A crazy crypto glitch apparently allowed people to rip off Overstock.com and reap the rewards.
KrebsonSecurity reports, “Logging into Coinbase, I took the bitcoin address and pasted that into the ‘pay to:’ field, and then told Coinbase to send 0.00475574 in bitcoin cash instead of bitcoin. The site responded that the payment was complete. Within a few seconds I received an email from Overstock congratulating me on my purchase and stating that the items would be shipped shortly. Let’s say I purchased one of the more expensive items for sale on Overstock, such as this $100,000, 3-carat platinum diamond ring. I then pay for it in Bitcoin cash, using an amount equivalent to approximately 1 bitcoin ($~15,000).”
Krebs continues, “Then I simply cancel my order, and Overstock/Coinbase sends me almost $100,000 in bitcoin, netting me a tidy $85,000 profit. Rinse, wash, repeat.”
Overstock and Coinbase say they have now fixed the glitch and it’s no longer possible to trick the system.
