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

This was finished as a way 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! Undoubtedly!” 

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

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

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

Previously, Garlinghouse himself repeatedly warned individuals about scammers impersonating him on social media.

Cryptocurrency scammers often 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 as a way to submit on behalf of the celebrities. They might additionally use bots to flood social media platforms with pretend likes, shares and feedback from “supporters” who reward the provide in an try and create pretend hype and FOMO (concern of lacking out). These scams have change into extra subtle over time, making it tougher to identify them.

In case you 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.