Oman's Indian embassy Twitter account compromised to promote XRP scam

Published at: Sept. 20, 2022

Scammers have hacked the official Twitter account of the Embassy of India in Oman, replacing the profile picture with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and using the reply function to spam users with fake XRP giveaway phishing links.

At the time of publication, the Twitter account OmanEmbassy_Ind showed several retweets matching those of Garlinghouse, seemingly in an attempt to make the activity look legitimate. The hacked account has been responding to tweets using the hashtag XRP, encouraging users to sign up for a fake giveaway of 100 million tokens — worth more than $42 million at an XRP price of $0.42.

The hackers behind the fake Ripple XRP CEO, identified as ‘Galringhouse’, may have been responsible for breaching India-based crypto exchange CoinDCX’s Twitter account given the similar fake giveaways. CoinDCX reported on Tuesday that it had restored access to its account. While the crypto exchange’s Twitter account had more than 230,000 followers, the Embassy of India in Oman only showed 4,119 at the time of publication.

Important Update. pic.twitter.com/RTeIZ5EzRK

— CoinDCX: Making Crypto Accessible to Indians (@CoinDCX) September 20, 2022

On Monday, Caroline Pham of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission made waves on social media after posting a photo of her standing with Garlinghouse in Ripple Labs’ offices. A decision in a Securities and Exchange Commission case alleging Ripple’s XRP sales violated securities laws may be forthcoming after both sides filed motions for summary judgment on Saturday.

Related: Hackers might be responsible for removing $4.8M from crypto exchange ZB.com: PeckShield

Many hackers have used social media to attempt to scam unsuspecting users out of both crypto and fiat since the platforms were created. Using high-profile figures in the crypto space — like Garlinghouse, Elon Musk, and others — is a common tactic. In June, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reported that scammers had pilfered roughly $1 billion in crypto from 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, with half of all crypto-related scams originating from social media platforms. 

Tags
Business
Xrp
Twitter
India
Scams
Related Posts
XRP Army gets 'RelistXRP' trending, demands exchanges comply
Members of the XRP Army — supporters of the XRP token — have started an online movement to pressure crypto exchanges to relist the digital asset amid Ripple facing a lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. According to Twitter user MackAttackXRP, the hashtag "RelistXRP" was trending in The Netherlands earlier today, with some users reporting the social media movement was gaining traction in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Twitter data showed more than 35,000 tweets with the hashtag in the Netherlands, more than 30,000 tweets in the U.S. and roughly 24,000 in …
Business / March 22, 2021
Ripple CEO answers 5 key questions about the SEC lawsuit
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed the firm unsuccessfully attempted to settle its securities violation lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and slammed the “regulatory chaos” around cryptocurrencies. I’m not going to litigate the SEC’s unproven allegations on Twitter, and as you can imagine, there are new considerations to what can / should be said publicly after the litigation process starts. However, I would like to address 5 key questions I’ve seen. 1/10 — Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 7, 2021 In a Twitter thread addressing what he described as “5 key questions,” the CEO strongly denied the …
Regulation / Jan. 8, 2021
Counterfeit NFTs result in marketplace shutdown: Experts weigh in
“Rampant” issues relating to minting counterfeit nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have forced popular platform Cent to halt some operations. Founded in 2017, Cent kicked off as a “social network and informal platform for creative experimentation.” In 2020, the team also launched an NFT platform called Valuables to mint and auction iconic tweets. Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, “just setting up my twttr,” sold for $2.9 million on the platform in March last year. On February 6th, the platform ceased NFT trading due to “a spectrum of activity” that "shouldn’t be happening." Cameron Hejazi, co-founder of Cent told Cointelegraph: “People in this …
Nft / Feb. 15, 2022
Elon Musk’s ‘top priority’ for Twitter includes cutting down on crypto scam tweets
With a reported net worth of more than $300 billion, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he could “technically afford” to purchase Twitter outright and also had plans to change the user experience of the major social media platform. In a TED Talk held at a TED conference in Vancouver on Thursday, Musk told curator Chris Anderson that if his offer to buy Twitter were successful, he would consider changing the way the platform handles controversial content by not promoting certain tweets and adding the ability to edit tweets as well as show that edit history. The Tesla CEO …
Business / April 14, 2022
‘Far too easy’ — Crypto researcher’s fake Ponzi raises $100K in hours
Crypto influencer FatManTerra claims to have gathered over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from crypto investors in an investment scheme that was later revealed as fake. The crypto researcher said he created the fake investment scheme as an experiment and to teach people a lesson about blindly following the investment advice of influencers. The account on Twitter has around 101,100 followers and is mostly known for being a former Terra proponent that now actively speaks out against the project and founder Do Kwon following its $40 billion collapse in May. In a Sept. 5 tweet, FatManTerra told his followers he …
Bitcoin / Sept. 6, 2022