You can’t buy $10,000 for $99.99, but some Trump fans think so.
“Trump Bucks” bills, coins, and checks are being sold by scammers as “memorabilia” and “commemorative” items, but some of their advertising (e.g., the video below) claims they can be used as cash at stores or deposited in banks, which isn’t true.
Some “Trump Bucks” customers spent thousands thinking they were buying “investments,” a word the promoters use on their website (here).
The scam is clever. It promises Trump will make “Trump Bucks” legal tender if he’s elected in 2024. A former FBI agent pointed out that won’t be demonstrably false, and buyers won’t figure out they’ve been scammed, until after the election.
The website, ad, and promotions include disclaimers that “Trump Bucks” aren’t, in fact, money. But it’s questionable whether that would shield the promoters from fraud charges, given advertising saying it is.
It’s clear some people have fallen for those claims. NBC News described several individuals who bought the items “only to discover they were worthless” when they tried to cash them at banks (see story here), and reported that bank tellers they interviewed said “dozens” of people were bringing them in.
It’s unkind to say so, but those people are suckers. Only fools buy fool’s gold. It’s obvious to con artists that Trump supporters are a fertile field to plow for marks; after all, they readily believe b.s. and conspiracy theories, and stubbornly reject even obvious facts. So, if Trump says he’ll make them rich, they’ll fall for it. And enlisting “Trump” to make the sales pitch is easy; all the crooks need is an artificial intelligence app, which they can get online.
NBC News says as far as their reporters can determine, Trump and his 2024 campaign have nothing to do with these promotions.
Because computer technology keeps getting better all the time, it’s getting harder to tell fake from real, but the ancient adages that, “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” and “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” still apply. Lose your grip on reality, and you’ll become prey.
By the way, I checked to see if you can buy “Trump Bucks” on eBay. As of today, May 28, 2023, yes. One listing was for “1000pc Donald Trump $1000 Dollar Bill Gold Banknote TRB Check Golden Tickets” for $540.00 with “Free shipping from China.”
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