Fake Flare staking site stole $8.5M in XRP, Seoul police say
A counterfeit Flare Network staking site took 3.4 million XRP — about $8.5 million — from 71 investors in eight days last October, Seoul police said.
Seoul police reported that a fraudulent staking website operating under the domain Fxrpntwork.com impersonated Flare Network and its FXRP token and collected 3.4 million XRP from 71 investors over eight days in October. The stolen tokens equal about 12.3 billion won ($8.5 million).
Police records show the operators promised guaranteed principal and monthly returns of 1.5% to 1.8%. Investors were instructed to withdraw XRP from South Korean exchanges, move funds through overseas trading platforms and deposit them into wallets controlled by the group. The site went offline on Oct. 23 and the operators disappeared.
Investigators traced 27.3 billion won ($18.8 million) through wallets linked to the group and immediately froze 17.3 billion won of those assets on overseas exchanges. Another roughly 10 billion won moved during the probe and remains unaccounted for, which could indicate additional victims beyond the 71 identified. Authorities put the average loss at about 173 million won ($119,000) per victim for the week the site was active.
To create a false record of legitimacy, the group planted fabricated posts on portal blogs and online news sites, edited Wikipedia entries and posted YouTube videos featuring a paid stand-in. The man who appeared in the videos, 34 years old, faces fraud charges.
Investigators executed 54 search and seizure warrants, arrested one suspect at a hideout after he returned from abroad and detained others in sequence. Two 29-year-old men have been referred to prosecutors on aggravated fraud charges. A fourth 29-year-old suspect is being sought abroad under an Interpol Red Notice.
The inquiry began after an overseas exchange flagged a rise in staking-related fraud in October. The scheme followed the real FXRP launch the month before and mirrored the project’s branding and timing. Authorities said they would treat crypto fraud with ‘zero tolerance’ and urged investors to verify project information through official sources before transferring funds.
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