Newsmax, ROTFLMAO!!!!! Did you shoot a molten, WHITE hot boiling load over the falling stock prices of these companies? Given that it doesn't effect your life one whit, that's even worse than you nutting over pictures of Succubus Syndey Powell, lol. You're SUCH a fucking idiot, Road SCUM. I wonder if Newsmax is joining FAUX Noise in running the following:
8,905 views May 27, 2023 #TheDamageReport #JohnIadarola #TheYoungTurks
Donald Trump is furious at Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she airs 2024 election polls showing Trump trailing President Biden across the nation. John Iadarola and Sabrina break it down on The Damage Report. Read more here: Trump Completely Erupts on Fox News for ‘Desperately Pushing’ DeSantis — Watch the Totally Innocuous Segment That Set Him Off - https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-... "Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Fox News again, clearly upset that the network hasn’t ruled out the possibility Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could challenge him for the 2024 Republican nomination. Because it’s a day ending in a “y” (or maybe he’s just bored), Trump opened fire on DeSantis for seemingly the one billionth time after seeing something he didn’t like on TV. “Just watching Fox News. They are sooo bad, just like the Globalist Wall Street Journal and the now, way down, New York Post,” Trump complained. “They are desperately pushing DeSanctimonious who, regardless, is dropping like a rock. He’s even down 20 points in Florida, which was third worst in Covid, & where I got 1.2 million more votes than he did. RINO Mark Thiessen, a Bush flunky, is constantly on pushing DeSanctus, giving bad info. Even said I ‘lost Iowa last time around,’ I won BIG. He sucks, & so does FoxNews!”"
First of all, you're a lying sack of shit (we initially saw that with your crowd size estimate with Romney, lol): you never explained why you enter so many of my threads at all, let alone reply to me in them, if you don't read what I post. Secondly, I don't go into many of YOUR posts, this was a rare exception, because, like I said, wtf does the price of AT & T's stock have to do with YOU, as opposed to, say, the legal problems of somebody that you desperately want to become POTUS? You seem to be pointedly ignoring THAT particular topic, and I'm in your thread to expose that, you stupid cunt. Speaking of which, how's the "bibilical" expose coming along? Or the reinstatement?
What they’re selling at Target (video) https://fb.watch/kNSWhYJd09/?mibextid=IVRVuA
Gee, whatta PITY you didn't short their stock. Intead, I'll bet you went all in on THESE beauties, you brain dead, always wrong, gullible schmuck. Why don't you shlep down to 'Bama and comfort the granny shown below (maybe drag along Succubus Sydney Powell for an "interesting" three way? No "go woke and go broke" for Road SCUM, no, siree, more like, "Go tRump and get THUMPED!"
‘Trump Bucks’ promise wealth for MAGA loyalty. Some lose thousands.
Brandy Zadrozny and Corky Siemaszko and Vicky CollinsSat, May 27, 2023 at 6:00 AM PDT
In the recesses of the internet where some of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters stoke conspiracies and plot his return to the White House, suspected con artists have been mining their disappointment over the last presidential election for gold.
They’ve been peddling “Trump Bucks,” which are emblazoned with photos of the former president, and advertising them online as a kind of golden ticket that will help propel Trump’s 2024 bid and make the “real patriots” who support him rich when cashed in.
John Amann told NBC News he bought $2,200 worth of Trump Bucks and other items over the past year only to discover they were worthless when he tried to cash them in at his local bank. So he’s gone on Twitter to warn other Trump supporters not to fall for this scam.
NBC News has identified the Colorado-based companies behind the Trump Bucks as Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots and reviewed dozens of social posts, online complaints and hundreds of misleading ads for the products. Additionally, NBC News has found at least a dozen people like Amann who say they invested thousands of dollars after watching the pitches on Telegram and other websites that strongly suggested that Trump himself was endorsing these products.
“Now I’m questioning whether he is aware of this,” Amann said of Trump.
Repeated attempts to reach a spokesperson for Trump and his re-election campaign by email have gone unanswered. No evidence suggests the alleged scammers are connected to Trump or his re-election campaign.
In addition to tweeting a warning to others about the scam, Amann said he posted a review on TrustPilot, a website where consumers can rate and review businesses.
