This is far from the first time bad actors have targeted the XRP army.
The undeniable growth of the overall cryptocurrency industry over the past decade has, unfortunately and predictably, led to an increasing number of scammers attempting to exploit unsuspecting victims in a variety of 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 this warning to his more than 700,000 followers on Airdrop scams typically mean victims are asked to access their blockchain wallet with the promise of receiving new (and free) tokens.
While there are many legitimate crypto airdrops, they come through official channels. Ripple has never actually carried out such initiatives, which is why Schwartz warned that “any posts like this you see are probably scams.”
Gift scams work the same way. Bad actors trick users into sending a certain amount of tokens to an address they operate, promising to return double the amount. Typically, they promote the so-called gifts with a promotion or celebration. It seems lucrative and promising, perhaps that’s why many users have fallen victim, but there is no free lunch and people who sent tokens receive nothing in return.
Schwartz pointed out that if someone is pretending to be him on social media, they’re “probably a scammer.”
SCAM ALERT: There has been a huge escalation in airdrop and giveaway scams targeting XRPL users recently. Any messages like this that you see are probably scams.
Anyone pretending to be me on Instagram, Telegram, or almost anywhere else is probably a scammer.
Stay safe, XRP family.
– 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 were using YouTube as a primary platform to impersonate Ripple’s official account and executives to promote various frauds, including giveaways and airdrops.
A few months later, the company’s official X account alerted that such scammers had launched fake Ripple or XRP live streams and even fake videos, trying to scam viewers out of their tokens.
The company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, warned ahead of the 2025 holiday season that bad actors were likely to step up their efforts, and praised a website that provides more information on how users can protect themselves.
