Truth Social Users Are Losing Ridiculous Sums of Money to Scams

[Nevilledog]

https://gizmodo.com/truth-social-users-are-losing-ridiculous-sums-of-money-to-scams-2000506604


Donald Trump launched Truth Social in 2022 as a social media platform where the MAGA faithful could hang out without any liberals to spoil the fun. The biggest selling point? It was the only place where Trump was personally posting his unhinged screeds after getting banned from Twitter over that whole coup attempt. But new documents obtained by Gizmodo reveal the site has also been flooded with scammers who are swindling users out of enormous sums of money. We’re talking about people who’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a relatively short period of time.

Gizmodo submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FTC for consumer complaints about Truth Social filed in the past two years. The complaints to the federal agency include some stories from people who’ve been banned from the site (unjustly, they claim) and others who say they got signed up for mailing lists they never wanted to be on in the first place. But the complaints about scams are the most shocking, if only because there are such large sums of money involved. And we’re publishing a sample of the full, unedited complaints below.

One person who says they lost $170,000 explained they were initially scammed on a different site but met someone on Truth Social who claimed they could help get their money back. That turned out to be a scam as well. But more often, the victims are first contacted on Truth Social before being told to take the conversation somewhere else, like WhatsApp. Truth Social seems to be a target-rich environment for people who are easy to con.

Another thing that sticks out about the complaints filed with the FTC is that they seem to involve plenty of elderly fans of Donald Trump. One 72-year-old man who reported chatting with a “beautiful” woman on the site was scammed out of $21,000. His complaint ends with, “I haven’t told my wife about this blunder. She still doesn’t know about it.” Another person in their 60s said they lost $500,000 to scammers on Truth Social and seemed to think there might be a way they could get their money back, telling the FTC, “After I pay this they promise there will be no more fees and I will receive my assets.”

*snip*

[dalton99a]

1. Trump probably got a cut

[Solly Mack]

2. Wonder what Trump's cut is?

[flying_wahini]

10. Probably the Lions share, for sure.

[Solly Mack]

12. He is probably the one behind the scams.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

30. He doesn't have the attention span

to send multiple message, trying to get money. No, I can all but guarantee he's not the one scamming, but it certainly says a lot about his followers, and their just-above-two-digits IQ that so many of them are being scammed.

I honestly don't understand how any person at all can be blissfully unaware of such scams. It's not as though they haven't been around essentially forever. The difference in recent decades is simply the Internet.

[Solly Mack]

35. He doesn't need the attention span or patience to send out multiple messages.

One can pay others to do so, and mass emails/messages aren't difficult to achieve nor are they even very time consuming. There's a program for that.

All that said, it was a comment more about his character than any actual action he took.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

39. Yes. And I suspect that someone else is typing

almost every single Tweet or Text he sends.

[RidinWithHarris]

3. Of course!

MAGA is a magnet for grifters because they know MAGAts are idiots who'll believe almost anything except unpleasant truths.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump isn't behind some of the scams.

[birdographer]

37. I've been saying this for years

I've been wondering why more scammers are not glomming onto the fact that these gullible morons would be such easy pickin's. No critical thinking, a total willingness to believe anyone on "their side," this is what is meant by shooting fish in a barrel. They are all in one place, they can even shoot more than one at a time. It never occurred to me they would shop for their idiots there.

All that money, gone forever. On the off-chance trump dies and they can't latch onto some other cretin, they may slowly come to their senses and realize how much they lost for no reason at all. I can't feel sorry for them--these are immoral cult members supporting a racist rapist--it's as close to instant karma as one can probably get. Goes around comes around and all that.

[DENVERPOPS]

40. The last great grifters

were Rush Limbaugh's advertisers......And they were loaded with scammers, etc. Because they fell for Limbaugh's crap, they knew they were suckers.....

These guys just moved on to going after the MAGA's, although probably most were previously Limbaugh Lovers.

A guy I know would worship every word Limbaugh would say on his programs. He ended up investing his ENTIRE RETIRMENT investments in one of the lLmbaugh advertisers. He lost every penny, with no chance to recover any of it.........

[birdographer]

58. Can you even imagine?

You hear about people gambling away their retirement money, and that seems insane. But to lose it because of simple stupidity and nothing else is unimaginable to me. The MAGAts were hateful and angry before, how are they going to be if he keels over and their money is gone forever? Unthinkable.

