In a recent scam reported, an impersonator stole $250,000 by changing a letter in the email. A Nigerian national reportedly impersonated Steve Witkoff, co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, to steal money from an unsuspecting victim. The impersonator used an email identical to that of the committee, but tweaked the email address, from the legitimate “@t47inaugural.com” with a lowercase ‘i,’ to a lowercase ‘l’– “@t47lnaugural.com,” which showed less to no difference based on the font, to con the victim.
The Witkoff impersonator requested the donor to deposit cryptocurrency into a wallet ending with 58c52. Believing that the funds were going to the committee’s wallet, the donor sent 250,300 USDT.ETH. However, within a couple of hours of receiving the funds from the 58c52, the scammer transferred the funds to other cryptocurrency wallet addresses.
Nonetheless, with the help of blockchain analysis, the FBI identified and recovered 40,300 USDT.ETH, which is the property subject to forfeiture in this civil action.
Warning the donors, the U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro stated, “All donors should double and triple-check that they are sending cryptocurrency to their intended recipient. It can be extremely difficult for law enforcement to recoup lost funds due to the extremely complex nature of the blockchain.”
