Recently, I reported on how YouTube was becoming a hub for crypto scams. But, as the legal battles and the battles against scams continue, it seems fitting to go over in more detail what’s happening.
The story starts around when hackers got into YouTube accounts, verified one’s even. Then, along with accounts likely made for this exact purpose, came the scams.
Though these scams may seem shady to the seasoned, they are realistic looking enough that a lot of money was taken. Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP was the main target, with ads using the likeness of the CEO to further legitimize the trick.
But it’s how YouTube is handling it that may be even more galling. Because these scam videos have ads on them like any video would on the platform. This means that, sometimes, YouTube made actual money off people watching these scams.
Since then, Ripple has filed over 300 notices to YouTube, but this has failed to handle the problem. Ripple furthermore filed a lawsuit against YouTube. This too has failed to do much. YouTube countered it and claimed no direct responsibility.
The reason? Laws put in place to protect from the ramifications of things posted by users. Ripple could target the scammers, but not YouTube. Ripple is not happy with this and is again actively seeking justice.
Meanwhile, as I said in the last post, there’s little that can be done to stop free accounts springing up to replace any removed ones. People are going to continue to get scammed.
