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However, according to official records, the scammer impersonated Steve Witkoff, co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, by using a fake email address designed to look nearly identical to the real one.<\/p>\n
The forged address replaced the letter \u201cI\u201d in \u201ct47inaugural.com\u201d with a lowercase \u201cL,\u201d fooling a donor into believing they were communicating with the legitimate committee.<\/p>\n
The donor, believing the communication to be authentic, transferred approximately 250,300 USDT (a cryptocurrency equivalent to about $250,300 at the time) to a wallet controlled by the scammer.<\/p>\n
The scheme is a textbook example of business email compromise, a cybercrime tactic that has cost billions globally. The fraud was only discovered after the real committee became aware of the unauthorized transaction.<\/p>\n
Contrary to viral reports, neither Donald Trump nor his campaign directly transferred or lost any funds in the scam. Legal documents show that the victim was an unnamed donor who had intended to contribute to Trump\u2019s 2025 inauguration. The scammer used the name and branding of the Trump-Vance committee solely to deceive the donor.<\/p>\n
U.S. authorities, including the FBI and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, have confirmed that they have identified the wallet linked to Aigbokhan and are actively pursuing asset recovery and legal action. Of the stolen amount, about $40,300 has already been recovered and is now subject to civil forfeiture proceedings in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Justice has clarified that the ongoing investigation is focused on tracing the source of the funds and bringing the perpetrator to justice. There is no indication that Trump was ever in direct communication with the scammer or involved in the transaction.<\/p>\n
The claim that a Nigerian Yahoo boy scammed Donald Trump is therefore inaccurate and misleading. The fraud targeted a donor, not the former president, and misrepresented the Trump-Vance campaign to carry out the crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reports circulating on social media alleging that a Nigerian internet fraudster scammed former United States President Donald Trump of $250,000 linked to his 2025 inauguration have been found to be misleading. Verified information from court filings and the U.S. Department of Justice reveals that the money was not sent by Trump himself but by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[235,2818,87882,10297],"class_list":["post-360248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","tag-donald-trump","tag-fbi","tag-lagos-yahoo-boy","tag-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"\n