Public Figures “Hacked” – Kanye West Tells All

Weekly Crypto Scam Roundup

I’ve decided to start a weekly crypto scam roundup to cover some of the most notable scams of the week. Maybe we can all learn a few things from how these scammers operate. Here’s the very first edition of the weekly crypto scam roundup!

Public Figure Crypto Scams on the Rise

Recently, scammers have discovered new tricks for their pump-and-dump schemes on the Solana blockchain. It’s no surprise, but people keep falling for them. I suspect that a few coins released by certain notable figures were not outright hacks but rather situations where the individuals managed to bargain with the hackers to control the narrative. Think about it, if certain political figures admitted their accounts had been hacked, it wouldn’t look great for national security, would it? I won’t name names because I’m not trying to put a target on my back, but if you think hard enough, it will be obvious who I’m talking about.

$Kenyan Coin Scam

This week, we’ve seen a surge in hacks and impersonations. One notable scam involved fake X accounts impersonating the President of the Republic of Kenya. I’m not even sure how this scam surfaced, but I saw a fake X account announcing that Kenya would launch its own cryptocurrency and telling people to stay tuned. I sat on the edge of my seat, watching this “exciting opportunity” unfold. It happened around 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The scammer repeatedly posted updates about a supposed delay in the launch. Unsurprisingly, he disabled comments on his posts to prevent people from calling out the scam.

Eventually, he posted a contract address for a token called $Kenyan. The contract popped up on Pump.fun, and the coin bonded almost instantly. It happened so fast that I doubt many people even had the chance to buy in before bonding. The moment it bonded and liquidity transferred to Raydium, a massive red candle appeared. The scammer must have dumped the coin for peanuts—he didn’t even give it a chance to gain traction. It was an embarrassing excuse for a scam. Shortly after, he rebranded his X account to impersonate another country, I believe “Malta.” In this case, it wasn’t a hack but an impersonation. There is still $6,500 locked in the liquidity pool of that contract.

Screenshot of the $Kenyan token scam showing its launch, bonding process, and rapid rug pull on Pump.fun and Raydium. — The $Kenyan crypto scam impersonated the Kenyan government, quickly bonding before an immediate rug pull.

Jair Bolsonaro Hack

This incident followed the recent Jair Bolsonaro X hack in January.

Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, had his account hacked to promote a Pump.fun scam token called $Brazil. It appears that the token was later taken over by a so-called “community takeover” (CTO). The CTO claimed they had been rug-pulled by the scammers who hacked Bolsonaro’s X account and that they were now the official community for $Brazil.

Kanye West warns about Crypto Scams

There were rumors circulating in various crypto communities that Kanye West would be launching a cryptocurrency soon. Suddenly, Pump.fun was flooded with Ye coins and countless variations. Everyone was hitting the refresh button on Kanye’s X account hoping to buy in early. Soon after, most of the top-trending tokens on DexScreener were Kanye West-related. This continued throughout the night until Mr. West finally addressed it.

He posted on X, stating that he was not launching a cryptocurrency. As time went on, he made another post—one that was extremely eye-opening. He exposed the tactics of crypto scammers with the following message:

“X Promotional Contract
$750K paid upfront to you
$1.25M paid to you 16 hours after your post on X
Your post must stay up for 8 hours
It is promotion of a fake Ye currency
After the 8 hours, you may post ‘my account was hacked, the post was not me’
The company asking you to do this will be scamming the public out of tens of millions of dollars.”

Screenshot of Kanye West’s tweet exposing a crypto scam payment offer, detailing how scammers pay public figures to falsely promote tokens. — Kanye West reveals how scammers offer large payouts to celebrities for “hacks”.

This message clearly shows how famous people are being paid off to have their accounts “hacked” for large sums of money. Now, how many public figures do you think have done this deliberately, only to play the victim later?

At this rate, I believe that in the future, most prominent figures will be ignored if they attempt to release any cryptocurrency. It has been scam after scam. The lesson here? You can’t trust anyone when it comes to crypto, especially political figures and celebrities.

S Taylor is a professional crypto trader with five years of experience, having navigated a wide range of market dynamics and witnessed numerous scams firsthand. As a former victim of scams, S Taylor turned their focus to blockchain forensics and Solidity Smart Contract development, gaining deep technical expertise in the field. With a unique insider’s perspective, they’ve been involved in various crypto projects, where they’ve seen how developers can exploit vulnerable investors.

S Taylor is also the published author of Meme Coins Made Easy, a comprehensive guide that teaches beginners about cryptocurrency and how to identify and avoid common scams. S Taylor is dedicated to sharing valuable insights and helping the crypto community stay informed and safe.