Scammers have a new style of gaining access to verified, and highly reputable accounts and using them to promote their fake links.
Scammers are showing no signs of slowing down in their unending attempts to impersonate Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and pull a major XRP scam. And in their latest effort, they have successfully hijacked the Twitter account of popular Spanish singer Bertín Osborne.
Following the take-over, the scammers quickly began retweeting old Ripple-related tweets as they attempt to fool unsuspecting users of the platform. The comments section is also being flooded with replies that link to a fake giveaway page. The bogus giveaway, however, is linked to an XRP scam that has been going around on Twitter for a considerably long period.
XRP Scam Wave Hits Popular Musician’s Account
Osborne’s Twitter account boasts over 162,000 followers. However, it is the latest in a series of high-profile Twitter accounts that have recently been targeted by bad actors.
The mode of operation of these scammers is simple. They gain access to verified, and highly reputable accounts and use them to promote their fake links. And this has been going on for a while.
September alone saw a series of similar attacks. One of the most popular crypto exchanges in India, CoinDCX was hacked and subsequently used to promote the XRP scam. In the same month, reports surfaced about the official Twitter account of Oman’s Indian embassy suffering a similar fate. Although it would take several hours to regain access to the account, the embassy eventually did.
Also before that, Coinspeaker reported that the Venezuelan branch of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) lost its Twitter account to hackers. And there have been several other similar reports from other top crypto firms and businesses as well.
A Broader Case Scenario
Without a doubt, this hack style appears to be the latest trend among crypto scammers. And as the number of accounts being compromised increases, questions are being raised regarding whether enough is being done to safeguard the accounts of Twitter users.
Recall that recently, scammers also hijacked several verified Twitter accounts. Once this happens, the dangers could be boundless, especially considering that such accounts could easily be used to impersonate big names in the crypto industry, including the likes of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Input Output CEO Charles Hoskinson.
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