In brief:
- Scammers are targetting the XRP community with a convincing email promising rewards through staking.
- The promises go further with another email promising a share of 5 Million XRP to be unlocked by Ripple.
- Both emails are part of an elaborate scam to lure investors into parting with their hard-earned XRP.
A new scam is targeting the XRP community. Perpetrators of the scam are attempting to steal investors’ XRP by using convincing emails impersonating the Ripple company and advertising a false event dubbed ‘Introducing Proof-of-Keys Ownership and Staking Event’.
Judging by the alerts and shares on Twitter regarding the scam, the fraudulent emails were sent out on the 26th of June. The perpetrators are using an email address of ‘ripple@avana.asia’. According to former XRP investor Tiffany Hayden, the emails look legitimate and sometimes can bypass the junk filters in one’s personal inbox.
❗️SCAM ALERT
This email made it past my junk filter and looks legit but it’s not. Somebody just messaged me because they’ve been scammed. Delete this email and don’t click on the link. Please RT. 🙏$XRP #XRPCommunity pic.twitter.com/hFrEVCbrMb— Tiffany Hayden🧢 (@haydentiff) June 26, 2020
Promises of XRP Staking With Rewards
Furthermore, the allure of the scam is that it promises rewards for staking XRP. However, the XRP ledger does not support staking. This fact has been highlighted in an additional Tweet by Tiffany Hayden explaining that someone has already fallen for the trap and sent almost 100,000 XRP.
I don’t know if more than one address was given out for this scam, but somebody sent almost 100k $XRP to this one under the guise of “staking.” (As a reminder, there is no staking with #XRP. Also remember that everybody wants to steal from you.) rNUqDtwHfqemNymY1dsXnNJ9vAaktregRZ
The Scam Emails Are Evolving
The emails by the same scammers seem to be evolving. Another email promised financial quantitative easing for the XRP community hard hit by the crypto market downturn. This email promises a share of over 5 Million XRP that will be unlocked by Ripple in a bid to cushion the XRP community from the effects the remittance coin losing value in the crypto markets. Below is a screenshot of the fake email shared by @Onyx_1200.
Ripple’s Response to The Continual Emergence of XRP Scams
In response to the exponential increment of XRP scams targetting the community, the team at Ripple has pinned the following message on its Twitter page advising investors and traders to be on high alert.
We’ve noticed an uptick in fraudulent communications claiming to be @Ripple or members of the Ripple leadership team offering giveaways, particularly around #SwellbyRipple. Be on alert – these are fraudulent and are not official accounts. https://t.co/qVZhgVwmcN
— Ripple (@Ripple) November 8, 2019
Furthermore, Ripple has requested the XRP community to be more vigilant and watch out for the following tricks.
- Using company logos
- Impersonating management on social media by using their profile pics and using usernames that are similar
- Offering giveaways by using bots to reply to top social media posts on Twitter
- Sending private messages on Telegram and Twitter
- and Other psychological tricks to fool potential victims
Additionally, XRP hodlers should do their due diligence and confirm such offers by visiting the company’s main website and other social media pages.
Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any additional opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of EWN or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.
