Remove “Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” scam

“Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” is a scam that claims participants can get double any cryptocurrency they send to the provided wallet addresses. This is a fairly typical crypto giveaway scam in the sense that it claims a high-profile individual will double any amount of cryptocurrency sent to them. In this case, the supposed organizer is Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, a financial technology company specializing in blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions. It goes without saying that he has nothing to do with this scam, scammers simply like to use known names to promote their scams. Engaging with this scam will result in lost cryptocurrency with no way to get it back.

 

 

 

This “Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” scam is just one of thousands of crypto scams that can be encountered on social media and video-sharing platforms, as well as questionable websites. Users are likely redirected to this particular “Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” scam when browsing high-risk websites as well as via social media site X (previously Twitter).

When users are redirected to the site hosting this crypto scam, they are greeted with a message saying that Brad Garlinghouse is currently hosting a crypto giveaway and intends to give away 100,000,000 XRP (around $42 million at the time of writing). Supposedly, all users need to do is send any amount of XRP between 1,000 and 5 million, and they will receive double the amount back.

The message users are greeted with on the site hosting this scam:

Brad Garlinghouse 100,000,000 #XRP Annual Airdrop!

LIVE
RIPPLE FOUNDATION
HUGE XRP EVENT
LIVE AIRDROP
Brad Garlinghouse

To celebrate our recent legal win against the SEC, we are having a 100,000,000 XRP giveaway. Nothing we do at Ripple would be possible without our community, and this is just a part of our efforts to assert that.

If you want to participate, it is simple to do. Just navigate to the XRP airdrop portal below to learn more:

Click this — official link to get XRP
Note: All persons are able to participate, including those in the United States. The competition will last until the entirety of the 100,000,000 XRP held in the airdrop-funds have been released. If you are late, your XRP will be instantly refunded.

Thanks,

Brad Garlinghouse

This is a very generic scam, and if you were to send anything to scammers, you would receive nothing in return. Unfortunately, those who fall victim to such scams have no way of getting their funds back as transactions are irreversible. One thing to remember about crypto giveaways is that 99% of them are fake. If a company or an individual were to do a crypto giveaway, they would announce it via legitimate channels, not via random websites. However, even when a giveaway is announced via legitimate channels, users should still be skeptical. In 2020, malicious actors were able to hijack the Twitter accounts of many high-profile individuals and companies. Those hijacked accounts made posts inviting users to participate in a giveaway and send crypto to receive double the amount back. While the posts were up only for a couple of minutes, various users sent around $100,000 worth of crypto to scammers’ accounts. When it comes to giveaways, users should remember that if something seems too good to be true, that’s because it is.

How are cryptocurrency scams promoted?

Malicious actors promote these crypto scams on several different platforms, including YouTube and X (formerly Twitter). One common method involves impersonating well-known people such as Elon Musk, or in this case, Brad Garlinghouse. On social media site X, it’s especially easy for scammers to create fake profiles imitating legitimate people, leading to numerous users falling for scams. Comments under Musk’s posts frequently have fake Elon Musk profiles promoting crypto scams. Although these fake profiles are usually poor imitations, they can still deceive inexperienced or distracted users. Such comments often contain links to sites hosting scams like this “Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” one.

YouTube is another popular platform for promoting crypto scams. Scammers often take over channels with a few thousand subscribers and post videos that showcase Elon Musk or Tesla events, falsely claiming to offer crypto giveaways. These videos and live streams can attract thousands of potential victims.

Users may also be redirected to sites hosting these scams when browsing high-risk websites, as well as if their devices are infected with adware. There are many sites that bombard users with ads when users click on anything unless users have adblockers installed. Sites that have pornographic and/or pirated content are particularly guilty of doing that. However, any decent adblocker program should be able to stop these redirects and block regular ads. If users are redirected regularly, their computers may be infected with adware, in which case, they need to scan their computers with an anti-virus program.

Remove “Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” scam

Users can just close the window or exit the site if they get redirected to the “Brad Garlinghouse Crypto Giveaway” scam. Installing an adblocker program is also a good idea. We also recommend scanning the computer with WiperSoft anti-virus software in case an adware infection is why you get redirected to the site hosting this scam.