News24

News24 is a major Indian news channel headquartered in India. It maintains a presence on social media platforms, including Twitter, where it shares news updates with its audience. The organization’s Twitter account reportedly had approximately 1.4 million subscribers at the time of the reported incident. As a news outlet, it disseminates information to a broad Indian audience.

On March 20, 2023, the News24 Twitter account was compromised by hackers who promoted a fraudulent XRP cryptocurrency airdrop. The attackers used phishing links and imagery of Ripple’s CEO to deceive followers into believing they could receive free tokens. The false posts claimed token distributions and targeted the account’s large follower base. The breach mirrored prior incidents involving high-profile Indian entities such as the Prime Minister’s account and national organizations, which had previously spread similar crypto scams with fabricated endorsements. The fraudulent posts included links designed to steal funds from unsuspecting users who clicked on them. While the full impact of the breach remains unclear, such schemes typically aim to steal funds through malicious links, and some fraudulent content persisted on the account at the time of reporting.