Following the Trail of a Fake WIRED Memecoin

Joel Khalili is a journalist who covers cryptocurrency at WIRED. When his X account was hacked, and the scammers used his profile to pump a fake WIRED memecoin, he turned to the forensic investigation team at Hudson Intelligence to help find out what on earth had just happened.

He writes:

Somebody had gained access to my X account and used it to promote a fraudulent WIRED-branded crypto coin. As people purchased the coin and the price began to rise, the scammer sold their stash, wiping out investors…

Commonly described as either rug pulls or pump-and-dumps, crypto investment scams of this sort take place all the time. I just never imagined that I might become ensnared in one myself.

Read the full article here: “My X Account Was Hijacked to Sell a Fake WIRED Memecoin. Then Came the Backlash.”


John Powers, CFE, CTCE is president of Hudson Intelligence, an investigation agency specializing in complex fraud investigations, cryptocurrency forensics and international asset tracing.


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