On-chain investigator ZachXBT says a coordinated group of 11 X accounts used fake geopolitical panic tied to the Iran conflict to drive engagement into crypto scams and pump-and-dump activity. According to his findings, on-chain evidence shows the scheme produced six-figure profits.
A repeatable playbook built on fear posts
ZachXBT described the operation as a structured five-part system. The actors first bought accounts that already had followers, then flooded timelines with alarming war and political posts. They boosted each other through cross-reposts to manufacture reach, inserted fake giveaways and token promotions once the audience was in place, and kept changing usernames to reduce the chance of being flagged.
One of the main accounts, @wanglaurentceo, operated under the identity “Wang Laurent,” built an audience of 79.9K followers, and went through 17 username changes. ZachXBT said the persona was AI-generated and modeled as a fake Asian version of Mario Nawfal, with the profile image allegedly created by running Nawfal’s photo through an image-generation tool.
False claims still reached millions of users
The network’s content relied on panic and urgency. One post claimed Iran had threatened to cut undersea cables carrying 95% to 99% of global internet traffic. Even after X Community Notes marked the claim as inaccurate, the post still collected 26,000 reposts, 50,000 likes, and 1.8 million views.
Some large legitimate accounts interacted with the content without realizing what they were boosting. That gave the posts wider distribution and helped the network present its claims as credible enough to attract more attention.
Synchronized promotion of a Solana meme coin
ZachXBT said that on February 22, 2026, 10 accounts in the network simultaneously promoted $ORAMAMA, a meme coin launched on Solana through PumpSwap. Each account mentioned the token once and then never brought it up again. In his view, the pattern matched a short-lived promotion cycle, and the linked on-chain activity confirmed six-figure gains.
All 11 accounts blocked him at the same time
After ZachXBT published his thread, all 11 accounts blocked him simultaneously. He said that behavior looked “almost as if they’re operated by one person.” He also warned that the bigger issue goes beyond a meme coin scam: the same low-cost method could be used for more serious influence operations.
ZachXBT called for platform bans and legal consequences for this kind of manipulation. He also urged users to review an account’s history and recent posts before trusting or engaging with social media content. He added that Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, is aware of the accounts.