[DENVERPOPS]

59. Or, if he wins

and all their money, and future living/lifestyle is gone forever........

The epitome of their intentions, is a comment that Trump made at one of his rallies:

****** "Please, get out and vote for me THIS time, AND YOU WON'T EVER NEED TO VOTE AGAIN"***********

Holy shit, how fucking ignorant/stupid do you have to be, to not realize, exactly what he is saying to you 70+ million MAGAot voters, and to all the rest of the American People in our beloved Democracy????????????????????????????????///

[residentcynic]

48. 2 groups in MAGA

MAGA is almost entirely compromised of two types of people - scammers and people dumb enough to be scammed.

[Turbineguy]

4. Truth Social is a way

to organize suckers ripe for plucking. But it's incompetently run if they allow these creeps to compete with trump.

[North Shore Chicago]

5. I feel sorry for them.

Not.

[IbogaProject]

55. I do feel sorry for them

I mean I feel sorry for anyone at the FTC who had to waste any time on those fools.

[hadEnuf]

56. I say good.

I'm glad they are getting scammed. They well deserve it.

Decent people have bent over sideways for years trying to tell them what Trump and his ilk are about, only to be shit on, spat on and much, much worse.

Screw them. I hope they wind up selling apples on the street corners.

[niyad]

6. Sadly, I am not a good enough person to feel bad about this as my first reaction.

I probably will on reflection, at least for the collateral victims, but not now.

[usedtobedemgurl]

7. I wonder what getting them away from Truth Social does for them?

I wonder because I am on a different site and someone tried to get me to WhatsApp. I knew it was a scam and said I was fine where I was. Is it easier to scam folks on some sites than others? What does WhatsApp offer scammers?!?!

My guy ended up blocking me when I would not give him the money he said he needed and I turned the tables, stating I was so poor, I needed him to give me money. Being approached happens a couple of times a month. It was funny because I told him all my money goes through my attorney. I said the most I could give him was a penny and he said, “Ok.” Lol. He wanted a single penny from me!!!

[keithbvadu2]

11. You want my penny? Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for it.

[usedtobedemgurl]

17. LOL

[Pinback]

36. "Meet me at the police station and I'll hand it over." (nt)

[Skittles]

8. think about how stupid you have to be to believe in Donald Fucking Trump

scammers know easy targets when they see them

[keithbvadu2]

9. Let's see. What did DonOld say about Romney catching Covid? Something like:: 'Gee. That's too bad.'

[MineralMan]

13. I'm guessing that romance scams are rife over there.

Facebook is full of them, too. Folks seek out lonely people and scam them into believing that someone is romantically interested in them. I've seen it on a few Facebook groups, mostly targeting older men. The funny thing is that the scammers post identical posts to multiple people. That gives them away every time. But many of those groups are not administered well, so they continue doing it with impunity.

Truth Social is chock full of lonely people who typically offend most people they encounter. They're also pretty stupid, so they're prime targets for such scammers.

[keithbvadu2]

18. mostly targeting older men.

That sweet honey you have been wooing could be a skinny Nigerian teen male.

[MineralMan]

19. Yes, probably so.

It's amazing how many people are taken in by those scams.

[keithbvadu2]

20. Microphone and camera don't work so can only communicate with the honey by keyboard.

[Blue_Roses]

27. Makes you see how they could

vote for Trump.

[Collimator]

41. "mostly targeting older men". . .

. . . But not young women of childbearing age. This is because The Great and Powerful Trump Himself has promised to end their loneliness.

And thanks to his Jedi Mind Tricks, they will no longer be thinking about abortion.

[NickB79]

57. I had a coworker who fell for one

Thought she, a 50 yr old widow, was going to land a fit young Marine coming home from Afghanistan.

We tried to tell her all US soldiers had been pulled out of Afghanistan TWO YEARS AGO, but she insisted he was there on a "secret mission".

Then he started asking her for money. Lots of money. She actually quit her job to move to Texas to be with him. She came home shortly afterwards, tried to get her old job back, but the position was already filled.

It was all so surreal.

[MineralMan]

62. They are dangerous people.

[Initech]

14. I am totally not at all shocked by this!

[ProfessorGAC]

15. A Murder Of Morons

Except crows aren't suckers.

[Whatthe_Firetruck]

28. "Murder" is too good for them.

I like "muddle".

