According to Cointelegraph, the official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India, which has over 217,000 followers, was hacked on September 20 to run a Ripple and XRP scam. The hackers rebranded the channel into a Ripple-themed account and used it to broadcast a fake livestream featuring Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse, urging viewers to invest in the scam with promises of unrealistic returns. The channel's name and URL were changed, and all previous videos were deleted by the hackers. YouTube later deleted the compromised channel, stating that it violated their Community Guidelines.

The fake XRP livestreams often include phishing links that prompt users to connect their crypto wallets. Once a user approves the request, the hackers gain full access to the wallet and can withdraw funds without further authentication. This incident is not isolated; in April, YouTube helped neutralize a similar XRP scam involving the account of the gaming channel DidYouKnowGaming. The scammers had rebranded the account and deleted older videos, but YouTube managed to recover the hacked account and its content.

The frequency of such breaches on YouTube is increasing. In July, the YouTube account of the pop band Ben&Ben, which has over three million followers, was hacked to livestream a fraudulent XRP advertisement. The band announced on their official Facebook page that their YouTube channel was hacked and that their team was working to recover it. During the recovery process, the account continued to livestream the XRP scam. With YouTube's intervention, the band was able to restore and recover part of their account from the hijackers.