David Schwartz, Chief Technology Officer of Ripple Labs, says he was targeted by bad elements in a highly sophisticated phishing scam. This was revealed in a recent post on X where he urged members of the community to be vigilant.
How Ripple CTO Detected the Phishing Scam
Per the Ripple CTO’s explanation, the attackers used legitimate-looking Apple support emails and web pages in their SMS messages. They made an attempt to deceive him into surrendering control over his Apple ID. The fraudsters employed a genuine support case with Apple, using Schwartz’s email address.
Today, a sophisticated phishing scam was attempted on me. It was aimed at my Apple ID. The scam involved opening a real support case with Apple and then trying to leverage the authentic Apple emails and web pages in SMS messages from the scammers. Be careful out there!
— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) May 22, 2024
The bad elements then sent convincing SMS messages. They leveraged real Apple emails and web pages, to trick him into revealing his Apple ID credentials. As typical of phishing scams, the intent is to take control of personal data to gain access to exploitable information.
Schwartz noted that the scammers likely accessed his email address and phone number, which are not particularly secret. However, the authenticity of the support case lent credibility to the phishing attempt.
Partnering to Tackle Scammers
The telling sign for Schwartz came from the poor grammar used in the SMS message. The likely grammatical blunder in the SMS gave it away as a phishing scam. This “poor grammar” saved Schwartz from falling prey.
Besides Ripple’s CTO, other personalities have been targeted by scammers and fraudsters. Notably, Shiba Inu’s Shytoshi Kusama featured in a recent phishing scam meant to trick members of the community into visiting fake websites and stealing their funds.
The phishing attack on Schwartz coincides with Ripple Lab’s partnership with Meta (formerly Facebook) and other notable cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase. The partnership seeks to form a formidable team against scammers who prey on unsuspecting victims in crypto.
Analysts are of the opinion that leveraging Meta’s extensive platform and resources with those of cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase will adequately combat phishing and other scam activities.