The undeniable growth of the overall cryptocurrency industry over the past decade has, unfortunately and expectedly, led to an increasing number of scammers trying to exploit unsuspecting victims in various ways.
Ripple and its broader ecosystem are no exception, as they have often been targeted by such fraudsters. The latest warning came from the company’s CTO Emeritus.
Stay Safe, $XRP Family
David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz issued the warning to his over 700,000 followers on X, indicating that there has been a “huge escalation lately in airdrop and giveaway scams targeting XRPL users.” Airdrop scams typically mean that victims are prompted to enter their blockchain wallets with the promise of receiving new (and free) tokens.
Although there are numerous legit airdrops in crypto, they go through the official channels. Ripple has never actually completed such initiatives, so Schwartz warned that “any such posts you see are likely scams.”
Giveaway scams work similarly. The bad actors urge users to send a certain amount of tokens to an address operated by them, promising to return twice the amount. In general, they promote the alleged giveaways with some promotion or celebration. It does sound lucrative and promising, perhaps that’s why a lot of users have fallen victim, but there’s no free lunch, and people who have sent tokens do not get anything in return.
Schwartz emphasized that if someone is pretending to be him on social media, they are “likely a scammer.”
SCAM ALERT: There has been a huge escalation lately in airdrop and giveaway scams targetting XRPL users lately. Any such posts you see are likely scams.
Anyone claiming to be me on Instagram, Telegram, or almost anywhere else is likely a scammer.
Stay safe $XRP fam.
— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) May 14, 2026
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Not the First
As mentioned above, this is not the first time the $XRP community has been targeted by bad actors. CryptoPotato reported in July last year that scammers used YouTube as their main platform to impersonate Ripple’s official account and execs to promote various frauds, including giveaways and airdrops.
Months later, the company’s official X account alerted that such fraudsters had started fake Ripple or $XRP livestreams and even deepfake videos, trying to scam viewers out of their tokens.
The firm’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, warned before the 2025 holiday season that bad actors are likely to intensify their efforts, and praised a website that provides more information on how users can protect themselves.