Crypto influencers allegedly weaponize conspiracies to fleece QAnon followers

cointelegraph.com:

Two QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theorist influencers allegedly caused their followers millions of dollars in losses by running a cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme.

The pair reportedly persuaded their thousands of followers to invest in a portfolio of cryptos, presenting a misleading mix of conspiratorial and genuine content along with claims about institutions backing the tokens to generate hype and raise the price of the portfolio.

The allegations are included in an investigation by Logically, a group of data scientists and developers. It reported the two influencers running the Telegram channels “WhipLash347” and the “Quantum Stellar Initiative” (QSI) coordinated to promote lists of Stellar (XLM) altcoins which have been marked as fraudulent by the Stellar network.

WhipLash347 is a Telegram group with 277,000 followers and QSI has 35,000. They reportedly told their followers the cryptocurrencies would succeed based on their insider knowledge, claiming they had access to secret military intelligence.

The publication said the two mixed conspiratorial content and misinformation to target those distrusting of mainstream financial and media institutions to give authenticity to the cryptocurrencies they promoted. The losses are believed to be in the millions, and Logically claimed one man committed suicide after losing $100,000 in the scheme.

A user known as PatriotQakes, leads the QSI main channel, which has multiple regional affiliates. The ownership of the WhipLash347 account is believed to have changed hands more recently due to changed behavior.

Rocky Morningside, a former admin of the QSI group told Logically he believes that “without doubt that WhipLash347, PatriotQakes, and QSI are scam artists,” who were promoting “pump