Scammers Abuse Open-Source AI Developers

The excitement surrounding open-source artificial intelligence (AI) is at a fever pitch, but alongside the increased attention, malicious actors are finding efficient avenues to create scams.

Miniperplx AI, or MPLX, is one of the more drastic examples of this scamming technique. The token launched on PumpFun and surged by over 6000x from its launch price to a $25 million market capitalization in just 15 minutes before plummeting more than 99%.

The token launched with a social media page crediting the original developer, Zaid Mukaddam, and reached out to him via X to 'communicate more about the project.'

The excitement surrounding the project grew quickly, given Miniperplx’s 2,000 stars earned on Github and Mukaddam’s interactions with the X account.

Due to his interactions with the MPLX social media page, traders were quick to speculate and bet on the idea of Zaid spearheading or endorsing the token launch, which sent it parabolic.

Mukaddam says he shared a screenshot of the 3rd party social media page to “get to know who the person behind it was,” but after the page launched and promoted a token, he asked for the account to be closed.

Despite his efforts to spread awareness, the token had already plummeted by 97%. The group running the scam token had cashed out, leaving traders in the dust and Mukaddam with a reputational disaster.

On Jan. 7, Mukaddam released a post-mortem and said, “MiniPerplx AI is my product, but a scammer created a token called $MPLX and used it to rug pull a lot of people….Now, I’m facing a lot of hate and racist comments on social media. I’m feeling incredibly stressed, burned out, and unable to focus on anything, including my studies. It’s gotten so overwhelming that I feel like giving up on everything and never building another product again.”

Mukaddam did not respond to The Defiant’s request for comment.