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AFP
10-07-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Posts claiming Nigerian ‘Yahoo boy' scammed Trump out of $250k are misleading
'A yahoo boy scammed a whole Donald Trump, the President of US 250,000 dollars. Some of you are really audacious', reads an X post published on July 4, 2025. 'Yahoo' is Nigerian slang for internet fraud. Image Screenshot of the misleading post, taken July 8, 2025 Shared more than 3,000 times, the post was published by an account called 'Shola', a self-proclaimed life coach with over 373,000 followers. Comments under the post suggest that some readers believe it is genuine. 'If these guys get the chance, they'll scam God,' one commenter wrote. 'Scammed a whole Donald Trump? Bro playing fraud on Hall of Fame difficulty,' added another user. The claim was also shared elsewhere on X (here and here) and on Facebook in English (here) and French (here). Nigerian internet fraud The Economic and Financial Crime Commission reported in May that cybercrime, advance fee fraud and money laundering accounted for the highest number of offences out of the record-breaking 4,111 total convictions by the agency in 2024 — in a country where 70% of the population is under the age of 30 (archived here and here). Several high-profile cyber-fraud cases have been linked to Nigerians outside the country. Nigerian Instagram influencer Ramon Olorunwa Abbas was handed an 11-year jail term in the United States in 2022 after being found guilty of conspiring 'to launder tens of millions of dollars through a series of online scams' (archived here). Abidemi Rufai, a politician and aide to the Ogun state governor in southwest Nigeria, was also convicted in the US for a similar crime in 2022 (archived here). He was sacked after his crime came to light. However, the claim that a Nigerian 'Yahoo boy' scammed Trump is misleading. Misleading claim Official records from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) confirm that there was a $250,300 cryptocurrency scam, but Donald Trump was not the direct victim (archived here). The funds were actually fraudulently diverted from a donor intending to support the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, after scammers impersonated Steve Witkoff, the committee's co-chair and finance director. Prosecutors filed a complaint in a federal court that fraudsters sent emails from a domain posing as the official inaugural account. The scammers used the address@ with a lowercase 'L' replacing the 'i' in the legitimate @ to solicit over $250,000 in cryptocurrency (archived here). The victim transferred the funds, which were quickly moved across multiple cryptocurrency wallets, including a Nigeria-based Binance account linked to the name Ehiremen Aigbokhan. 'It appeared likely that Aigbokhan received an international transfer of funds from the U.S. to Nigeria as a result of his fraudulent activity,' prosecutors said in the document. The suspect allegedly used several crypto wallets and exchanges to launder the money. The FBI seized a total of 40,353 that the federal agency said was connected to the fraud, with about half taken from Aigbokhan's accounts. Digital forensics linked him to the Binance account that received part of the stolen funds. The FBI is now seeking Aigbokhan's arrest. International media, including The Independent UK and American magazine Fortune, reported on the case (archived here and here). The story was covered by multiple Nigerian newspapers, some of whose headlines may have created confusion. One titled its article "How Lagos Yahoo Boy duped U.S. President Donald Trump of 2025 inauguration funds" while another used the headline "FBI pursues Lagos Yahoo Boy for defrauding U.S. President Donald Trump of 2025 inauguration funds" before going on to explain in the text that a donor was scammed.
Time of India
05-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Hacker may have used 'fake' Donald Trump inauguration emails to steal $250,000 from crypto investor
Representative Image A hacker allegedly used "fake" Donald Trump inauguration emails to steal over $250,000 in cryptocurrency from a crypto investor, federal officials have claimed. The scam involved an online fraudster posing as part of the US President's 2025 inaugural committee. In a complaint filed in a federal court in December 2024, prosecutors alleged that scammers sent emails "purporting to be Steve Witkoff," who was then the co-chair of the committee. These emails were used to steal over $250,000 worth of cryptocurrency. According to court documents, the victim paid the funds, and the cryptocurrency was soon distributed across "numerous other cryptocurrency addresses," including a Binance account based in Nigeria linked to the name Ehiremen Aigbokhan . US Attorney's advice on how crypto investors can avoid such scams In a statement, Washington US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said: '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.' Companies and digital currencies linked to the alleged scam, including Binance and Tether, responded to FBI requests later that month by freezing accounts holding portions of the stolen funds. Federal prosecutors are now moving to seize approximately $40,000 in cryptocurrency spread across two accounts that remain untouched. Authorities claim the funds were obtained through wire fraud and money laundering . Federal officials described the operation as a 'business email compromise scam,' explaining that the suspect manipulated email domain names by replacing an uppercase 'I' with a lowercase 'L' to mimic the official @ address. Trump and Witkoff, who currently serve as a special Middle East envoy for the administration, are involved in several legitimate cryptocurrency ventures, including World Liberty Financial, which they launched alongside their sons last year. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
