David Schwartz, former Chief Technology Officer at Ripple, is advising the XRP community to be extra careful. He’s noticed an increase in scams targeting people on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
As an analyst, I’ve been observing that scammers aren’t necessarily inventing new techniques, but they’re becoming much more effective at exploiting well-known psychological vulnerabilities. We’re seeing a significant surge in fake token giveaways and airdrops, and these aren’t just simple attempts anymore. Attackers are using them to cleverly trick people into connecting their crypto wallets to dangerous websites or, even worse, giving up their seed phrases. It’s a clear escalation of classic scams, and people need to be extra cautious.
Fake XRP airdrops, deepfakes, and a $635 million DeFi crisis
Ripple has consistently warned the public, and Schwartz reiterated this point, that they never run giveaways. Any online posts offering free XRP tokens claiming to be from Ripple or its leaders are definitely scams.
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Scammers are currently making fake accounts pretending to be Schwartz on platforms like Telegram and Instagram. Schwartz has confirmed that his only legitimate profiles are on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, and anyone contacting people on other platforms claiming to be him is trying to defraud them.
Beware of scams! There’s been a recent surge in fake airdrops and giveaways aimed at people who use XRP Ledger. If you see posts offering these, they’re almost certainly scams. Also, anyone pretending to be me on platforms like Instagram or Telegram is likely a scammer. Stay safe, XRP community!
— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) May 14, 2026
XRP holders are currently being targeted by a surge in cyberattacks, a trend happening across the tech industry. David Schwartz warned not only about fake airdrops designed to steal funds, but also highlighted a serious security flaw in Windows BitLocker. This vulnerability could allow hackers to access encrypted data – and potentially private keys stored on computers – simply by using a USB port.
Fraudsters are taking advantage of the current buzz around XRP and its price to pressure individual investors into making quick decisions. They’re creating a false sense of urgency to manipulate people. This has also included the use of realistic, AI-created fake videos featuring Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in recent months.
This warning is particularly concerning because April saw a record number of hacks in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, with a total of $635 million stolen across 28 separate incidents in just one month. Although these weren’t caused by tricking people, they highlight how easily cryptocurrency users are being targeted and compromised right now.
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2026-05-14 12:03