The official Twitter account of the American TV sports channel GOL TV has been hacked and used to propagate a Ripple scam.
Such attacks seem to be the order of the day; disguising as Ripple-affiliated entities to offer unbelievable investment opportunities to unsuspecting victims. These investment opportunities are usually not supported by legitimate contracts or regulatory oversights.
Most of the time, the perpetrators of this act tout themselves as Ripple’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brad Garlinghouse, thereby creating a make-believe system that is almost impossible for XRP users to distrust. Once they have successfully impersonated the Ripple CEO, they begin to suggest investment schemes like doubling of funds and outrageous returns on investment.
There is no consistent approach that these bad actors leverage, every attack seems to come with a different tactic. It goes as far as elaborate phishing networks, false accounts, public sentiment manipulation, credentials fraud, multi-level marketing scams, and other sophisticated techniques.
XRP users who eventually fall victim to these tactics, end up losing their portfolios and have no way of recovering their loss. More importantly, the variety of strategies employed by scammers makes it harder for their operations to be detected and interrupted. Scammers also invest in these different methods to avoid being detected by top digital asset exchanges, law enforcement, and other regulatory bodies.
Top Twitter Accounts Exploited for XRP Scam
Sometime last year, these XRP scammers gained access to the Twitter account of famous Spanish vocalist Bertin Osborne.
Hackers posted a false XRP giveaway tweet with phishing links to his 162,000 followers. Additionally, the bad actors were retweeting posts from Garlinghouse and at the same time responding with XRP scam links to emphasize the legitimacy of the post.
In September, CoinDCX, a leading crypto exchange platform in India with 230,000 followers on Twitter, was also exploited for some hours. The same approach used on Osborne was also employed here. Hackers posted a fake XRP giveaway plan with a phishing link. In CoinDCX’s case, the attack was alerted by the blockchain security platform PerkShield.
Crypto enthusiasts have been advised to always verify trusted sources before plunging their funds into any investment.