The Federal Trade Commission, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from NBC News, confirmed it has received one fraud complaint against Patriots Dynasty that was filed in January. But it provided no further details about the single complaint or who filed it.
The Better Business Bureau has given the companies, which operate out of an industrial center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, an F rating, and the 33 complaints on the BBB site are unsparing in their criticism of the company.
Repeated attempts to reach representatives for the companies by phone and email were unsuccessful. But Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin said he’s heard reports from bank employees of customers coming in to exchange their Trump Bucks for actual cash, but the bank routinely turns them down.
“It’s hard to put a number on how many people have come in,” Halldin said when asked for more specifics about who these people are and where they are located.
BOA, as a matter of course, is continually on the lookout for fraudsters and circulates information in-house about possible scams, Halldin said.
That’s little comfort to Amann, who is 77 and lives in Houston. “There’s no way to cash out what I have,” he said.
What it is
Since 2020, when Joe Biden defeated Trump in the presidential election, internet hucksters have been selling pro-Trump products like coins, checks and cards and marketing them as novelty items.The fine print on the websites offering these items usually notes that they are memorabilia.
But on social media and in promotional videos — many featuring faked celebrity endorsements — the sellers have tapped an audience that believes Trump’s ouster was part of a great conspiracy and that by investing in the Trump Rebate Banking System, or TRB for short, Trump will reward their loyalty by making them rich.
Those who buy these items, the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots suggest, will be rewarded when Trump unveils a new monetary system that will turn these products into legal tender worth far more than the purchase price.
A booklet, check and collection of coins bought by an Alabama grandmother when she invested $1500 in “Trump Bucks.” (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
Invest in a TRB membership card “issued by Donald Trump,” the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim, and the purchaser who spent, say, $99.99 on a “$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks” bill will be able to cash it in for $10,000 at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot.
“TRB system membership cards are official cards issued by Donald Trump to allow Trump Bucks holders to use Trump Bucks as legal tender and deposit them in banks such as JP Morgan Chase, the Bank of America and Wells Fargo,” a narrator identified only as “John” that appears to be a computer-generated voice says in one YouTube ad just moments after cautioning viewers that “Trump Bucks are not legal tender.”
“Wells Fargo has no affiliation with this product, and cannot accept it for deposit,” a bank spokesperson said.
JP Morgan Chase did not immediately respond to an email from NBC News seeking additional comment.
It’s a get-rich-quick scam that is catnip to a certain kind of Trump supporter — including QAnon believers and others who believe the former president is the only solution to America’s problems.
NBC also reached out to representatives for Walmart, Costco and Home Depot by email to see if they’ve had customers come in to try to cash in their Trump Bucks.
“We don’t have any connection to this, and it isn’t a problem we’re seeing at our stores,” Home Depot spokesman Terrance Roper said in an email to NBC News.
Walmart spokesman Robert Arrieta said “we have not heard of this scam.”
An Alabama grandmother holds one of the coins she purchased online in her apartment in Mobile, Ala., on May 19. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
“We don’t have any program that resembles this,” Arrieta said and referred a reporter to the company’s fraud alert page.
Michael J. Clark, a former FBI agent who teaches criminal justice at the University of New Haven, said it’s likely many of the victims have not yet figured out they’ve been conned.
“If this is indeed a scam, the victims have not had enough time to realize they have been scammed as they will be awaiting the result of the 2024 presidential elections to receive the benefit of their initial outlay of money,” Clark said via email.
How it spreads
Fawning reviews are posted on dozens of websites with the headlines “SCAM OR LEGIT” that can stack Google with positive results and in hundreds of YouTube videos.In AI-generated promotional videos shared on social media and in chat groups, celebrities and politicians, including Trump, appear to endorse the scam.
In one, Trump appears to announce the launch of the TRB system on Fox News.
“Let’s make America wealthy again,” the artificially generated voice of Trump says.
In another, Twitter-owner Elon Musk appears to say “That Trump certificate is not a joke, it’s real. Everyone needs to get as many as they can. I spend one million dollars on Trump certificates and this week I’m going to cash out my Trump items. Soon I will be the richest person on the planet again.”
In reality, the advertisement features footage lifted from Musk’s appearance at a TED event in 2022. The video ends with a slide advertising a free app that promises to “make your favorite celebrity say anything.
