A project called Monero Rings positions itself as an "improved version" of Monero, promising fast transactions, scalability, improved mining and even non-fungible tokens. All of this sounds wonderful, however, as it turned out, Monero Rings is a fake hard fork of Monero that steals funds from users. The fact that the promised options appeared out of nowhere arouses suspicion. The fake project was recently uncovered by the wallet company Guarda, whose specialists saw that the project's code is simply a clone of the Monero code.

They also discovered that one web form forwards recovery phrases to the site's own servers, allowing scammers to gain access to private keys and steal funds. Four days after the exposure, the Monero Rings resources are still available. However, the Metamask and EtherAddressLookup browser extensions block the site. These extensions are associated with Ethereum and may end up outside the field of view of Monero users. Fortunately, Monero itself reported the scam on Reddit.

Undoubtedly, some users will fall victim to the attack before the project is shut down. Fake forks, airdrops and other derivative projects are convenient methods of phishing. Guarda has uncovered similar campaigns on Ethereum — thus, Monero is not unique in this respect. The fake Monero fork coincided in time with a genuine one, which is due to take place at the end of this week and will require absolutely nothing from ordinary users. Although the dates differ, the hype surrounding the legitimate update may help the fake site cast its nets more widely.