Crypto scams are everyday occurrences, as criminals find them an easy way to get lots of money. There are a wide variety of scams. Some are offering investing in cryptos, only to disappear after getting payment. Others try to manipulate or even threaten users. Lately, there was a series of schemes, with scammers threatening the people with coronavirus infection, if they wouldn’t send them money.
However, the scams, which are the cause of Ripple’s lawsuit against Youtube, are other variations. According to the company, the giant platform is turning a blind eye to scams that have defrauded users. Ripple is a San Francisco-based finance and cryptocurrency firm. Its CEO filed a lawsuit against YouTube on Tuesday.
In this case, scammers offer “giveaways” to consumers using false videos. They add the images of prominent executives, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson, to get people’s trust. Scammers ask the victims to send a small sum to receive a larger windfall. But instead of giving information, they abscond with the funds they receive.
The videos often show media interviews with Garlinghouse, which are lifted from reputable sources but overlaid with invitations to participate in “giveaways” of the cryptocurrency XRP. Ripple pointed out numerous instances where hackers took over the legitimate channels on YouTube. Then they replaced the videos with ones advertising Ripple-related scams.
What is the lawsuit about?
Garlinghouse and Ripple stated that YouTube is damaging their brand and reputations. The complaint asks the court to forbid YouTube to allow the scams to continue, as well as to profit from them. It also demands an unspecified amount of financial compensation for the injured party.
Ripple employs a third-party firm to track such scams and instruct social media companies to remove them. However, despite sending hundreds of notices to YouTube, the media giant has responded slowly or not at all. Ripple accused YouTube of failing to restrict the spread of scam videos adequately. Furthermore, it declared that the platform even profits from scams by letting the scammers pay to promote them.
