The con artist launched a fake coin under the name of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The fake Saudi Arabian coin, dubbed the “official” Saudi Arabian Memo Coin (KSA), was announced on February 17th. The announcement comes from an X account named “saudilawconf.” The Saudi Arabian Law Conference, the actual owner of the account, later confirmed that the X account was hacked.
Scammers frequently use public figure identities to promote fraudulent crypto projects and abuse public trust in well-known individuals. Elon Musk and Donald Trump were previously targeted for similar scams.
While impersonating famous individuals, these coins tend to show big red flags that inexperienced investors may not notice. Fake Saudi memo coins showed multiple red flags. For one thing, the announcement lacked details regarding the intended use of Tokonaemics or Coin, and lacked official government statements in support of the project.
Another unclear red flag was that the token contract had been rolled out in the chain a week before its announcement. The release took place on February 10th through Solana-based Memecoin Platform Pump.fun. According to data from Pump.Fun, fraudulent tokens were unable to gain traction, reaching just $7,489.
