Scammers Used Ripple CEO's Digital Clone for False Advertisement, But YouTube Failed to Flag it
New ad impersonating Ripple CEO scamming netizens
Technology such as deepfake and deepvoice is increasingly being used by scammers who use images of popular personalities or the voice of someone known to the victim to swindle money or defame people. In a similar development, a new ad featuring Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is doing the rounds on the internet, where the CEO tells people they can receive XRP for free by simply sending a particular crypto wallet some XRP first, per Forbes. Of course, Garlinghouse never said anything about XRP airdrops. The ad is one of the many scam ads that uses artificial intelligence to impersonate someone, often a celeb, to spread false information.
The surprising factor is that the YouTube algorithm designed to filter the scams, didn't flag this one. The ad is also extremely prevalent on X, formerly known as Twitter, and is also pretty convincing unless one notices his lips moving in an odd way.
Garlinghouse confirms it's a scam
"There’s been an uptick in deepfake scam videos (ex below) overlaying new words with old video footage from Ripple’s events (@YouTube are you asleep at the wheel again?!). Reminder: don't trust, verify (all approved messaging will only come from official Ripple accounts)," he tweeted on November 16, 2023.
Many are falling for the ad and have even been successfully scammed. "I just got scammed 2k in xrp on an ad here on X. Saying they would double it back to me. I should have looked it up...." tweeted one user.
X has struggled a bit with ads that are using photos of the platform owner and billionaire, Elon Musk. So, it's safe to say that anybody promising to send you crypto only if you send them first is most definitely a scam.
What are AI scams?
AI scams are very intense and a bit tricky to spot, since they often take different forms such as fake chatbots or even voice cloning with the ulterior motive of draining your finances. Scammers are using social engineering now polished with AI to target the emotions of normal people. Some of the red flags that you need to recognize are links and redirecting tools in text messages, odd imagery, and more.
Major AI threats to look out for
Deep fakes
The fact that people can steal identities through voice modification is scary. AI video and photo editing is on a different level and the frauds have skyrocketed in the previous year. While it's not a huge threat yet, it's only a matter of time before they will become one.
LLM malware
With the help of artificial intelligence, companies can now create their own set of malware. This malware takes advantage of software like Chat GPT and other APIs to generate codes that target people.
Zero days
Many tricksters detect zero-days which is a term that they use to describe any loophole in a fully developed code that has not yet been discovered. These weaknesses can create problems for each organization as they will expose the whole system to malware.