Once more alerting the XRP community to remain wary, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has highlighted the growing frequency of cryptocurrency scams.
His latest caution pertains to an exceptionally daring incident where hackers exploited the Supreme Court of India’s YouTube channel to promote a fraudulent XRP scheme.
Garlinghouse voiced his annoyance at the way online frauds prey on gullible people. “It’s terrible to watch con artists target and take advantage of naive crypto users; social media channels let this happen with ease. In a public message, he said, “Stop, spot, avoid—protect yourself.”
Ripple Warns Users
The CEO emphasized that Ripple officials would never seek XRP tokens from anyone, a common strategy used by rogue actors posing as corporate representatives. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has just made these frauds more advanced, enabling offenders to clone looks and voices to fool viewers.
Last year, Garlinghouse personally experienced an AI-generated film that used his voice to promote a fictitious XRP auction. Such technology has given scammers—who have even targeted well-known personalities like Apple CEO Tim Cook more confidence.
Cook’s fictitious broadcast in another incident got hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, highlighting even further the platform’s susceptibility to abuse. There are still ongoing legal disputes between Ripple and YouTube over scam-related material.
The firm first sued the massive streaming platform in April 2020, alleging incompetence in user protection. Despite the resolution of the matter in 2021, Garlinghouse again criticized YouTube in 2023 for inadequately addressing the issue.
The number of cryptocurrency frauds continues to rise. According to a recent FBI estimate, investment schemes accounted for the majority of the $5.6 billion Americans lost to cryptocurrency fraud in 2023.
Given these changes, Garlinghouse’s warning reminds crypto aficioners to remain vigilant and prevent becoming victims of ever more intricate scams.
