notepad-plus-plus.app is a phishing page that impersonates Notepad++, the popular free text and source code editor for Windows. It presented itself as "Notepad++ - Free Source Code and Text Editor for Windows" to catch developers and everyday users searching for a download. PhishDestroy first flagged it on 2026-09-19. The site has been offline since 2026-09-28 and was still unreachable on 2026-10-19.
How the scam works
Lookalike download sites for trusted free software copy the real project's branding and page title so visitors believe they have found the official source. The "download" is the payload. Schemes of this type typically hand out a tampered installer that can steal saved browser passwords, session cookies and locally stored crypto wallet data, or that sends visitors on to further phishing pages. The appearance of this domain on MetaMask and SEAL blocklists shows it was treated as a threat to crypto users as well as to general Windows users.
Evidence
Six of 91 VirusTotal engines flagged the domain as of 2026-09-27: alphaMountain.ai, CRDF, Forcepoint ThreatSeeker, Gridinsoft, SOCRadar and VIPRE. That is a low count, but it comes from several independent vendors, and it matches the domain's listing on the PhishDestroy, MetaMask and SEAL blocklists. Four AlienVault OTX pulses also reference the domain, so other researchers tracked it independently.
Infrastructure
The domain was registered through GNAME.COM PTE. LTD. on 2026-09-02, 17 days before PhishDestroy detected it. The site went dark about nine days after detection. That short lifespan is typical of throwaway impersonation domains. Traffic was served through Cloudflare, Inc. on an address geolocated to Canada, so the origin server behind the site was not directly exposed.
What to do
If you downloaded or ran an installer from this domain, disconnect that machine and run a full malware scan. Treat everything stored on it as exposed. From a separate, clean device, change your important passwords, starting with email and financial accounts, sign out of active sessions, and turn on app-based two-factor authentication. If that computer held crypto wallets or seed phrases, create a new wallet on a clean device and move your funds to it. Reinstall Notepad++ only from the project's official site. Defenders should block the domain and search proxy and endpoint logs for downloads from it.
DOM Analysisanalyzed 2026年9月19日score 100/1001 brand signal
Submitted URLhttp://notepad-plus-plus.app/
Favicon Hash
ケース ID
ICANN OVERSIGHT
認定と RAA の背景
Registrar accreditation and DNS abuse obligations
For this gTLD, the registrar above operates under an ICANN accreditation agreement. The links below provide the official fee schedule and current DNS abuse compliance guidance.
Accreditation is a contract, not a safety certification.
RAA §3.18 establishes abuse-contact and handling requirements. This report can document stored outbound notices and later technical observations; it does not by itself establish receipt, investigation, remediation, or contractual non-compliance.
Saved certificate metadata. Certificate dates without a timezone are shown as stored. Transport encryption does not establish that the site is trustworthy.
Cloudflare is a web-infrastructure and website-security company, providing content-delivery-network services, DDoS mitigation, Internet security, and distributed domain-name-server services.
Keep original emails, receipts, messages and screenshots in a secure place. A factual timeline helps the receiving authority understand what happened. IC3 evidence guidance ↗
Payment records — if you paid, save the receipt, amount, date, payment provider and recipient details.
Your bank or payment provider — contact its fraud team promptly through official contact details if money or card information was exposed.
地元の警察 — たとえ直ちに行動を起こせなくても、公式な記録が残される
A report is not a guarantee of recovery or investigation, but prompt, accurate transaction data can help authorities and service providers trace the incident.
詐欺による金銭の返還を装った詐欺 — fraudsters pose as recovery agents and demand upfront fees. Never share a seed phrase or pay before independently verifying the provider
About this reportSources, observation dates and corrections
This report combines saved page captures, registration and network records, scanner results and PhishDestroy reporting history. Each source keeps its own observation date. Open a source report to inspect the original result.
The AI-assisted analysis was written on . It describes the evidence available at that time; later source checks can change.
A capture documents what was shown. A scanner result records that provider’s assessment at the time of its check. Neither a valid certificate nor a zero-detection result is a guarantee of safety.
