Did Lagos Yahoo Boy Scam Donald Trump 250,000 Dollars? Fact Comes Out
- Fraudsters impersonating the President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance inaugural committee deceptively stole hundreds of thousands of dollars
- The perpetrators used fake email addresses made to look like they belonged to the inaugural committee to ” trick or coerce victims into providing them money”
- The story was covered by multiple Nigerian newspapers, some of whose headlines and narratives may have created confusion
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Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 5 years of experience in fact-checking.
Ikeja, Lagos state - Social media posts and Nigerian news websites claimed that a Nigerian-based 'Yahoo Boy' conned United States (US) President Donald Trump out of 250,000 dollars.
Legit.ng reports that ‘Yahoo Boy’ (an alternative name for ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ or ‘G-Boys’) is used to describe people who defraud mostly non-Nigerians via the internet.
Source: Facebook
The term is a savvy name for a Nigerian cyber fraudster. It could be a picker, loader, hacker, swindler, and sometimes cruelly, a money ritualist — feigned as ‘Yahoo Plus’. It is a dominant form of criminality perpetrated by Nigerian youths.
Babatunde Olushola (@itsSh0la), a well-followed X (formerly Twitter) user, posted thus on Friday, July 4, 2025:
“A yahoo boy scammed a whole Donald Trump, the President of US 250,000 dollars. Some of you are really audacious."
International media, including American magazine Fortune and The Independent UK reported on the case.
The story was reported by several Nigerian newspapers, some of whose headlines may have created confusion. One titled its article 'FBI pursues Lagos Yahoo Boy for defrauding U.S. President Donald Trump of 2025 inauguration funds', while another used the headline 'How Lagos Yahoo Boy duped U.S. President Donald Trump of 2025 inauguration funds', before going on to explain in the body of the news story that a donor was scammed.
Source: Getty Images
Given the claim went viral, Legit.ng probed it.
Verification of Trump scam victim claim
Official records from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) confirm that there was a $250,300 cryptocurrency scam. However, Trump was not the direct victim.
According to the complaint, on December 24, 2024, the fraud victims (Trump not among) received an email from someone purporting to be Steve Witkoff, co-chairperson of the Trump-Vance inaugural committee.
Legitimate emails from the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee are @t47inaugural.com, but the email received by the victim was from @t47lnaugural.com, with the lowercase “I” replaced by a lowercase “L.”
The imposter Steve Witkoff, a scammer located in Nigeria, instructed the victims to deposit funds into a cryptocurrency wallet ending in 58c52.
On December 26, 2024, the victim sent 250,300 USDT.ETH to the crypto wallet, believing the funds were going to the Trump and Vance inaugural committee. Within two hours after receiving the funds from the victim, the funds moved from the 58c52 cryptowallet to other cryptocurrency addresses.
In light of the condemnable act, the United States sought the recovery of $40,300 in the cryptoscheme that impersonated the Trump-Vance inaugural committee.
Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, shared a press release concerning the massive fraud.
The full statement can be read via the link below:
Hence, posts claiming a Nigerian ‘Yahoo boy’ scammed Trump out of $250,000 are misleading. It was actually a donor aiming to contribute to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee who was scammed by an impostor that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traced to Nigeria.
Yahoo Boys: American woman shares experience
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that an American woman recounted how two 'Yahoo Boys' duped her of significant sums in romance scams, despite her ongoing admiration for Nigerian men.
In a viral video, she detailed her encounters, revealing how the scammers manipulated her emotions and finances.
She displayed the young Nigerian's picture and the one he used for his unsuspecting victims.
Source: Legit.ng
