The chief technical officer (CTO) of American blockchain payments business Ripple Labs Inc., David Schwartz, has come forward to denounce a phoney website that is attempting to establish a connection with the XRP token. Using his Twitter account, Schwartz urged users to exercise caution and warned that the website “holdxrp. com” is a fraud.
While not advised, a visit to the website reveals a Medium-like interface with the announcement of a hoax airdrop that includes a blog post from Ripple Labs Inc. CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Surprisingly, the post has fake 5,326 likes, which may have been fabricated to give the website and the announcement some credibility.
The notification includes a variety of phishing links that, if opened, might unintentionally abuse the user’s money. The site’s creation scam was further demonstrated by impersonating prominent personalities in the field, like Ben Armstrong (BitBoy Crypto), Carl from the Moon, and Crypto Rover, among others, to leave comments on posts.
XRP is new target
There have been several frauds involving the token and Ripple as a whole since the XRP judgement, in which Judge Analisa Torres ruled that secondary sales of the cryptocurrency are not securities. Since the public’s interest in the token is currently at its pinnacle, many dishonest people are attempting to take advantage by setting up phoney giveaways and airdrops in order to deceive the community.
The most reputable XRP-linked Twitter accounts have backed David Schwartz’s requests to boycott several websites even though he has been warning about similar frauds for some time.
XRP community members need to be aware that announcements that do not originate from certified Ripple platforms are likely false and should be ignored. It is important to remember that bad actors do exist in the world of cryptocurrencies, which is why several platforms have been compromised to far.
