MP Lucy Powell's X Account Hacked to Peddle Scam Crypto: House of Commons Coin

Crypto Scammers Strike Again, Using UK Politician's Social Media to Shill Bogus Token

In a brazen move, cryptocurrency scammers hijacked the X account of UK member of parliament Lucy Powell, using her clout to hype up a scam token and dump it on unsuspecting traders. Talk about audacity!

On April 15, Powell, who's the big boss of the House of Commons, seemed to be all in for a Solana-based cryptocurrency called the House of Commons Coin, shouting it out through her verified X account. The posts were all about HOC being "a community-driven digital currency," urging followers to jump on the bandwagon and buy in.

🚨 NEW: Leader of the House of Commons, Labour MP Lucy Powell, has been hacked pic.twitter.com/YRRdSKrlZT

But wait, a staff member from Powell’s team spilled the beans to the BBC: Powell's account had been hijacked! They were quick on their feet, locking down the account and zapping those misleading posts.

Despite the scammers' best efforts to stir up hype, the HOC token was a total dud compared to other similar stunts. Bummer for the scammers, right?

According to the data wizards at DEX Screener, HOC hit a measly peak market cap of just over $24,000 and only managed 736 transactions with around $71,000 in total trading volume. As of now, it's clinging to life with a market cap of about $3,800. Talk about a flop!

Now, Powell isn't exactly a crypto enthusiast, but she's not alone in this crypto mess. A bunch of political figures have been dragged into the token world, some willingly, others kicking and screaming through hacks.

Take last month, for example. Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama had his X account hijacked for two whole days to shill a scam called Solanafrica. And back in January, Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs got locked out of their X account after it looked like they were promoting "CUBA," which briefly soared to a $30 million market cap before nosediving.

Last year, American entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramasawamy got hit with a similar scam. Bad actors used his X account to push a fake announcement about a partnership between the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency and a stablecoin called USUAL. Crazy, right?

But wait, there's more! In Argentina, President Javier Melei stirred up a storm with a token called LIBRA. He gave it a shout-out on X on Feb. 14, sending the token skyrocketing over 3,000%. But just hours later, it crashed by 90% after Melei deleted the post and claimed he was clueless about the project.

And if you thought that was wild, hold onto your hats. Investigations pointed to a group of insiders, including Kelsier Ventures, who might have rigged the launch by controlling token access and liquidity. These insiders allegedly made off with over $110 million. Now that's some serious crypto drama!