Ripple CEO Issues New Warning, Asks XRP Holders to ‘Stop, Spot, and Avoid’

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expresses frustration over the rapid growth of scams targeting XRP community members. 

In a tweet yesterday, Garlinghouse criticized the rate at which scammers prey on unwary XRP users. The Ripple CEO also highlighted the failure of social media platforms to prevent these fraudulent activities. 

Scammers Promote XRP on Indian Supreme Court’s YouTube Channel 

Garlinghouse issued the comment yesterday in response to reports of scammers hacking India’s Supreme Court YouTube channel to promote XRP. Notably, India’s Supreme Court suffered a devastating blow recently after scammers took over its YouTube channel to livestream a promotional video for XRP. 

Prior to the incident, the apex court used the channel to broadcast major cases of public interest, including the rape and murder case of an Indian trainee doctor. 

However, bad actors briefly took over the YouTube channel yesterday to stream a promotional video for XRP. The video featured an XRP forecast, projecting that the Ripple-affiliated token could hit $2 this month. The scammers attached a photo of Garlinghouse to the video thumbnail to give the forecast credibility. 

The court regained control of the channel shortly and took down the XRP promotional video. 

Garlinghouse Issues New Warning to XRP Holders 

Despite this, Garlinghouse issued a new warning to XRP holders to guarantee their safety. He emphasized that the company and its executives will never ask the community to send XRP. 

This is a common scam tactic that scammers utilize to exploit unsuspecting investors. They ask users to send XRP to designated wallets with the false promise of doubling their funds. 

These malefactors sometimes promote the giveaway using deepfake videos of Garlinghouse or other Ripple executives. Notably, Garlinghouse and other executives, like Ripple CTO David Schwartz, have previously warned users to be cautious. 

In the recent X post, Garlinghouse stated that this warning feels like his annual PSA (Public Service Announcement). Nonetheless, he encouraged users to be cautious and warned them to protect themselves using three tactics: “stop, spot, and avoid.” 

Ripple Relentless Efforts to Tackle Scams 

Meanwhile, Ripple has made significant efforts to curtail scams targeting the XRP community, ranging from warning investors to publicly criticizing social media platforms for failing to remove these ads. 

The company also took legal action against YouTube in 2020 due to its failure to prevent scams that impersonate its CEO via deepfake videos. Although the parties agreed to jointly remove the content on YouTube, scammers have continued to publish more deepfake videos on the media platform.