Crypto Con Artists Swipe $250K in Brazen Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee Impersonation Scam

Criminals just pulled off a quarter-million-dollar crypto heist—with political theater as their cover. Here's how they did it.

The Grift:

Posing as organizers of the Trump-Vance 2025 inaugural fund, scammers duped victims into sending $250,000 in digital assets. No fancy tech required—just old-school social engineering with a Web3 twist.

Why It Worked:

• Exploited hype around political fundraising cycles
• Leveraged trust in institutional branding
• Capitalized on crypto's irreversible transaction nature

The Punchline:

While Washington debates crypto regulation, the market's already perfected its own oversight—by making fraud so effortless that even political operatives are getting outscammed. Maybe they should've HODL'd those donor lists tighter.

Scammer Conned Victim Using Faint Address Typo

The scammer sent an email to the victim last December, posing as Steve Witkoff, co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.

The mail address used by the scammer had a lowercase ‘L’ instead of a lowercase ‘I’ in the mail @t47lnaugural.com. The campaign’s real email address is @t47inaugural.com. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia noted that the fake address appeared nearly identical to the original, given the font used by the perpetrator.

The Nigerian scammer then instructed the victim to deposit funds into a crypto wallet ending in 58c52. On December 26, 2024, the victim sent crypto to the wallet, believing that it belonged to the Inaugural Committee. Per the FBI, $250,300 worth of USDT.ETH was moved from the wallet to another crypto address within two hours.

“Impersonation scams take many forms and cost Americans billions in losses each year,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen. “To avoid becoming a victim, carefully review email addresses, website URLs, and spelling in any messages you receive.”

Attorney Pirro warned donors to “double and triple check” whether they are sending crypto 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.”