YouTube is facing a lawsuit after it was accused by a cryptocurrency company for letting hackers impersonate its CEO and stealing users' money in the process.
According to The Verge's latest report, the cryptocurrency company Ripple has filed a case against the popular media platform after it did nothing to stop online scammers from impersonating their CEO to siphon money from their cryptocurrency accounts.
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Ripple filed the complaint on April 21, accusing the video platform of selling advertisements and verifying accounts that promote fake cryptocurrency giveaways and promos. YouTube was also accused of ignoring the complaints sent by its users. Is it still safe to use the popular social media platform?
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YouTube sued by Ripple for letting hackers impersonate its CEO! YouTube ignored the complaints report says: Is still safe to use the popular video platform?
Ripple runs an exchange network for digital currency XRP which allows people to send money internationally. Over the past several months, official-sounding fake accounts were created by hackers and scammers to replicate the main account of Ripple and, in the process, impersonated Brad Garlinghouse, the company's chief executive.
Some of the fake accounts were stolen from popular influencers of the video platform which gave the hackers thousands of subscribers making it look like that they were legit and credible.
Using the fake accounts, the scammers posted videos offering big XRP giveaways and rewards in exchange for smaller initial payments, tricking viewers that they were watching the official Ripple Channel.
One of the fake accounts created in March impersonated the CEO of Ripple. The company investigated the video platform and dated the issue to at least November of last year, stating that there were around 350 complaints sent to YouTube about impersonation or scamming.
However, Ripple reiterated that the media platform ignored and failed to address the complaints of its users. One of the cases that the company is pointing out is when YouTube gave an official verification badged to a hacked channel.
Ripple alleges that although there were complaints about the scheme of the hackers, YouTube continued to accept paid ads related to the fake accounts. The case was filed because the company received an onslaught of messages from people who believed that Ripple hacked their accounts and stole their money.
It is not yet clear how much money was stolen. However, one of the fake accounts was reported to have earned 15,000 dollars worth of XRP.
