Ripple, Binance impersonators target XRP holders via fake staking program

Online fraudsters impersonate major cryptocurrency firms like Ripple and Binance by creating fake websites and email scammers pretending to provide a staking service for XRP.

One such site, ripple.com-staking.tech, includes blog post titled “XRP staking to debut January 2023 for retail users”, inviting users to “stake” their XRP with an unrealistic return on investment (ROI), from 12% to 27%. The fake scheme tries to speed up the decision of the XRP investors by stating that only the first 10,000 accounts will get a higher ROI.

The fake website provides a well-crafted clone of Ripple’s website, ripple.com, copying the original layout and fonts and linking to some of its previous blog posts. The impersonators also tried to add more credibility to their posts by adding information about the importance of self-guarding using major hardware wallets such as Ledger or Trezor.

The fraudulent website has many mirror domains such as ripple.org.th or ripple.com.ve, targeting XRP users from all over the world.

The cryptocurrency community has raised flags about a new fraud scheme targeting XRP (XRP) investors with a fake program.

The XRP staking website scam is accompanied by fraudulent emails impersonating Binance and offering up to 31% ROI on XRP staking. One industry enthusiast, RipplePandaXRP, took to Twitter on January 21 to to warn the XRP community about the scam.

“Do not send your XRP to an unknown address and always check the address to see if it is a legitimate site,” RipplePandaXRP wrote.

Related: Ripple CEO: XRP lawsuit settled by June, SEC behavior “embarrassing”

That said, the actual exchange of Binance actually proposals decentralized finance (DeFi) staking for XRP as part of its Binance Earn program. However, Binance’s XRP DeFi staking program only allows users to earn up to 1.4% per year.

It is important to note that XRP cannot be stacked because it does not work with a proof-of-stake system like major PoS cryptocurrencies like Ether (ETH). Instead, XRP transactions rely on a network of “unique nodes” that agree on which transactions can be processed on the network.

Investors are advised to do thorough research to ensure the legitimacy of a platform before making any investments.