Indian Court Recovers YouTube Account Used for XRP Scam

The Supreme Court of India has successfully reclaimed its official YouTube account after it was compromised by cryptocurrency scammers. The hackers had hijacked the channel to promote fraudulent XRP investments, rebranding it and deleting existing content.

On September 20th, the Supreme Court’s YouTube account was used to broadcast a live stream video featuring Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse, promoting fake XRP investments. The hackers had rebranded the channel to mimic Ripple’s official presence and deleted all previously uploaded content.

YouTube swiftly responded to the incident, taking down the compromised account on the same day it was hacked. The Supreme Court of India also issued a public notice informing the public about the security breach.

While the Supreme Court managed to regain control of its YouTube account, the recovery process was not complete. The channel’s original subscriber base of over 217,000 followers and previously uploaded videos were lost. Additionally, the channel’s name was changed to “Vansh,” and it had only 15 subscribers at the time of recovery.

Despite the changes made by the hackers, Google Search’s cached information confirms that the recovered account belongs to the Supreme Court of India. This indicates that the channel’s identity has been restored, even though its content and following have been compromised.

The hijacking of the Supreme Court’s YouTube account is not an isolated incident. In September, YouTube was inundated with livestreams featuring deepfakes of Apple CEO Tim Cook promoting crypto scams. These fraudulent videos were quickly taken down, and the associated accounts were closed.

YouTube’s support team acknowledged the issue of deepfake scams and urged users to report such content through the official reporting tool. The platform has taken steps to address these fraudulent activities and protect its users from falling victim to scams.

The hijacking of the Supreme Court of India’s YouTube account highlights the ongoing challenges of combating online scams and protecting digital platforms from malicious actors. While the Supreme Court was able to regain control of its account, the incident serves as a reminder of the importance of cybersecurity measures to prevent such breaches.