It’s so pervasive that even pro-Trump websites and Trump supporters have been sounding the alarm.
Blogger Noah Christopher, who is the moderator of the “WeLoveTrump” Telegram group with 26,000 subscribers, has urged his followers more than 30 times this year alone to “not get conned.”
“The faked videos have been posted relentlessly by fake social media accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and in Telegram groups catering to devoted Trump supporters,” Noah wrote last month. “Unreal how pervasive and aggressive this scam is.”
Christopher did not respond to an email from NBC News seeking additional comment.
One 75-year-old Alabama grandmother, who consented to having her picture taken but asked not to be identified by name for fear of internet harassment, told NBC News the message she got from watching the pitches on the internet was that Trump was going to make her rich.
But the grandmother, who describes herself as a “real patriot,” said what she got for the $1,500 she invested in Trump Bucks turned out to be fool’s gold.
An Alabama grandmother said a Bank of America teller told her that she'd seen dozens of people coming in to cash these products. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
“I saw all these ads on Telegram that had Trump pushing coins and checks that he endorsed and how you can cash them in after a year and make a profit,” the grandmother, who lives in Mobile, told NBC News. “I was told how you can go to Bank of America or Target or Amazon to cash them in.”
About six months ago, the grandmother said, she gathered up the Trump Bucks and commemorative coins she had purchased and drove 60 miles east to the nearest Bank of America branch she could find in Pensacola, Florida.
There, she said, she was greeted by a teller who told her she’d been scammed.
“When we get there the lady tells me she’s seen dozens of people coming in to cash these checks and they have nothing to do with this,” the grandmother said.
A Florida woman who lives north of Tampa, and who also asked not to be identified by name because she fears internet harassment, said her 77-year-old mother-in-law was also fooled into investing tens of thousands of dollars in Trump Bucks.
“My mother-in-law has always been conservative and prone to believe in conspiracy theories,” she said. “But after Trump lost the election, she went down the internet rabbit hole with this.”
This isn’t the first time her mother-in-law has fallen prey to a Trump-inspired scam.
“Several years back, she got into Nesara, which says that a radical reset of the U.S. economy is coming and all debts are going to be wiped out,” the Florida woman said. “She thinks she’s getting all the money back and that she’ll make a huge profit too.”
First, the Florida woman said, her mother-in-law “started buying all this support Trump memorabilia from a website that clearly states it's memorabilia.”
Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim purchasers will be able to cash coins and checks like these in at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
“From there, she went to other sites which has all sorts of people claiming that if you buy these Trump coins or these Trump checks for, say, a hundred dollars, you’ll be able to take them to a bank and cash them in for thousands of dollars.”
To prove to her mother-in-law that she had been swindled, the Florida woman said she drove her to a nearby bank and urged her to try to redeem the Trump Bucks in her possession.
“We thought she got it, she even admitted she got scammed,” the Florida woman said. “But then giant boxes arrived at the house full of Trump checks and other stuff that she bought for $500 and that would supposedly be worth $6 million one day. We tell her she’s getting scammed and she says, ‘Just wait, Trump will make all the patriots rich.’”
“It’s like she’s in a cult,” the Florida woman said.
Who profits?
Good question. It’s not clear who concocted the TRB system scheme or created the fake promotional videos.A 2022 New York Times investigation reported a Romanian marketing company to be at the origin of so-called Trump coins — which had been wildly popular in 2022 and were also fraudulently marketed as a kind of alternative currency.
Most of the posts and videos for the TRB system currently link to websites registered with the company names Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots, whose listed address can be traced to Shipoffers.com, a shipping center in Aurora, Colorado.
Shipoffers warehouse manager Josh Pier said the center ships Trump-related products but said it doesn't manufacture them. He declined to discuss what those products are and would not confirm the names of the companies it ships for. The company handles shipping for a variety of companies, he said.
Pier was echoed by Tony Grebmeier, one of the Shipoffers owners, who said he was unaware of any problems with any of the products the company ships and said if he was aware of any issues he’d take care of them.
Responding to overwhelmingly negative Google reviews, Shipoffers tells unhappy buyers that it doesn't actually make the products or bill customers.
The TRB products are purchased through online retailers ClickBank and Digistore24, which are affiliate marketing networks based in Idaho and Florida that connect would-be promoters with products to sell and earn commissions.
