Scammers impersonating Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hyped a fake cryptocurrency, preying on retail investors excited about political and celebrity-endorsed tokens.
The fake “Official” Saudi Arabia memecoin (KSA) was launched on Feb. 17 via a compromised X account, “SaudiLawConf.” Saudi officials afterward verified the account had been hacked and wasn’t owned by the crown prince.
How the Scam Went Down
The KSA token scam had no governmental approval or tokenomics information, which immediately raised red flags.
Not long after the coin was announced, the Saudi Law Conference, the original owner of the hacked X account, confirmed the compromise. In a Feb. 17 LinkedIn post, they stated:
“The conference management declares that the official conference account on the X platform (@Saudilawconf) has been hacked and that whatever is being posted now via the account does not represent our views or official orientations at all.”
The scam as there is heightened focus on memecoins linked to political figures, following Argentina’s Javier Milei-backed Libra (LIBRA) token collapse.
Memecoins Linked To Public Figures Face Investor Backlash
Memecoins linked to political figures have always ended up causing enormous losses to investors. KSA’s token contract was listed on Solana-based Pump.fun on Feb. 10—days before the fake announcement. Despite that, it had very little interest, with only $7,489 in market capitalization.
Similarly, other politically linked memecoins have seen their prices crash dramatically. The Trump (TRUMP) and Melania (MELANIA) tokens, launched in January, are down 76% and 90%, respectively. The Javier Milei-backed Libra coin also fell apart by 92% after insider wallets withdrew $107 million in liquidity.
How to Avoid Memecoin Scams
Blockchain advisor and author Anndy Lian advises investors to conduct thorough due diligence before buying politically linked memecoins. He told Cointelegraph:
“Don’t just throw your money blindly at something because it’s got a cool name or claims to be ‘official.’ Look into who’s actually running the project. If the team is all anonymous or you can’t find any concrete information on them, that’s a red flag.”
“Transparency is everything; if they won’t show their faces, they might just be out to grab your money,” he added.
With political and celebrity memecoins still trending, investors should be cautious not to fall victim to scam projects.
