Several renowned Filipino musicians have fallen victim to a YouTube hack, with their accounts now promoting an XRP scam. On July 15, the YouTube pages of popular bands and artists, including Ben&Ben, SB19, and Rico Blanco, were hijacked to stream a deepfake video of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicting XRP could reach $4.
This fraudulent video directs viewers to phishing sites, aiming to steal their funds. The local media outlet Bitpinas reported that these compromised accounts are being used to broadcast the scam.
Ben&Ben, a nine-piece pop band with over 3 million YouTube followers, announced the hack on their official Facebook page. They informed fans that their team was working diligently to regain control. While they managed to recover part of their account, the scammers continued streaming their content temporarily. As of now, the unauthorized livestream has ceased.
Similarly, SB19, a popular boyband with 3.6 million followers, experienced a swift recovery of their account after it was hacked. Their management acted quickly and reported the incident to the authorities.
Rico Blanco, another well-known Filipino musician with over 700,000 YouTube followers, also appeared to be a victim. Although Blanco has not yet issued an official statement, Reddit users noticed his account was compromised and subsequently blocked by YouTube for violating its guidelines.
This scam isn’t new; scammers have been using a deepfake of Garlinghouse on YouTube for months. In December 2023, Reddit users flagged a similar fraudulent video urging XRP holders to send their coins to a specific address with the false promise of doubling their investment. These fraudulent activities were reported to Google, but the scammers persist.
The hacking incidents highlight the need for heightened security measures for social media accounts, especially those with large followings, to protect against such deceptive schemes.
Get exclusive insider access to daily market intel reports across web3 –lifetime NFT access.