Unknown people hacked the official account of the popular Indian news channel News 24, with over 1.3 million Twitter followers, posting a message about the distribution of 100,000,000 XRP coins.

A News 24 account posted a tweet stating that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had arranged for a first-come, first-served distribution of his XRP cryptocurrency to users as a token of appreciation for their continued support. The ad with the link sent users to a suspicious website that was created specifically to empty the wallets of gullible users.

“To celebrate the power of XRP around the world, we are proud to announce the opening of an annual giveaway of 100,000,000 XRP to every Ripple user. Nothing made at Ripple Labs would be possible without our community,” the scammers tweeted.

This is not the first time that attackers impersonate Brad Garlinghouse, promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaways on social networks. In 2020, a Ripple executive sued YouTube for posting fake videos on his behalf, accusing the platform of damaging the company’s reputation.

Last year, scammers published announcements for the distribution of bitcoin and ether on behalf of the former CEO of MicroStrategy Michael Saylor (Michael Saylor). Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has warned about the appearance of his clones on Twitter, who manage to receive a blue tick proving that they are Vitalik Buterin.