Ripple CEO Warns of Impersonating Deepfake Scam Videos

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has highlighted the growing trend of Deep Fake scam videos on YouTube after a cloned video of him was seen circulating on the internet.

Ripple CEO Warns Against False Messages

Garlinghouse explained how these scammers were overlaying new words with old video footage from Ripple’s past events and were making them into YouTube videos. He went on to ask the video-hosting service provider if it was “asleep at the wheel again?”. Much more, he urged users to be cautious about messages that are currently making rounds. 

According to Garlinghouse, approved messages will only be passed through official Ripple accounts.

Some alarming scam involving XRP, which is closely related to Ripple, has also been making rounds. These videos which mimicked the Ripple CEO were created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. Although there were some irregularities with the mouth movements in the video, the voice resembled that of Garlinghouse. 

Unsuspecting Ripple customers and XRP enthusiasts were enticed with talks about a non-existent giveaway. There were promises of doubling users’ assets if sent to the disguised hacker. For example, Ripple customers were encouraged to transfer a minimum of 1000 XRP tokens and get double the amount in return. The offer was touted as a community support initiative designed for loyal XRP customers.

A few eagle-eyed viewers were able to discover the discrepancies in the video and that raised the question of the authenticity of the content.

Shortcomings of AI

Since the recent evolution of AI, it has become a trend to see cloned videos of public figures made with the innovative Large Language Model (LLM) technology. Tim Draper, a popular Bitcoin proponent once had his voice cloned using AI technology wit the perpetrator soliciting funds from Draper’s followers.

While AI as we have seen through ChatGPT and Elon Musk’s Grok are revolutionary in the solutions they bring to the table, the ease with which they can be used to perpetrate scams serves as their ultimate shortcoming.

Meanwhile, Ripple has a legal action history with YouTube over a previous crypto scam. The crypto payment company sued YouTube for failing to control the volume of scams on its platform which were usually a false representation of Ripple Labs and its executives. It is not clear if the fintech company will be interested in pursuing another legal battle with YouTube this time around.