ZachXBT Uncovers Coordinated Network Exploiting Political Fear to Fuel Cryptocurrency Scams

Crypto scammers are discovering new ways to lure victims, engagement-baiting on the back of negative trendy content.

In his latest thread on X, well-known and reputable on-chain investigator ZachXBT uncovers a coordinated network of more than 10 accounts that have been manufacturing “viral panic about war and politics to drive traffic to crypto scams.”

The ongoing war in the Middle East has undoubtedly been the hottest topic on social media since it started, and it appears that some have been misplacing that attention to scam people out of their money.

The Strategy

ZachXBT explains that the strategy follows a process of a few steps. First, the perpetrators would purchase accounts with followers and start “doomposting” multiple times per day. Doomposting refers to the act of tweeting about highly negative events, which tend to trigger people and squeeze engagement. They would then repost that content from alternative accounts and promote a fake giveaway or a straightforward scam. After that, they would proceed to change their username.

https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/2035989255395082589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank

Engagement Baiting Large Accounts

One reason the schemes work is social engineering. Users tend to engage with negative content more than positive content. ZachXBT points out that a range of large accounts have engaged with the posts in the comments section, taking the bait and thus boosting the posts’ reach unknowingly.

He also pointed out that ten accounts in his monitored cluster promoted pump and dump crypto scams, concluding:

On-chain evidence suggests the scheme profited six figures.

But the alarm rests in Zach’s conclusion:

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It’s scary to think about the implications of it if a nation state actor operated the same scheme rather than a meme coin scammer given how easy it is to operate. I believe platform manipulation should result in bans and face legal consequences given the propaganda has many X users currently falling for fake news every day.