Hacker Streams Ripple Swell Conference via Popular Youtuber’s Channel

MarcoStyle (@MarcoStyleNL) first reported “a virus deleting a whole bunch of files” on November 2 via Twitter. The following day, the YouTuber noticed some suspicious activity on social media accounts:

I wake up and my twitter is all in russian… monkaS
If I tweet anything weird, just know it's not me. pic.twitter.com/Iknf3BccNh

— MarcoStyle (@MarcoStyleNL) November 3, 2019

Victim After Victim

Later on November 3, MarcoStyle tweeted that their Twitch was also compromised by hackers. A series of confused and angry tweets, apparently from the YouTuber, followed with more accounts apparently falling victim to the hacker.

MarcoStyle reported being able to regain control of most of their accounts. However, in restoring and protecting their system, they lost important files. Despite MarcoStyle’s efforts, their YouTube and Twitch accounts were still not secured.

On November 5, the video gamer tweeted that they’d seen their YouTube account up for sale on a Russian website for around 700 euros. Yesterday, MarcoStyle reported the first changes occurring to their profile via Twitter. It now includes a caption reading:

“I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think of you at all.”

In the post, MarcoStyle hinted that they anticipated more drastic moves. Little did the YouTuber know that either the hacker or a buyer of the account, apparently just wanted to use the popularity of the video gamer to hawk their favorite cryptocurrency, XRP.

Live-Streaming Ripple

Earlier Thursday, the account started live-streaming the Ripple Swell Conference, being held now in Singapore, to MarcoStyle’s more than 361,000 followers. Evidently, the gamer is not impressed by this:

the livestream is literally about a ripple giveaway, which is probably a scam. the hacker is advertising a SCAM to all my subscribers! on my own fucking channel

— MarcoStyle (@MarcoStyleNL) November 7, 2019

Just hours before publishing, MarcoStyle called on their followers to report the channel in an effort to stop the hacker from doing more damage to the victim’s online reputation. Other popular video gamers have added their support too:

Can we come together and get some exposure and help for @MarcoStyleNL?? Obvs, I don’t know all the details, but his @YouTube has been hacked and they are trying to scam his viewers/followers. These are huge violations. HELP! Retweet. Anyone, big or small.

— Gladd (@GladdOnTwitch) November 7, 2019

Meanwhile, the individual in control of the account appears content to just play the Swell live stream on loop:

After 2.5 hours their pre-recorded stream ended, but it seems they are simply restarting it and running it again. This is going to continue until youtube steps in and locks the account or something. I just hope no-one actually gets scammed off this.

— MarcoStyle (@MarcoStyleNL) November 7, 2019

Since this story is developing, few details are known about the nature of the attack. However, in the days following the breach, MarcoStyle speculated that the attacker might have used “some next gen cookie copier” to gather login credentials. This would reportedly allow them to open Chrome with immediate access to all the victim’s accounts.

Recently, hackers used an exploit on older Windows machines to use them for cryptocurrency hacking.

Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter.

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