Gairika Mitra
A trader recently lost over $1 million in a single hour after purchasing a scam token endorsed by the hacked account of French football star Kylian Mbappé on Thursday.
The trader created a new digital wallet and spent 7,156 SOL (Solana), which is equivalent to approximately $1.03 million, to purchase a meme coin named $MBAPPE. The coin appeared to have been endorsed by Mbappé on social media. However, Mbappé’s account had been hacked, with the endorsement being part of a well-coordinated scam.
Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain broke the news on X. “Someone created a new wallet and spent 7,156 $SOL($1.03M) to buy a #MEMEcoin named $MBAPPE in a single transaction, which is now only worth $9.2K. This person lost more than $1M in just 1 hour,” it said.
The value of the $MBAPPE token plummeted to a mere $9,200 within an hour, leaving the trader with devastating losses. The crypto community questioned the token’s legitimacy, which caused a drastic drop in its value.
According to Mail Online, Mbappé’s account shared a series of posts which resembled a crypto scam, including several insults hurled towards Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Manchester United.
Related: How to Create a Safe, Low-Cost Home Crypto Mining Setup That Works
The publication added that Mbappe’s pinned tweet during the hack said, “I am giving back to my community. I am giving back to my community. I support Crypto and I believe you should too! All Crypto sent to my address will be sent back to you doubled!”
Plenty of citizens in countries like Australia have recently fallen prey to various investment scams. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) shared that Australians have lost a minimum of $180 million to cryptocurrency scams over the past year.
The AFP data further revealed that the most targeted individuals were under the age of 50, even more so than older Australians. Two of the most common scams that have affected Australians are pig butchering scams and deepfakes.
Related: Zama to Launch First-Ever Private Token Auction on Live Blockchain
These scams are not restricted to Australia alone. Recently, a former Heartland Tri-State Bank CEO became the target of a pig butchering scam. His involvement in the scam led him to be sentenced to more than 24 years in federal prison for stealing $47 million.
Some of the other notable cryptocurrency scams that reportedly happened over the past several years include Bitconnect, OneCoin, PlusToken, Mt. Gox, and Bitpetite.
Read More
- Former US Bank CEO Sentenced for $47M Crypto Scam
- Australians Lose $180 Million to Crypto Scams in a Year, Says Federal Police
- Mt. Gox Moves Over $700M in Bitcoin Amid Speculation Over Creditor Distribution
GAIRIKA
Gairika is a cryptocurrency journalist with a focus on Bitcoin and blockchain technology.
