As of Tuesday, a website mimicking the defunct QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency exchange went online in hopes of attracting unsuspecting victims.
On Tuesday, a warning was sent by both the Miller Thomson law firm, which represents Quadriga’s now former users, and Ernst and Young (EY), a court-appointed liquidator for the exchange. The website can be accessed at the same URL that the actual exchange used during operation and directed visitors to visit a portal on EY in 2019 and 2020.
“The Trustee announced that a new website has been published on www.quadrigacx.com that is a replica of the original Quadriga website / portal,” the law firm said in its post.
The counterfeit agency is not authorized by EY and is not affiliated with the auditing company “Big Four”. Miller Thomson said affected users should not attempt to access the website or provide any personal information, including any previous Quadriga passwords or identification documents.
Similarly, EY distributes a notification to affected users warning them about the fake website.
“The trustee [EY] believes the counterfeit website was published using backups of the Quadriga website that are publicly available on the Internet, ”said EY. “The counterfeit website can be used by any person or organization to obtain personal and confidential information from the affected users.”
An EY spokesperson referred CoinDesk to its Quadriga public portal, adding, “We cannot comment outside of our public documentation.”
A Miller Thomson attorney also noted that the firm had posted a warning on their portal.
None of the companies indicated who could be responsible for the website. A Whois search of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) reveals that the current owner of the domain has hidden their contact information.
Quadriga was previously Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange before going offline in January 2019 due to banking issues, stalled customer withdrawals, and the reported death of CEO Gerald Cotten in December 2018.
EY has been hired to reclaim Quadriga’s funds by the Canadian judicial system, which it has been working on since 2019. By January 2021, it had confiscated between $ 224 million ($ 176 million at press time) and $ 291 million ($ 229 million), depending on how a court decides to value the cryptocurrencies that have been recovered so far.
