Technology1 min read

Lego marketplace BrickLink offline after 'unusual activity' detected

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Platform administrators removed an earlier timeline that had promised a return by Wednesday evening, leaving the collector community without a clear relaunch date after three full days of downtime. The parent company disclosed the probe into suspicious activity only after receiving inquiries from the BBC. Meanwhile, at least one long-time user faced threats of an account ban over an erroneous pre-order billing glitch. Officials insist the resolved payment dispute was an isolated incident unrelated to broader platform troubles.

Key points

  • BrickLink has been unavailable for three days while investigators attempt to contain and…: BrickLink has been unavailable for three days while investigators attempt to contain and diagnose the root cause of the suspicious activity.
  • Lego has yet to confirm or deny whether user data was compromised or if the disruption wa…: Lego has yet to confirm or deny whether user data was compromised or if the disruption was caused by an external hack.
  • The company stated that a recent pre-order billing error was an isolated issue and not pa…: The company stated that a recent pre-order billing error was an isolated issue and not part of wider payment platform problems.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

- Published

Lego has taken its online marketplace BrickLink offline after detecting what it described as unusual activity on the platform.

BrickLink is used by Lego collectors worldwide to buy and sell secondhand Lego sets, source new bricks and purchase limited edition releases.

It was originally set up by a fan, but Lego acquired it in 2019. In a homepage message, the firm said that before restoring BrickLink, it wanted to "fully understand" what had happened.

"That means containing the issue, investigating how it happened and checking for related issues," Lego said. It did not provide any further detail about whether the site has been breached or hacked, and whether any customer data was affected.

After being contacted by the BBC, Lego published the update.

BrickLink has been offline for the last three days, with a previous message saying it was down for maintenance.

Cyber-professional Melanie Hoskin has been collecting Lego for 45 years and is a regular user of BrickLink.

She told the BBC she had received multiple links for payment for a limited edition release she had pre-ordered…

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