has been down for more than 24 hours with users claiming they’ve been hit with a flurry of attempted login emails, potentially as part of a large-scale brute-force password attack.
Creditors in the Mt. Gox insolvency Reddit thread claimed on Wednesday that they are getting upwards of 22 emails notifying them of attempted logins from their Mt. Gox claim accounts.
One claimed to have had six attempted email logins, and questioned, “Is this a successful hacking attempt or a side effect of the Kraken news?” Dozens of users in the threads claim that they are receiving multiple attempted login emails out of the blue.
The Mt. Gox claims portal has been down since Wednesday. At the time of writing it displays a maintenance message that reads, “This website is temporarily down for maintenance. Thank you for your patience. Please check back shortly.”
Users unsure if Mt. Gox has bugs or hackers
Multiple users speculate that Mt. Gox passwords may have been hacked in a brute force attack — where hackers attempt as many password combinations as possible to log into an account.
However, users have also suggested that it’s a known bug that sends out a confirmation email even if someone fails to enter their two-factor authentication (2FA).
Others speculated that the login emails are old confirmations that may have ‘spilled over’ from a period when the site was previously down. As one user claimed, “The emails you’re receiving now may be delayed from when you last legitimately logged into mtgox.”
Read more: Who owns MtGox claims to billions of dollars in bitcoin?
It’s worth noting that Mt. Gox claim users are reporting that attempted login emails are being sent before they have a chance to enter their 2FA. Some users also claim they’ve not received these emails at all.
Crypto exchange Kraken confirmed to Protos yesterday that it had received creditor funds from the Mt. Gox trustee and that it would be working to distribute them as quickly as possible. Mt. Gox had just moved billions of dollars worth of bitcoin into an unknown address.
Protos has emailed Mt. Gox support to clarify the situation and will update this piece if we hear back.
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