"Mahathir's X Account Hijacked: $1.7M Meme Coin Scam"

Former Malaysian PM's X Account Hacked to Promote Scam Meme Coin

The official X account of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was hacked and used to promote a fake meme coin, according to reports. The hackers leveraged the hype surrounding US President Donald Trump's meme coin to carry out a wider rug pull.

This incident is part of a growing trend of meme coin scams that use political figures as a veneer. Last month, the former President of Brazil was targeted in a similar attack, which is believed to be linked to the infamous Russian hacking group Evil Corp.

In this latest scam, the hackers used Mahathir Mohamad's social media accounts to endorse a meme coin called "Malaysia." The fraudulent post claimed that the coin was the official cryptocurrency of Malaysia and marked a significant milestone in the country's digital economy.

The post was removed within an hour, but not before the hackers managed to steal $1.7 million in a rug pull. According to data from GeckoTerminal, the token's market cap jumped to $1.7 million in just 15 minutes after the fake tweet and quickly collapsed.

This scam is part of a broader trend of fake political meme coins. Since the TRUMP token was used to steal $857 million, it has been open season for scammers. A former Brazilian President was hacked to shill a fake token, and another claimed to represent the US Treasury. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has officially raised the alarm about this trend.

However, these scams are not limited to political topics. Crypto sleuth ZachXBT claimed that Coinbase users lost at least $150 million to scammers, and Scam Sniffer reported a 2000% increase in Telegram-based phishing attacks since November.

Analysts have speculated that the rise of meme coins has destroyed altcoin season by redirecting capital investment and community interest to this sector. If meme coins have this much power, fake tokens will continue to receive speculative investments.