PSA: Coinbase Referral Spam Exploits Bitcoin URLs

Be careful not to misspell the domain of your favourite exchange or crypto information site – the chances are that it’ll redirect you to Coinbase Registration Page. No – set your tinfoil hats down, Coinbase isn’t trying to syphon traffic away from their competitors. This is a shady independent actor trying to cash in on their referral program. We have the complete list of his owned domains and details below
Read also: Bitfinex De-Lists 27 Altcoins
Referral Spam Exploits Typos, Crypto Newcomers
Imagine you’re new to crypto, and you’re looking for information. A friend links you to coinmarketcaps.com, or mistakenly types botfinex.com, or one of countless other typos to get you started on an exchange. You land on the registration dialogue for Coinbase, register, start looking at the charts, and think nothing of it. The problem is – instead of going to the resource that you originally intended, you end up at coin base, and the moment you buy coins on Coinbase or GDAX, the person running these domains gets paid for tricking you into registering there. This isn’t a new concept in scummy marketing – it’s called referral spam, and someone is doing it in spades for Coinbase referral cash.

This post was published at Bitcoinist on 2016/08/23.

Comments are closed.