The unique links posted across social media and in the captions of YouTube videos contain the usernames of these affiliate marketers, who get a cut from each sale generated by the fraudulent ads.
A list of URLS for just one website, shows hundreds of affiliate marketers associated with a TRB membership booklet, a product falsely marketed as necessary to redeem the TRB products for real money.
NBC News has also reached out to ClickBank, Digistore24 and ShipOffers for comment. When an NBC News reporter called the Patriots Dynasty phone number, she got a busy signal. There was also no response to an email sent to the address associated with Patriots Dynasty.
The Alabama grandmother said she initially thought the products were a good investment but realized later they were worthless. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
The Alabama grandmother says she was initially fooled by the AI version of Trump she saw in the ads. She trusted Trump’s supposed business acumen and thought this was a good investment to have something to leave behind for her children.
“Now I realize, well, that was stupid,” she said. “But I bought them because I believed President Trump, because he knows all about finance, and he was going to help the real Trump Patriots get rich.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Lol, you're like a guy who bet the recently swept 76ers to win their playoff series, and says, "I don't care what the scoreboard says, only dumbasses think that the Celtics won!" Go suck the scum offa Disgraced, Debunked, Destroyed, Daughter Diddling Douchebag Donnie's Dick, you stupid NAZI turd, and enjoy those THIRTY-FOUR FELONY CHARGES, the FIVE MILLION BUTT FUCKING he's gonna get YOU to partially pay, and the upcoming indictments in both Georgia AND D.C.
??????????????????????????? what? Homo? 0-114. I do t even watch NBA but u take buttfuckings daily like a pro Erv. ???Lol, you're like a guy who bet the recently swept 76ers to win their playoff series, and says, "I don't care what the scoreboard says, only dumbasses think that the Celtics won!" Go suck the scum offa Disgraced, Debunked, Destroyed, Daughter Diddling Douchebag Donnie's Dick, you stupid NAZI turd, and enjoy those THIRTY-FOUR FELONY CHARGES, the FIVE MILLION BUTT FUCKING he's gonna get YOU to partially pay, and the upcoming indictments in both Georgia AND D.C.
???????????????????????? Let me know when that $$$ is paid ????????????????????????I didn't say that you WERE the guy who did that, you semi-illiterate Nazi scum, I said that you're LIKE such a person. Biden didn't win? And, of course, you have PROOF of that. No? Then, STFU, and take your BUTT fucking like a good DOCILE Mega MAGA Moron. Maybe some decade you'll realize that what YOU think doesn't matter.??????????????????????????? what? Homo? 0-114. I do t even watch NBA but u take buttfuckings daily like a pro Erv. ???
Target, Reeling from GOP Boycott, Looks at all the GOP Donations They Made, Wonders What Went Wrong
Thursday May 25, 2023 · 11:55 AM PDT
Target, now reeling from the Republican boycott of their stores because they offer trans and LGBTQ-friendly products, looks back at their political donations and wonders how the GOP “culture wars” could have been supported, encouraged, and financed for so long that they finally caught up with them…
Target political donations: www.opensecrets.org/...
As I wrote in an earlier, prequel to this post:
Conservatives found themselves angry today, when they realized that their boycott of Bud Light beer did not stop trans people from existing. The continued existence of trans people was brought to their attention when they visited a Target store, and discovered trans-friendly adult swimsuits and t-shirts with trans-friendly slogans.
Realizing that most adults in America are not irrationally angry that a trans adult can purchase a swimsuit designed for them, Conservatives fell back on one of their favorite strategies, which they typically employ when they realize that the real world, that exists in actual reality, does not match the imaginary world they've created in their fevered brain. And that strategy consists of... making shit up.
Right wing media today was swept with a wave of breathless headlines, articles, social media posts, tweets, and videos declaring that Target is selling "tuck-friendly swimsuits for kids."
Target does not sell tuck-friendly swimsuits for kids.
(Although there’s nothing wrong if they did.)
But facts rarely slow down angry conservatives, still determined to stop trans people from existing.
They also employed another favorite: the repetition of the word "groomer." And attacking Target employees.
