Lead developer of the XRP Ledger ecosystem and author of Xumm Wallet Wietse Wind warned the public about a new scam targeting the XRP community. Thus, Ripple's fake crypto website offers unsophisticated enthusiasts to take part in an "autonomous XRP staking trial program," which is then likely to lead to theft of tokens by attackers.
SCAM! WARNING!
— WietseWind - 🛠XUMM @ XRPL Labs (@WietseWind) December 19, 2022
Stay safe. Stay vigilant. Please RT. pic.twitter.com/WI3JJwQydy
That is not all. The developer also reminded his readers of another type of scam involving XRP staking, where a fake email is received supposedly from Binance, inviting them to join such a program under the pretext of high returns.
Previously, scams using the names Ripple and XRP were limited to bots on Twitter, where the fake accounts of key crypto company figures like David Schwartz or CEO Brad Garlinghouse offered to follow to some dubious sites. There were especially many during the hype surrounding Ripple and XRP, but with Elon Musk's rise to Twitter, it seems that their numbers have dropped significantly.
Don't trust anyone
Overall, the number of fraudulent schemes around cryptocurrencies increased significantly toward the end of the year. The current trend, judging by the latest scam alerts from U.Today, is to use fakes of popular personalities, whether Metallica, Elon Musk or Cristiano Ronaldo.
As reported by blockchain analyst firm Chainalysis in October, the cumulative catch of crypto scammers in 2022 was $3 billion, arguably making the outgoing year the greatest for hacking in market history.
Alex Dovbnya
Denys Serhiichuk