After the foul cries of the election fraud, the former president Donald Trump is once again in hot water, this time for all the strange reasons.
Hundreds of thousands of Republican supporters have been robbed of their money from the former president Trump in a donation scam in which they never wanted to donate.
The New York Times bombshells have exposed deceptive campaign funding practices of Trump’s campaign for the 2020 presidential race.
The campaign tricked people who were supposedly making a one-time donation into signing up for recurring donations with no end point.
In December of 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission warned about the rise in investment frauds, online theft, and bogus stock promotion.
Who would have thought that the sitting president’s campaign team was also involved in one such crime?
How did the Trump campaign trick the party loyalists? Let’s see.
Aged Supporters: The Victim of Trump’s Donation Scams
The donation scam by the Trump campaign has rattled the pockets of the average Americans.
The recurring donation cuts from the one-time donors have burdened the bank accounts of the masses.
The New York Times reported the story of a 63-year-old cancer patient, Stacy Blatt, living in Kansas City. Suffering from cancer, living on a mere income of $1000, Blatt donated $500 to Trump’s campaign.
This was the first-ever contribution of Blatt to any political party, as confirmed by federal records.
However, the fraudulent Trump campaign made the transaction recurring without informing the donor, as a result of which, another transaction of $500 happened automatically.
These transactions continued, and Stacy Blatt ended up losing $3000 in less than a month to Trump’s campaign.
Stacy Blatt, the victim of Trump’s fraudulent campaign, died of cancer in February, living on his brother Russell Blatt‘s income, as the Trump campaign took all of his money
This was not the only case. A 78-years old California resident who made a $990 donation to the Trump campaign ended up losing $8,000 due to the same fraud.
The list didn’t even end here. The Trump campaign made a countless number of recurring transactions in this donation scam.
Trump Finding Innovative Methods to Rob People
Amid the shrinking support, Donald Trump had to manage his finances for his election campaign, for which he chose the fraudulent path.
There is no doubt that all the parties launch donation drives to do crowdfunding, but this donation scam of the Trump campaign allowed the Republicans to rob their own party supporters.
With elections approaching, the Trump team made disclaimers increasingly opaque to trick the supporters into not reading it. An additional pre-checked box was also introduced on the donations, that are now being called a money bomb, that doubled the money.
The disclaimer and manual unchecked box combined to make the supporters, especially elderly supporters, confused, as they ended up declaring that they allowed the Trump campaign to automatically deduct money from their accounts every month.
This tactic helped the Trump campaign invade the bank account of thousands of his supporters, including retirees, military veterans, nurses, and even experienced political operatives.
The two pre-checked boxes have been the biggest tool used by the Trump campaign in looting the hard-earned money of Republican supporters.
This practice is frequently used by marketers in steering the customers in unwanted subscriptions and purchases.
In March, Trump asked the Republican supporters to send their donations directly to him, as he wanted to further strengthen his position in the party.
A WinRed website was set up for online fundraising of campaign money. The donation portal had a pre-checked box mentioning, “Make this a monthly recurring donation.” As a matter of fact, many older supporters do not heed these formalities, and they ended up trapped in the scam.
By June, the Trump campaign decided to add another pre-checked box. With Trump’s birthday on June 14, another pre-checked box was added for making additional donations.
This way, those who never wanted to donate extra money ended up donating additional funds owing to these pre-checked boxes.
By September, Biden’s campaign funding was already moving $150 million ahead of Trump, making Republicans more aggressive in their fraud.
In their bid to further their donation scam, the Trump campaign changed the words in the first pre-checked box from monthly recurring payments to weekly recurring payments, without any additional notice.
This allowed Republicans to loot thousands of dollars from donors in less than a month. Supporters did not even realize this was happening until they received credit card bills and text messages from their banks.
Final Thoughts
This is not the only donation scam that was carried out by the Trump campaign. The same was the case in the Georgia runoff elections where, although the method of fraud was different, people end up donating to Trump’s personal bank balance instead of for election purposes. It is no wonder why the Democrats emerged victorious in the runoff.
In this donation scam of the Trump campaign, there is a lesson for the Republican supporters who trusted Donald Trump blindly.
This is also the time for the investigation agencies to initiate inquiries against the former president who looted the hard-earned money of the Americans so that those who were tricked can be compensated.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.