By Solomon Odunayo
The activity of crypto scammers that are taking advantage of the world’s largest video-sharing platform, YouTube, is clearly yet to be curtailed. Unsuspecting crypto holders are still parting with their hard-earned money due to the vulnerability of the video-sharing platform.
According to the analytics firm Xrplorer, scammers have stolen the sum of 1,543,000 XRP from cryptocurrency holders via YouTube.
60% of the Stolen XRP Came from Coinbase Users
According to Xrplorer, 60% of the stolen XRP came from Coinbase users, with 25% from private wallets, and only relatively 2 to 3% came from Binance users. Howbeit, Binance has been the most-used cryptocurrency exchange to launder the stolen assets.
Out of 839,000 XRP, the sum of 508,000 XRP has so far been laundered through Binance exchange. Xrplorer also added that the crypto exchange NiceChange is second with 273,000 XRP laundered.
Xrplorer tweeted, “Update on the ongoing XRP scams on YouTube. – 1,543,000 received – 839,000 laundered – Most used VASPs for laundering are Binance (508K) and NiceChange (273K) – Victims: More than 60% XRP come from Coinbase users, ~25% from private wallets, and only ~2-3% from Binance users.”
Xrplorer further stated that other victims are widespread on different services such as Bitstamp, Bittrex, BITMAX, Uphold, Crypto.com, Kraken, among others, with a little percentage of the stolen XRP.
How Crypto Holders Are Lured Into the Losses
The desperate scammers usually impersonate well-known personalities in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, with the claim that users can send a small amount of digital currency to a designated address to get more of the specific digital token in return.
Thomas Silkjær, the CEO of Xrplorer, has called on exchanges to educate their users about the potency and the desperation of crypto-targeting scammers.
He specifically said they should be proactive in warning users, especially when they are trying to move assets from a wallet to another. The firm is also attempting to flag the accounts before all the funds are out of the reach of the concerned.
Recall that Ripple, the cross-border payment firm that oversees the distribution of XRP, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in April 2020, alleging the video-sharing platform of deliberate inaction, which enables scammers to easily steal digital currency from users.
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