The social media account of British Member of Parliament Lucy Powell was hacked yesterday used to falsely promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency called the "House of Commons Coin" (HCC).

A spokesperson for Lucy Powell, who has served as the Leader of the House of Commons since July, has confirmed that they have regained control of their social media account and has removed all the misleading posts.

The verified X account, which had nearly 70,000 followers, suddenly posted a promotion of the coin that seemingly was related to the lower house of the British parliament, hoping that investors would be fooled to think that it was a legit coin launched by the country leaders.

Quick Scam, Earning Small Profits

According to digital asset management firm CoinShares, the attackers executed approximately 34 transactions shortly after the account was compromised, pocketing an estimated US$260 (RM1,150). While the financial gain was modest, analysts say the hack drew significant attention to the scam token.

“It seems that the media coverage has allowed this cryptocurrency to gain a little more traction,” said Benoit Pellevoizin of CoinShares. He added that the total transaction volume of the coin rose sharply from US$7,000 to US$55,000 within hours.

This incident is part of a growing trend where scammers hijack high-profile social media accounts to push fraudulent crypto tokens. Just this week Guns N' Roses guitarist Slahs's social media account was hacked to promote the fraudulent $Gun token.

Last month, the X account of Ghanaian President John Mahama was compromised for 48 hours. During that period, it was used to promote “Solana Africa,” another fraudulent cryptocurrency that falsely claimed presidential endorsement.

The danger of these scams is amplified by real-world endorsements of crypto projects by political figures. Both former U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei have publicly supported cryptocurrency initiatives through their X accounts, which have also resulted in multi-billion losses for investors.