LEGO’s BrickLink marketplace allegedly hacked

Reports suggest the LEGO Group’s BrickLink site may have been hacked, with the online marketplace currently down for maintenance.

BrickLink, the world’s largest online LEGO fan community and marketplace, is the platform many builders head to for buying specific pieces, locating hard-to-find sets and finding instructions for thousands of models. The website was purchased by the LEGO Group in 2019 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary, although it’s managed as a standalone team.

Founded in 2000 by Dan Jezek, BrickLink has over a million members and more than 10,000 seller stores from 70 countries. The site is also home to the BrickLink Designer Program, allowing fans to create their own sets, with those successful models reaching 10,000 votes becoming physical builds available for purchase.

However, it appears that BrickLink is now suffering some serious technical issues, with the platform currently offline thanks to what’s being reported as a hacking incident. Jay’s Brick Blog is amongst those who have flagged up the issue, stating that BrickLink has been down for over five hours, which is described as being, ‘an unusually long time for maintenance.’

An error message on the site on November 4 at 3.58am EST simply says, “We’re sorry BrickLink isn’t currently available. We continue to investigate the unusual activity. We want to make sure we take the time to investigate fully. We will be back up and running as soon as possible.”

However, Instagram user exabrickslegogo_ is stating that BrickLink may have been the victim of a cybersecurity incident and that the alleged hackers are asking for €50,000 to restore the site. There’s been no official word from either BrickLink or the LEGO Group so far regarding that possibility, so do treat any such information with caution for now.

A Reddit post from user pshbrk posits that store inventories have been changed to add scam listings, in the hope of taking the payment but not delivering any product. These are said to have included ‘”‘a dozen or more sealed UCS Venator sets for around $300 and ‘dozens of new UCS Mandalorian minifigures for $25 each’.

False positive feedback has allegedly been left to lure in unsuspecting buyers over the past week too. However, they make it clear that they know of no connection between these alleged hackers and whatever is happening on BrickLink today.

The post continues with some recommended guidance, stating that not all orders will be a scam and that oddly low prices or strange inventory restocks should be enough of a red flag. It’s also advised – and it may be a wise idea just in case – to change any passwords for online accounts that were connected to BrickLink, including for LEGO.com.

It’s noted that BrickLink does not save payment information, so there’s little worry about banking details being taken. However, it would be best to avoid making any BrickLink purchases until the current situation is resolved, not just whenever the site is up and running again. Little is known at the time of writing and all information should be taken with caution until an announcement is made.

We’ve reached out to The LEGO Group for comment and will provide an update as soon as we have any additional details.

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