Impersonators have swooped in on a soon-to-be-announced cryptocurrency venture linked to presidential candidate Donald Trump and his family, exploiting loopholes in the project’s information to promote phony crypto tokens.
Led by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s sons, the Trumps have launched a social media campaign to promote the upcoming venture — called World Liberty Financial. For the better part of a month, the family has teased the launch in cryptic posts that provide few details.
IN Posts X On August 6, Eric wrote that he had “really fallen in love with cryptocurrencies.” The next day, in next postDonald Jr. said he would “shake up the cryptocurrency world” and warned his followers not to “get left behind.” On August 22, fasting in Truth Social, the former president himself promoted the endeavor: “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by big banks and financial elites. It’s time for us to take a stand — together,” Trump wrote.
However, the family has not yet provided first-hand details about the purpose or functionality of World Liberty Financial. And third-party operators are taking advantage of the information vacuum.
In delayed August, an ad appeared at the bottom of the project’s Telegram channel that the Trump family described as “THE ONE [sic] place to get official news” — promoting a bogus crypto-token giveaway. The ad, which is still busy at the time of writing, leads to an external website with an illustration of Donald Trump unbuttoning his shirt to reveal a Superman-style suit underneath with a “T” logo. Visitors were promised up to $15,000 in crypto-tokens and invited to “connect your wallet now [sic] and make the world great again.”
On Aug. 29, a post on the Telegram channel for World Liberty Financial warned subscribers — who now number more than 200,000 — about the ad. “We have been made aware of ads circulating on Telegram claiming to be from us, offering fake airdrops or token sales,” the post reads. “We are NOT conducting any airdrops or selling any tokens at this time.” However, a week later, the ad is still up, and as many as 50,000 people have subscribed to a competing Telegram channel associated with it. It’s unclear how much money, if any, was taken.
Eric Trump did not respond to questions about the inability to prevent inauthentic ads from appearing on the World Liberty Financial Telegram channel. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.
On September 3, the X accounts belonging to Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, and Tiffany Trump, the former president’s daughter, were allegedly breached and used by hackers to sell another crypto token allegedly linked to World Liberty Financial. The posts have since been deleted, but screenshots indicate that at least 200,000 people watched it. Data from DEXTools token analysis platform suggests that around 2,000 people collectively purchased $1.8 million worth of phony tokens.