Public service announcement
Lately, we have seen more and more people asking us about the site at melonds.org, so I feel compelled to write a post to clarify the situation.

That site is a fake site.

It is part of a larger network of fake emulator sites (like desmume.com) that only exist to leech SEO traffic and confuse users.

The only real melonDS website is the one you are currently looking at: melonds.kuribo64.net.


What can we do?

I intend to add a splashscreen to melonDS with the URL to this site, to make things clear. The URL is also printed in the console, but since melonDS release builds don't really come with a console window anymore, well...

Other than that, spread the word, so people don't get confused.

Also: it appears that Bing (and by extension DuckDuckGo) has decided that melonds.org is the legitimate site, and has removed our site from their search listings.

So, if you can, help us fix that. Report the fake site to Bing or DuckDuckGo.

You can also directly report them to their registrar: abuse-contact@sav.com

Thank you.
Christopher says:
Oct 31st 2024
fake illegal url melonds.

Better real melonds
wumpusfruit says:
Oct 31st 2024
Hey, look, it's something I caused!
lucaspltn says:
Oct 31st 2024
It's so bizarre...the fake site occupies the top two search results, but then the two search results below that are for the official melonDS Github??? But the real, non-Github website is nowhere to be seen. For now, the best-case scenario is that people find the real website via the official Github, but that's still not a great situation.
Arisotura says:
Oct 31st 2024
it is weird, because if you search melonDS on Google, the first result is (as you'd expect) this site
Foxeh says:
Oct 31st 2024
thank you. i hate finding fake emulator websites.
Zyute says:
Oct 31st 2024
Always have to be some bad apples to ruin the experience for the rest of us. Thanks for the heads up and will spread the news.
wumpusfruit says:
Nov 1st 2024
I think the weirdest part is that it's not hosting anything malicious. All it does is point to the official releases on GitHub.
Golfinho says:
Nov 1st 2024
Good to know, generally they don't host anything malicious though. But I do think that if they get enough traffic, they'll start hosting malware downloads
wumpusfruit says:
Nov 1st 2024
I hope that at some point this impostor site can be weeded out. As Golfinho said, I fear they may start hosting malicious downloads if they become popular enough, and it could be a disaster once they do. I also find that extremely likely to happen, with it showing before anything official to melonDS on Bing. All it takes is one link change to give tons of people who don't know what they're doing some malware...
melonJYC says:
Nov 2nd 2024
I don't like fake emulator sites either. melonds.kuribo64.net is better.
No-Name says:
Nov 2nd 2024
Well, just reported the scam site to DuckDuckGo. For those who want a relatively easy method, there is a "Share Feedback" button at the bottom-right of the results page. Click the frowny face, say that you have a problem with the search results, and then click on "Other" to tell them directly what the problem is (I didn't see "report scam URL" as an option, so I had to make do with manually telling them). Here's hoping that they listen---I gave them the proper URL to let them know what to replace the fraudulent result with.
Arisotura says:
Nov 3rd 2024
hope that works. I wanted to report it to Bing (since that's where DDG gets its results from) but they started wanting me to register my website and whatnot.
Sylverstone14 says:
Nov 5th 2024
Have you considered in time to get a domain for melonDS? Even if it's a simple redirect domain? I think it would help in the long tun to combat fakes.
Explore says:
Nov 6th 2024
Hey I'm one of the idiots who fell for the fake download site. Was rushing myself and didn't do the normal precautions/research. Even ran the exe so yeah really stupid. Anyways, does anyone know if they have started running malicious files yet, trying to figure out how bad I may have messed up.
Klauserus says:
Nov 6th 2024
@Explore

upload the download .zip file from the fake website to virustotal.com. Then, share the results with us.
virustotal scan the file with dozens virusscanners.
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