"Malaysia Meme Coin Theft: $1.7M Stolen in Political Crypto Scam Surge"

Fraudulent MALAYSIA Meme Coin Theft Highlights Growing Risks in Political Crypto Scams

The crypto space is witnessing a surge in social media scams, with a particularly egregious example involving the hacking of a former Malaysian prime minister's social media account to promote a fake meme coin. The incident, which occurred recently, highlights the growing risks associated with political crypto scams.

The former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's X account was hacked to promote a fake meme coin, leveraging the hype around US President Donald Trump's meme coin for wider rug pulls. This incident is one of several meme coin scams using a political veneer, with the former President of Brazil also targeted in a similar attack last month.

In the Malaysian case, the hackers used Mahathir Mohamad's social media accounts to endorse a meme coin called MALAYSIA, claiming that it was the country's official cryptocurrency. The fraudulent social media post was removed within an hour, but the damage was done. Analysis shows that these hackers were probably related to the infamous Evil Corp, and that they managed to steal $1.7 million in this rug pull.

According to data from GeckoTreminal, the token's market cap jumped to $1.7 million in just 15 minutes after the fake tweet and quickly collapsed. The hackers were able to liquidate this amount in less than an hour.

The MALAYSIA scam is just one component of a rising trend of fake political meme coins. Since scammers used the TRUMP token to steal $857 million, it's been open season. A former Brazilian President was hacked to shill one fake token, and another claimed to represent the US Treasury. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin officially raised the alarm about this trend.

However, these scams aren't just 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.

Ultimately, it doesn't look like these scams are going anywhere anytime soon. Analysts have speculated that the rise of meme coins has destroyed altcoin season by redirecting capital investment and community interest to