Scammers today impersonated a Hong Kong Official on X (formerly Twitter) and pumped and drained a phony meme coin, which they marketed as an "official" Hong Kong coin called "KONG."
A report on X, posing as the Chief Executive John Lee, claimed that the "National Hong Kong Coin" The token was to debut on Solana. Now-deleted posts said that the alleged Hong Kong coin marked "a new era in digital innovation and economic growth," You would be able to "transform the future of finance."
Lee posted a warning on Facebook. "deliberately fraudulent"—and vowed those initiating him would be "severely reprimanded."
Some traders of meme coins, though, did not seem to heed these warnings. Data from Dexscreener shows that the token went live in Hong Kong in early afternoon, and within minutes reached its peak market capitalization of over $320,000. The price of the KONG token then collapsed by 96% seconds later as the token's deployer cashed out, selling roughly $24,000 worth of the token in a single clip.
"The incident has been referred to the police for follow-up investigation. I advise the public to be careful to seek proof, verify authenticity, and guard against being deceived," Lee wrote in a Facebook post.
It is alarming that the bogus Hong Kong CEO X had over 40,000 followers, and a gray tick mark, which indicates it belongs to a confirmed government official.
The latest scam to target world leaders and try to trick crypto enthusiasts into buying fake meme coins.
Last month, fraudulent individuals impersonating Mohammed Bin Salman were reported to the authorities. "Official Saudi Arabia Memecoin."
It was after a hacking of a Saudi Law Conference’s account, which had been edited to appear as if it came from the crown prince.
Another incident in February saw a scammer pretend to be Bermuda's premier David Burt, with an X post unveiling the "Bermuda National Coin."
It was a fake account, with four-times as many subscribers as the original Burt. It had the same gray checkmark as the phony Hong Kong Chief Executive account.
Some of these statements have even been true.
The President of Central African Republic used X in recent days to launch $CAR, a meme coin. He described it as a "experiment" The aim of the project is to help the national development as well as put the country at the forefront in international competition.
Argentina's president, Javier Milei, is currently facing an investigation after he posted about the Libra meme coin on X, only to delete it hours later.
Stacy Elliott edited this article.
