Crypto Hackers Promote Fake XRP Airdrop on News24 Twitter Account
The Twitter account of one of the leading news channels in India – News24 – fell victim to a recent cryptocurrency scheme. Hackers breached security to post phishing links with fake XRP drops, encouraging people to click and potentially get scammed.
Crypto fraudsters have previously compromised the Twitter account of the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi – and the profiles of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and Mann Deshi Mahila Bank.
The latest victim in India
Miscreants took control of News24’s Twitter account and posted fake Ripple events, such as an XRP airdrop. They attached compromised links regarding and even displayed the image of Ripple’s CEO – Brad Galinghouse – to gain people’s trust.
Needless to say, there was no such airdrop, suggesting that some of News24’s 1.4 million followers may have fallen victim to the scam.
Some fake announcements remain visible on the outlet’s Twitter account, meaning it either hasn’t noticed the problem or has struggled to deal with the attackers.
India has recently emerged as a hotbed for such scams. Hackers compromised the official Twitter profile of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in late 2021 and published a malicious post that the country has adopted bitcoin as legal tender and that the government has purchased 500 BTC, which will be distributed to the population.
It remained unknown how many were victims of the scam, but the number could have been significant, considering Modi has over 87 million followers.
Bad actors re-entered a month later, break the security of the Twitter accounts of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and Mann Deshi Mahila Bank. They shared several tweets with Elon Musk, apparently promoting cryptocurrencies.
The Fake Arbitrum Airdrops
As The crypto potato recently reportedcryptocurrency participants should be wary of another scam related to the Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution – Arbitrum.
Fraudsters flooded the space with fake airdrops of the project and phishing sites that, by clicking, could lead to financial loss for users. Arbitrum News DAO so it detected over 270 such sites.
Remember that the actual ARB token airdrop will occur March 23. Consumers can view all necessary details and check if they are eligible here.