Unlike Anheuser-Busch, who threw their trans spokesperson under the bus and have been frantically digging themselves into a deeper hole with each passing day, the CEO of Target defended his new focus on transgender and LGBTQ customers calling it “the right thing for society.” Though they did decide to remove or move some of the merchandise, in order to keep their employees physically and psychologically safe from the irrationally angry MAGAs who stumbled into their stores. The CEO’s explanation letter to Target employees is worth the read:
www.businessinsider.com/...
In summary, I hope you will continue to support Target, now more than ever. It is disappointing that they have a history of contributing to Mitch McConnell and numerous other GOP candidates and right-wing organizations. Hopefully in the near future, they will reconsider and stop any donations to the GOP. It is a stretch for them to claim they are dedicated to the LGBTQ community, and yet still contribute any amount to the consistently-anti-LGBTQ Republican Party.
And finally, as an example of the maturity level of the “adults” who have an issue with Pride merchandise at Target, here is a MAGA man-child throwing Pride merchandise on the floor, after directly confronting, threatening, and harassing a trans / non-binary couple in a Missoula, Montana Target store:
A 2022 New York Times investigation reported a Romanian marketing company to be at the origin of so-called Trump coins — which had been wildly popular in 2022 and were also fraudulently marketed as a kind of alternative currency.Gee, whatta PITY you didn't short their stock. Intead, I'll bet you went all in on THESE beauties, you brain dead, always wrong, gullible schmuck. Why don't you shlep down to 'Bama and comfort the granny shown below (maybe drag along Succubus Sydney Powell for an "interesting" three way? No "go woke and go broke" for Road SCUM, no, siree, more like, "Go tRump and get THUMPED!"
‘Trump Bucks’ promise wealth for MAGA loyalty. Some lose thousands.
Brandy Zadrozny and Corky Siemaszko and Vicky Collins
Sat, May 27, 2023 at 6:00 AM PDT
In the recesses of the internet where some of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters stoke conspiracies and plot his return to the White House, suspected con artists have been mining their disappointment over the last presidential election for gold.
They’ve been peddling “Trump Bucks,” which are emblazoned with photos of the former president, and advertising them online as a kind of golden ticket that will help propel Trump’s 2024 bid and make the “real patriots” who support him rich when cashed in.
John Amann told NBC News he bought $2,200 worth of Trump Bucks and other items over the past year only to discover they were worthless when he tried to cash them in at his local bank. So he’s gone on Twitter to warn other Trump supporters not to fall for this scam.
NBC News has identified the Colorado-based companies behind the Trump Bucks as Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots and reviewed dozens of social posts, online complaints and hundreds of misleading ads for the products. Additionally, NBC News has found at least a dozen people like Amann who say they invested thousands of dollars after watching the pitches on Telegram and other websites that strongly suggested that Trump himself was endorsing these products.
“Now I’m questioning whether he is aware of this,” Amann said of Trump.
Repeated attempts to reach a spokesperson for Trump and his re-election campaign by email have gone unanswered. No evidence suggests the alleged scammers are connected to Trump or his re-election campaign.
In addition to tweeting a warning to others about the scam, Amann said he posted a review on TrustPilot, a website where consumers can rate and review businesses.
The Federal Trade Commission, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from NBC News, confirmed it has received one fraud complaint against Patriots Dynasty that was filed in January. But it provided no further details about the single complaint or who filed it.
The Better Business Bureau has given the companies, which operate out of an industrial center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, an F rating, and the 33 complaints on the BBB site are unsparing in their criticism of the company.
Repeated attempts to reach representatives for the companies by phone and email were unsuccessful. But Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin said he’s heard reports from bank employees of customers coming in to exchange their Trump Bucks for actual cash, but the bank routinely turns them down.
“It’s hard to put a number on how many people have come in,” Halldin said when asked for more specifics about who these people are and where they are located.
BOA, as a matter of course, is continually on the lookout for fraudsters and circulates information in-house about possible scams, Halldin said.
That’s little comfort to Amann, who is 77 and lives in Houston. “There’s no way to cash out what I have,” he said.
What it is
Since 2020, when Joe Biden defeated Trump in the presidential election, internet hucksters have been selling pro-Trump products like coins, checks and cards and marketing them as novelty items.
The fine print on the websites offering these items usually notes that they are memorabilia.
