token2049.website borrowed the name of TOKEN2049, one of the best-known crypto industry conferences, and put it on a lookalike domain built to catch people searching for event information. Its audience is attendees, would-be ticket buyers and the wider crypto community that follows the event. PhishDestroy first flagged it on 2026-08-11. The site went offline on 2026-09-11, and on 2026-10-19 the domain still did not resolve.
How the scam works
Fake conference sites trade on the urgency around a major event: discounted or last-minute tickets, side-event registrations, speaker or sponsor packages, or a promised attendee airdrop. Victims are steered toward paying in crypto to an address the scammers control, or toward connecting a wallet and signing a transaction presented as ticket verification or a claim. A crypto payment cannot be reversed. A malicious signature can hand over tokens or spending rights. The real conference receives nothing, and the victim is left with no ticket.
Evidence
Six of 91 VirusTotal engines flagged the domain as of 2026-08-17: ChainPatrol, alphaMountain.ai, Forcepoint ThreatSeeker, Fortinet, Gridinsoft and SOCRadar. That count is modest, but the vendors include crypto-focused and enterprise web filters. The listings that matter most for wallet users are stronger: the domain sits on the MetaMask and SEAL blocklists alongside PhishDestroy, so wallets that use those lists warn before connecting. Spamhaus lists it in its DBL under the phishing category, and three AlienVault OTX pulses reference it.
Infrastructure
The domain was registered through Global Domain Group LLC under the cheap .website extension, a common choice for brand lookalikes. The site stayed live for about a month after PhishDestroy first detected it. Lookalike domains timed around a conference calendar typically run for a short window, and this one now has inactive DNS.
What to do
If you bought a TOKEN2049 ticket or package through this domain, treat the payment as lost, keep the transaction hash and report it to the organizers through their official channels and to your local fraud authority. If you connected a wallet and signed anything, revoke token approvals immediately with a reputable approval checker. Move remaining funds to a fresh wallet if you approved a broad permission or exposed a seed phrase. Change any password you entered and turn on two-factor authentication. Buy event tickets only from links on the organizer's verified channels. Defenders should block the domain at DNS and proxy level and watch for new lookalikes of the conference name ahead of each edition.
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.
Primary outcomeDNS 非アクティブreason: DNS NXDOMAIN80% confidence
Attributionsource: Dns Cache
Evidence layersAvailability: DNS inactiveContent: UnreachableDNS: NXDOMAINRegistration: Unknown
Latest HTTP observation不明Probe Inconclusive20%2026-10-19 01:13:14 UTC
RDAP registration不明
Observed timelinelast reachable: 2026-08-13 12:28:10 UTCcurrent episode first observed: 2026-09-30 16:14:55 UTCobserved RIP window: 2026-08-13 12:28:10 UTC → 2026-09-30 16:14:55 UTC · 1,155.78hmidpoint estimate ≈ 2026-09-06 14:21:32 UTC · precision very low · basis bounded
Availability, content, DNS and registration are independent evidence layers. NXDOMAIN, an unreachable origin or missing content alone does not prove registrar action. A registrar or provider is credited only when a direct technical marker identifies that actor. Report causality is shown separately.
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.
(US)
