For half an hour today, potential supporters of President Trump were unable to access his campaign website.
They were, however, able to send Monero to the hackers responsible for attacking donaldjtrump.com.
The hacker(s) used their 30 minutes of fame to post a notice stating "this site was seized" and "the world has had enough of the fake-news spreaded daily by president donald j trump," complete with replica seals from the Department of Justice and FBI.
It was perhaps the most grammatically challenged disinformation campaign so far in the 2020 election, not counting that chain email your Uncle Charlie sent you.
Trump's Campaign website hacked/defaced by someone who is sick of the "fake news spreaded daily" by the president. pic.twitter.com/035neUv7kc
— Nicole Perlroth (@nicoleperlroth) October 27, 2020
The hackers proclaimed that they had gained access to compromised devices which revealed "strictly classified information...proving that the trump-gov is involved in the origin of the corona virus [sic]."
Bombshell!
Not only that. Trump also apparently had "criminal involvment [sic] and coorperation [sic] with foreign actors manipulating the 2020 elections."
Double bombshell!
The hacker then asked readers to vote on whether that data should be shared by sending Monero, a privacy coin often used by hackers, to a "yes" or "no" address.
Don't worry, say the hackers: "After the deadline we will compare the funds and execute the will of the world. In both cases we will inform you."
A Trump campaign spokesperson denied that any sensitive data had been taken from the website, which is now back to normal.
Though cryptocurrency scams like this are fairly common, today's hack is unnerving given that the 2020 US presidential election is just one week away and national intelligence agencies are on high alert for potential disinformation campaigns from foreign actors.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated from its original version.