But on social media and in promotional videos — many featuring faked celebrity endorsements — the sellers have tapped an audience that believes Trump’s ouster was part of a great conspiracy and that by investing in the Trump Rebate Banking System, or TRB for short, Trump will reward their loyalty by making them rich.
Those who buy these items, the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots suggest, will be rewarded when Trump unveils a new monetary system that will turn these products into legal tender worth far more than the purchase price.
A booklet, check and collection of coins bought by an Alabama grandmother when she invested $1500 in “Trump Bucks.” (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
Invest in a TRB membership card “issued by Donald Trump,” the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim, and the purchaser who spent, say, $99.99 on a “$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks” bill will be able to cash it in for $10,000 at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot.
“TRB system membership cards are official cards issued by Donald Trump to allow Trump Bucks holders to use Trump Bucks as legal tender and deposit them in banks such as JP Morgan Chase, the Bank of America and Wells Fargo,” a narrator identified only as “John” that appears to be a computer-generated voice says in one YouTube ad just moments after cautioning viewers that “Trump Bucks are not legal tender.”
“Wells Fargo has no affiliation with this product, and cannot accept it for deposit,” a bank spokesperson said.
JP Morgan Chase did not immediately respond to an email from NBC News seeking additional comment.
It’s a get-rich-quick scam that is catnip to a certain kind of Trump supporter — including QAnon believers and others who believe the former president is the only solution to America’s problems.
NBC also reached out to representatives for Walmart, Costco and Home Depot by email to see if they’ve had customers come in to try to cash in their Trump Bucks.
“We don’t have any connection to this, and it isn’t a problem we’re seeing at our stores,” Home Depot spokesman Terrance Roper said in an email to NBC News.
Walmart spokesman Robert Arrieta said “we have not heard of this scam.”
An Alabama grandmother holds one of the coins she purchased online in her apartment in Mobile, Ala., on May 19. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
“We don’t have any program that resembles this,” Arrieta said and referred a reporter to the company’s fraud alert page.
Michael J. Clark, a former FBI agent who teaches criminal justice at the University of New Haven, said it’s likely many of the victims have not yet figured out they’ve been conned.
“If this is indeed a scam, the victims have not had enough time to realize they have been scammed as they will be awaiting the result of the 2024 presidential elections to receive the benefit of their initial outlay of money,” Clark said via email.
How it spreads
Fawning reviews are posted on dozens of websites with the headlines “SCAM OR LEGIT” that can stack Google with positive results and in hundreds of YouTube videos.
In AI-generated promotional videos shared on social media and in chat groups, celebrities and politicians, including Trump, appear to endorse the scam.
In one, Trump appears to announce the launch of the TRB system on Fox News.
“Let’s make America wealthy again,” the artificially generated voice of Trump says.
In another, Twitter-owner Elon Musk appears to say “That Trump certificate is not a joke, it’s real. Everyone needs to get as many as they can. I spend one million dollars on Trump certificates and this week I’m going to cash out my Trump items. Soon I will be the richest person on the planet again.”
In reality, the advertisement features footage lifted from Musk’s appearance at a TED event in 2022. The video ends with a slide advertising a free app that promises to “make your favorite celebrity say anything.
It’s so pervasive that even pro-Trump websites and Trump supporters have been sounding the alarm.
Blogger Noah Christopher, who is the moderator of the “WeLoveTrump” Telegram group with 26,000 subscribers, has urged his followers more than 30 times this year alone to “not get conned.”
“The faked videos have been posted relentlessly by fake social media accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and in Telegram groups catering to devoted Trump supporters,” Noah wrote last month. “Unreal how pervasive and aggressive this scam is.”
Christopher did not respond to an email from NBC News seeking additional comment.
One 75-year-old Alabama grandmother, who consented to having her picture taken but asked not to be identified by name for fear of internet harassment, told NBC News the message she got from watching the pitches on the internet was that Trump was going to make her rich.
But the grandmother, who describes herself as a “real patriot,” said what she got for the $1,500 she invested in Trump Bucks turned out to be fool’s gold.
An Alabama grandmother said a Bank of America teller told her that she'd seen dozens of people coming in to cash these products. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
“I saw all these ads on Telegram that had Trump pushing coins and checks that he endorsed and how you can cash them in after a year and make a profit,” the grandmother, who lives in Mobile, told NBC News. “I was told how you can go to Bank of America or Target or Amazon to cash them in.”
