Scams involving memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe Coin cost cryptocurrency investors more than $500 million in 2024, according to a new report from crypto intelligence firm Merkle Science.
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The most prolific scams involved social engineering, which is a technique that relies on impersonation and manipulation to gain access to someone’s personal data. One such incident involved scammers using a fake social media account of French soccer star Kylian Mbappe who was allegedly promoting several memecoins.
The fake social media account convinced people to invest money in what they thought were memecoins, when they were in fact accounts and crypto wallets belonging to scammers. There was a similar case involving music artist Wiz Khalifa that targeted his 35 million social media followers. A fake WIZ token was promoted, rising to a $3.4 million market capitalization before being rug pulled and plummeting to zero.
Targeting Investors on Social Media
Merkle Science said in its report that, “Hackers are no longer just breaching wallets or exchanges; they’re hijacking the credibility of celebrities and industry leaders to manipulate markets in real time.” Merkle’s report notes that 75% of all attacks took place on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and 19% on YouTube.
The two main types of scams targeting crypto investors involved rug pulls and phishing attacks, according to Merkle Science. Popular memecoins promoted by the criminals include DOGE and SHIB, among others. Those memecoins, and others, have seen their prices rise sharply over the past year amid an ongoing rally in cryptocurrencies.
Is DOGE a Buy?
Most analysts don’t offer price targets on ratings on Dogecoin, so we’ll look instead at the cryptocurrency’s three-month performance. As one can see in the chart below, the price of DOGE has declined 34% over the past 12 weeks. However, the price is up 206% over the last 12 months.
