In theory, the more prominent the X account, the greater the potential return on the pump-and-dump, because many more people are likely to buy into the coin the scammer promotes. In my case, the scammer minted the WIRED-branded coin using Pump.Fun, by far the largest launchpad platform. And when [bad actors] combine a pump-and-dump with the hack of an X account, it’s potentially lucrative for them if executed correctly,” says Larratt. I realized that my X account had been taken over on February 17, the day before the fraudulent WIRED coin was released. An analysis of transaction data shows that the person or group who hacked my X account created the WIRED token at 1:20 am UTC that morning.