Ripples Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse revealed that scammers are not only targeting unaware cryptocurrency investors but blockchain payment companies, too, including Ripple. He said Ripple has also been trying to deal with the issue of scammers for a long time as well. So, scammed people shouldn’t think he stole their money, he added.
Crypto enthusiasts have flocked to Ripple and chosen its digital asset XRP as their investment crypto. As a result of the wide popularity and attraction of crypto, scammers have seized the opportunity to dupe people.
Scammers impersonating Garlinghouse
On several occasions, scammers have posed as Ripple’s owner or developers to lure their targets into sending them money. The most recent was a fraudulent email that promoted a fake XRP giveaway asking XRP holders to send a certain amount of their coins to a specific address to double the amount. The scam looks very simple, but many people still fall victim to such scams.
The email was made to look exactly like the company’s authentic email, which deceived many investors.
Ripple has been working very hard to prevent such type of scam. Recently, Brad filed a lawsuit against YouTube for what it calls negligence on the internet giant to quickly spot those fake YouTube promotions and close them.
Ripple revealed 305 YouTube channels that impersonate the chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse to siphon XRP from their victims.
Some scammers even took over YouTube verified accounts and modified the channels to make them look real for their scam promotion.
The lawsuit filed against Youtube
Garlinghouse said Ripple’s reputation had been drug through the mud as many victims believe Ripple has a hand in their ordeal. He spoke about the issue and the lawsuit filed against YouTube on the “Tales of Silicon Valley” podcast with Danny Fortson.
He said even when Ripple informs Youtube about the scammers and their activities, the video-sharing giant usually takes a long time to take action. According to Garlinghouse, YouTube’s slow action has caused many people to lose money as Ripple’s reputation has been damaged. He also said some people who have lost their scam funds are even issuing him a death threat. “They think I actually stole their money,” he reiterated.
YouYube’s legal team waved off the allegation, claiming the company is not responsible for the contents since third parties create them.
According to the IT giant, the platform doesn’t have any liability as long as Ripple is not alleging that YouTube participated, encouraged, or solicited for the content providers’ actions.
Apart from YouTube, Garlinghouse also revealed a recent error by Instagram, which flagged a fake account, impersonating him as a genuine one.
Irregular U.S. regulation also affecting Ripple.
He also said the absence of an elaborate regulation in the industry affects the company, adding that a financial services firm recently rejected its XRP-powered ODL solution because of unclear regulation status.
