Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Twitter hijacked by giveaway scam

Just weeks after Brad Garlinghouse announced that Ripple was suing Youtube for allowing thieves to use his company and face on giveaway scam ads, Ripple’s corporate twitter account was hacked.

A fraudulent tweet offering 2,000 XRP back to those who donate 1,000 XRP to a COVID-19 fund was tweeted out at 4:13 p.m.

Garlinghouse immediately alerted Twitter of the hack and scam on the account, and within 20 minutes Ripple announced the news of the Twitter hack through its various other platforms including Ripple’s corporate blog, and Facebook account

This is just the latest in an ongoing series of scam ads using the name of everybody from Vitalik Buterin to CoinDesk editors.

Garlinghouse noted that other tech companies have been hacked today. A story by The Verge cited Apple, Uber, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as among those hit, as well as Kanye West and even Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s among those hit in a widespread and coordinated attack.

On April 21, Garlinghouse announced the Youtube lawsuit on Twitter, saying “social media companies have failed to police their platforms from being abused by the entirely preventable imposter giveaway scams. Hundreds of people (including some of you) have been hurt, yet big tech continues to drag their feet.”

He specifically cited the video platform’s unwillingness to act quickly, or at all, when alerted to these giveaway scams.

Complaining that YouTube is “the epicenter for imposter scams,” Garlinghouse at the time added, “YouTube’s inertia is indicative of an industry-wide problem of a lack of accountability. Victims are forced to jump through hoops to report these scams, and oftentimes that doesn’t even work.”