A Muddle of Morons.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

46. A Moran of Morons

?1590028938

[soldierant]

32. Yes, I thought that was tough on crows.

How about a Morass of Morons? Although they arent lately babbling as much about the swamp as ther first did.

[Qutzupalotl]

16. They can't tell truth from lies. If they could, they wouldn't support Trump.

They are easy targets for predators, and unfortunately for them it's obvious.

[Attilatheblond]

44. Wasn't their ignorance the reason Trump said if he ever went into politics, he'd run as a Republican?

GOP voters, AKA Marks Unlimited.

[tavernier]

61. That's exactly why.

He can spot a sucker a mile away.

[relayerbob]

21. Scam Central

From the stock to the users, it’s all aimed at the gullible.

[Picaro]

22. These are people that are already being conned

They mindlessly picked a conman. One who tells them that anything that contradicts the con is false.

Then they get on Truth Social and get conned some more.

It’s not shocking. It was inevitable.

Like fishing in a barrel.

[canetoad]

23. Should be

Rediculous sums of money.

[Montauk6]

24. Having spent the 80s and early 90s "in the life," it doesn't surprise me one bit.

I remember how this crank named Joseph Newman made the rounds in the "patriot" circles with his "perpetual energy machine" where every demo consisted of a toy car being powered by one his "special" batteries and the story of how the government was trying to shut him and his "science" up and pretty much anyone challenging his views were part of the Bilderbergers, Trilateralists, Illuminati, take your pick. I think he fell from "grace" when he tried to marry a kid. But I digress.

A lot of those shortwave radio conspiracy shows had sponsors whose main marketing ploy was to a) saddle you up with all your necessities when the End comes and b) claim that these were goods that the powers-that-be don't want you to own. Back then it was Chuck Harder, Bill Cooper and Art Bell; today it's Alex Jones and Mike Lindell.

[progressoid]

25. So you're telling me that people who join the Trump cult are also susceptible to scammers?

Shocking.

[soldierant]

33. there are probably a few who are not, because

they themselves are scammers. I's not that hard to con a conman if you know what you're doing, but many don't.

[JoseBalow]

26. "a target-rich environment for people who are easy to con"

[Rob H.]

29. Oh, no! Anyway.... nt

[Demobrat]

31. Stupid is as stupid does.

[liberalla]

34. This doesn't surprise me at all. They're extremely gullible to believe drumpf is the chosen one, and

will fix all their problems. If I was a scammer, that's where I'd go. Untruthful Social, with all the naive, gullible, stupid members would be easy pickins for them.

[SamKnause]

38. Good.

I really don't care if the enemies of my country get taken to the cleaners.

[Joinfortmill]

42. I guess they never heard of, Buyer Beware. I wish I could muster up some sympathy.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

51. Here is your Violin of Sympathy, actual size

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/409/037/b95

[Aristus]

43. I don't have any sympathy for these hamhocks. It's their own fucking fault for being so stupid.

As Gordon Gekko (someone I'm sure they idolize) once said: "Not only are a fool and his money soon parted, a fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place."

At least all that cash is now in the hands of people who know what to do with it.

[TygrBright]

45. If you're grifter looking for marks, that would be the motherlode. n/t

[Botany]

47. FAFO

Next thing you will tell me that the 9/11 "tunnels to towers" is a big scam.

Investing into a business that has a man
who has been convicted in multiple scams such as stealing money from a children's cancer fund or taking the money from the widows of American troops who were killed in action for a phony real estate scam might not
be a good idea.

Oh well.

[dchill]

49. So much "Truth," it hurts! 😭

[Figarosmom]

50. Of course

They fell for trumps scam so other grifters see them as easy targets

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

52. Oh, if only I were evil, I'd be making bank there

But no, Karma and all that Any amount of cash isn't worth another lifetime, especially the ones to come.

[4lbs]

53. Old men conned out of lots of money by "young beautiful women". Uh-huh.

Lots of so-called 'Russian mail-order brides' on that site?

Old dude conned out of tens of thousands by a "beautiful" woman, but afraid to tell his WIFE?

Umm... serves you right dude. She might end up asking where all that money went.

[Botany]

63. She sent me a picture with this message.

“Hi, I'm Odessa, I prefer to share someone with time, attention, understanding and respect. Can you share more with me?”

[bromeando]

54. Scams

Well, Trump supporters are stupid.

[tulipsandroses]

60. Well, you know what they say about a fool and his money

Lots of fools supporting trump. Fertile ground for scammers.