I know this will probably drive bagger and a few others crazy; that's why I'm posting it...
The NY Times reported today (and most of this has already been confirmed by other news outlets) that the Trump Organization had to refund over $120 million in donations (almost 11% of the total raised in the final months of the campaign) because of the tactics they used to trick donors into donating more money than they thought they were donating. Some had their bank accounts drained; others had their credit cards maxed out.
Basically, what these grifters did was to have donors unknowingly make recurring donations, some as frequently as every week, by quietly presenting that option on the web form with the opt-in box already checked. Seems simple, right? But why would you do that if you were being honest with your donors? Here's a thought - maybe you expected that most wouldn't notice. Which is what happened in a lot of cases.
I have donated to political campaigns in the past two elections, and I have never seen this tactic used - the option to make a regular donation was always there, but it was VERY obvious and NEVER preselected for me. I would have had to make that decision on my own. And I would have been PISSED if a candidate I supported pulled this kind of scam on me.
Here's the original article explaining how the scheme worked:
http://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/politics/trump-donations.html
If you're blocked from reading it by their paywall, here's a summary based on their reporting:
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-reportedly-duped-supporters-donors-recurring-donations-2021-4
Trump continues to raise funds, trying to divert donations from the RNC to his PAC. The article suggests that some of these funds are being used to repay the donors who were scammed - in effect, they funded a no-interest loan for him in the closing days of the campaign when he was running out of money.
Hmmm. A billionaire running out of money? How does that work? You're worth several billion dollars, but you can't come up with a hundred million or so to fund your own campaign?
But I digress - that's an argument for another day...
This is not a new tactic; it has been used often on other disreputable websites to sell anything from magazine subscriptions to porn. Finding it on a political fund-raising site, however, is a whole new level of sleaze.
Two things to keep in mind:
1. Once a grifter, always a grifter. We told you who and what he really was, and you didn't believe us. Here's the proof.
2. NEVER buy anything on the Web unless you review the ENTIRE page before clicking the order button. Even if you're familiar with the site and have used it before, things can change. These little gems are often hidden in the fine print or buried way down on the bottom of the page. As the article points out, this scheme was evolving over time, with the opt-out getting harder to find.
To be fair, as the article also points out, ALL political fund-raising sites get complaints and have to refund money. The Biden campaign also had to refund donations, but their refund rate was much lower, in the 2% range. If you're refunding over 10% of your donations because your donors think you're screwing them, something is horribly wrong with your fund-raising program. |