According to US prosecutors, a Nigerian citizen impersonated a member of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee to steal $250,000 in Ethereum-based USDT. During the 2024 holiday season, the scammer used a fake domain to trick a crypto donor into giving money. Federal investigators are now recovering part of the stolen funds.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the scammer posed as Steve Witkoff, co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, and sent a deceptive email on December 24, 2024. The sender used a lookalike domain “@t47lnaugural.com,” where the lowercase “l” replaced the legitimate “i,” making the domain appear nearly identical.
The victim transferred 250,300 USDT.ETH, a dollar-pegged stablecoin on Ethereum, to the scammer's wallet on December 26 because they thought the email was authentic.
The funds were swiftly transferred between different wallets, which made it hard to retrieve it back. The FBI was able to track the transactions using blockchain analytics and recovered 40,300 USDT.ETH. The money that was recovered is now going through civil forfeiture to pay back the donor who was affected.
Tether, the issuer of USDT, helped U.S. law enforcement freeze the stolen cryptocurrency. This intervention mirrors the company's previous work with the DOJ, Secret Service, and crypto exchange OKX to freeze $225 million USDT linked to a different fraud scheme. Tether's cooperation highlights the growing collaboration between blockchain firms and authorities.
The scam successfully bypassed standard checks by using Ethereum-based stablecoins and email domains. Saravanan Pandian, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange KoinBX, pointed out that exploiting real-world figures and political events for personal gain is becoming increasingly problematic. He said this incident serves as an example of bad actors misusing political credibility and the irreversible nature of crypto transactions.
Also Read: How to Recover Lost or Stolen Crypto After a Scam
Furthermore, security experts warn that emerging technologies like AI and deepfake tools will expand the speed and scope of future scams. Chengyi Ong, Head of APAC Policy at Chainalysis, stated that crypto scams are not exclusive to digital currencies. She emphasized that similar fraud could be executed using fiat currency via conventional apps or bank accounts.
Karan Pujara, founder of Scam Buzzer, added that phishing tactics remain the primary method used by scammers. He pointed out that people often blame blockchain, but the core issue is with old vulnerabilities like fake domains and communication channels that aren't verified. According to Pujara, scammers continue to exploit fear, urgency, and FOMO to manipulate victims, regardless of the technological layer involved.