Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is slamming the cyber thieves behind a fake YouTube account that’s attempting to lure viewers into participating in an XRP giveaway scam.
Reports of the fake account began circulating on social media on Monday. After catching wind of the scheme, Garlinghouse blasted the scammers in a series of tweets.
“Enough is enough – in a time of global crisis, when people are especially vulnerable – social platforms need to hold scammers (crypto and otherwise) accountable for stealing money from innocent victims with fake giveaways.
My semi-annual PSA: @Ripple and I have not, nor will we ever, conduct a giveaway like the scams that continuously pop up impersonating me on @YouTube, @Instagram, @Twitter, etc. Action needs to be taken – more to come soon.”
Meanwhile, crypto forensics experts at Xrplorer are also reporting a separate scam that they say has led to the theft of a massive amount of XRP.
The scam involves fake “Ledger Live” extensions on the Google Chrome web browser, which have been used to steal roughly 1.4 million XRP. The cyber thieves involved are allegedly cashing out on the crypto exchange HitBTC.
Ripple has published a new blog post on giveaway scams, noting that neither the company nor any of its executives has ever offered – or ever will offer – any digital assets to the public for free.
Ripple suggests researching any advertised giveaway by verifying it on the reported company’s main website and official social media accounts.
“In many cases, the first warning that a giveaway ad is a scam is that in order to receive the reward, you must first send money and/or provide your personal financial account information. For any real sweepstakes, winnings are always free and never ask for money or financial account information upfront.”
The company is also asking for help busting scammers.
“In response to the numerous XRP giveaway scams and impersonations, Ripple has hired an external cybersecurity and digital threat intelligence vendor to help with reporting and takedown efforts. Additionally, we have built our own submission form for the community to report unusual activity.”
