YouTube has intervened to prevent an XRP cryptocurrency scam from being promoted on the hacked popular YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming.
Last week, the team behind DidYouKnowGaming warned on Twitter that they had lost access to their YouTube channel, which has 2.4 million subscribers, after their Google account was hacked.
YouTube took immediate action, asking the YouTuber for some information to help him regain access to his account.
“We’ll need to get some quick information from you and then we’ll connect you with an expert team that will help restore account access,” YouTube’s official Twitter account said in response to DidYouKnowGaming.
The DidYouKnowGaming channel was accessed by a hacker who changed its profile image to the logo of the XRP cryptocurrency with the intention of promoting a scam related to the coin.
The recent incident comes at a time when there has been an increase in the number of creators falling prey to such hacks in recent times, even big channels like Linus Tech Tips Reporting similar problems.
The risk posed by such hacks has further increased with the recent rise in deepfakes, which are generated by AI tools to create fake impersonation videos of famous public figures that can mislead investors.
For example, Chinese tech giant Tencent recently launched a deep-fake tool that allows anyone to impersonate someone else for 1,000 yuan ($145).
Investors in cryptocurrencies frequently use YouTube to learn more about Web3, blockchain and cryptocurrencies. There are multiple channels and resources available on the platform to help investors and enthusiasts access quality information on these topics.
Crypto hacks and scams lost over $100M in April
The most recent attempt to hack a popular YouTube channel and promote a crypto scam came as April was hit by a series of crypto scams, hacks, and exploits that took over $103 million from unsuspecting investors and projects. Money was stolen.
Some of the more notable hacks of the month included the loss of $25.4 million Exploitation of MEV trading botsA hot wallet exploit stole $22 million from the Bitru exchange, and a hack of the South Korean GDAC exchange resulted in a loss of $13 million, according to a reports By Certik, a crypto security and auditing company.
In addition, approximately $74.5 million was lost due to crypto and DeFi exploits in April, bringing the total number of exploits in the first four months of the year to $145 million.
On April 13, nearly $20 million was lost to flash loan attacks largely led by Yern Finance after a hacker exploited an old smart contract.
CertiK reported that the total amount lost to exit scams in the month reached $9.4 million, with the top exit scam for the month being Merlin DEX, which lost $2.7 million.