Cryptocurrency scammers have efficiently hacked the official Twitter account of Brazilian skilled combined martial artist Michel Pereira, altering its identify to that of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

This was finished to be able to promote a pretend XRP giveaway on the social media platform.

The hacker began spamming a picture of Garlinghouse’s face with the caption “XRP is the longer term! Positively!” 

They’re urging customers to go to an internet site to get their “first come, first served” reward in XRP price as much as $100 million.

In fact, the web site is affiliated with neither Garlinghouse nor Ripple and exists solely to realize entry to unsuspecting victims’ wallets.

Some customers rapidly noticed the rip-off and alerted the web site’s assist groups. A number of the fraudulent tweets have been deleted.

Prior to now, Garlinghouse himself repeatedly warned folks about scammers impersonating him on social media.

Cryptocurrency scammers frequently impersonate celebrities on social media to advertise pretend giveaways. They use accounts they create within the celebrities’ names or hijack the prevailing accounts of followers who’ve been hacked to be able to submit on behalf of the celebrities. They could additionally use bots to flood social media platforms with pretend likes, shares and feedback from “supporters” who reward the provide in an try to create pretend hype and FOMO (concern of lacking out). These scams have turn out to be extra refined over time, making it tougher to identify them.

If you happen to come throughout one thing like this on-line, you will need to be additional vigilant and at all times verify the authenticity of any cryptocurrency-related provide.