It was passed through Trump’s team, he stole USDT 250,000 and the FBI confiscated him

A sophisticated scam of the impersonation of identity resulted in the theft of more than $ 250,000 in cryptocurrencies and the FBI tracking, after a hoax in which the person responsible passed through the team of the Trump-Vance inaugural committee.

According to the civil complaint communicated by the federal prosecutor Jeanine Ferris Pirro today, a scammer sent emails posing as Steve Witkoff, co -president of the inaugural committee, agency in charge of the events of the beginning of President Donald Trump’s mandate and vice president JD Vance.

In messages, The subject I requested a donation in cryptoactive through the stablecoin tether (USDT) to a fraudulent wallet. The deception was possible thanks to a slight alteration in the mail address of the committee.

Instead of the legitimate domain «@t47inaugural.com», the scammer used «@t47lnaugural.com», replacing the letter «i» with a capital “l», a difference almost imperceptible to the naked eye, especially depending on the type of source.

On December 26, 2024, two days after receiving fraudulent mail, A victim transferred USDT 250,300 to the proportionate walletbelieving that he sent the funds to the inaugural committee. Less than two hours later, the money was transferred to other wallets in a wash maneuver aimed at complicating its tracking.

However, The FBI managed to track part of the money movement and recovered 40,300 USDTwho were confiscated to be returned to the victim. The authorities identified the imposor as a person based in Nigeria.

The investigation was in charge of the criminal and cyber division of the FBI office in Washington, with the support of the Department of Justice and the collaboration of Tether, the stablecoin station involved in the scam.

Prosecutor Pirro warned about the complexity of these crimes in the field of cryptocurrencies and recommended donors carefully verify the identity of the recipients before making any transfer.

“The nature of the blockchain makes it very difficult to recover stolen assets, but we work tirelessly to face criminals and protect the victims,” ​​he said.

From the FBI they pointed out that the scams due to impersonation of identity cause millionaire losses every year. The investigation, which is still open, is in charge of the auxiliary prosecutor Rick Blaylock, Jr., who continues to work to track the whereabouts of the rest of the stolen funds.

“The identity supplant scams adopt various forms and cost the Americans billions of dollars in losses every year … to avoid being a victim, carefully check the email addresses, the URLs of the websites and the spelling of the messages you receive. Scammers usually use subtle differences to deceive and gain their trust. Never send money, gift cards, cryptocurrencies or other assets to people who do not know personally or with whom you have only interacted online or by phone »

Steven J. Jensen, from the FBI local office in Washington.

From cryptootics we elaborate a guide to help users to prevent scams linked to cryptoactive, especially those based on identity impersonation, such as that occurred in this case.