About six months ago, the grandmother said, she gathered up the Trump Bucks and commemorative coins she had purchased and drove 60 miles east to the nearest Bank of America branch she could find in Pensacola, Florida.
There, she said, she was greeted by a teller who told her she’d been scammed.
“When we get there the lady tells me she’s seen dozens of people coming in to cash these checks and they have nothing to do with this,” the grandmother said.
A Florida woman who lives north of Tampa, and who also asked not to be identified by name because she fears internet harassment, said her 77-year-old mother-in-law was also fooled into investing tens of thousands of dollars in Trump Bucks.
“My mother-in-law has always been conservative and prone to believe in conspiracy theories,” she said. “But after Trump lost the election, she went down the internet rabbit hole with this.”
This isn’t the first time her mother-in-law has fallen prey to a Trump-inspired scam.
“Several years back, she got into Nesara, which says that a radical reset of the U.S. economy is coming and all debts are going to be wiped out,” the Florida woman said. “She thinks she’s getting all the money back and that she’ll make a huge profit too.”
First, the Florida woman said, her mother-in-law “started buying all this support Trump memorabilia from a website that clearly states it's memorabilia.”
Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim purchasers will be able to cash coins and checks like these in at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
“From there, she went to other sites which has all sorts of people claiming that if you buy these Trump coins or these Trump checks for, say, a hundred dollars, you’ll be able to take them to a bank and cash them in for thousands of dollars.”
To prove to her mother-in-law that she had been swindled, the Florida woman said she drove her to a nearby bank and urged her to try to redeem the Trump Bucks in her possession.
“We thought she got it, she even admitted she got scammed,” the Florida woman said. “But then giant boxes arrived at the house full of Trump checks and other stuff that she bought for $500 and that would supposedly be worth $6 million one day. We tell her she’s getting scammed and she says, ‘Just wait, Trump will make all the patriots rich.’”
“It’s like she’s in a cult,” the Florida woman said.
Who profits?
Good question. It’s not clear who concocted the TRB system scheme or created the fake promotional videos.
A 2022 New York Times investigation reported a Romanian marketing company to be at the origin of so-called Trump coins — which had been wildly popular in 2022 and were also fraudulently marketed as a kind of alternative currency.
Most of the posts and videos for the TRB system currently link to websites registered with the company names Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots, whose listed address can be traced to Shipoffers.com, a shipping center in Aurora, Colorado.
Shipoffers warehouse manager Josh Pier said the center ships Trump-related products but said it doesn't manufacture them. He declined to discuss what those products are and would not confirm the names of the companies it ships for. The company handles shipping for a variety of companies, he said.
Pier was echoed by Tony Grebmeier, one of the Shipoffers owners, who said he was unaware of any problems with any of the products the company ships and said if he was aware of any issues he’d take care of them.
Responding to overwhelmingly negative Google reviews, Shipoffers tells unhappy buyers that it doesn't actually make the products or bill customers.
The TRB products are purchased through online retailers ClickBank and Digistore24, which are affiliate marketing networks based in Idaho and Florida that connect would-be promoters with products to sell and earn commissions.
The unique links posted across social media and in the captions of YouTube videos contain the usernames of these affiliate marketers, who get a cut from each sale generated by the fraudulent ads.
A list of URLS for just one website, shows hundreds of affiliate marketers associated with a TRB membership booklet, a product falsely marketed as necessary to redeem the TRB products for real money.
NBC News has also reached out to ClickBank, Digistore24 and ShipOffers for comment. When an NBC News reporter called the Patriots Dynasty phone number, she got a busy signal. There was also no response to an email sent to the address associated with Patriots Dynasty.
The Alabama grandmother said she initially thought the products were a good investment but realized later they were worthless. (Dan Anderson for NBC News)
The Alabama grandmother says she was initially fooled by the AI version of Trump she saw in the ads. She trusted Trump’s supposed business acumen and thought this was a good investment to have something to leave behind for her children.
“Now I realize, well, that was stupid,” she said. “But I bought them because I believed President Trump, because he knows all about finance, and he was going to help the real Trump Patriots get rich.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
