Flipping it around slightly, let’s mock the scammed because of who they got scammed by.
Scam #1:
Donald Trump released a few sets of NFT trading cards so far. I think there were 45000 available spread across 10 pictures each time. The pictures used for the trading cards were taken from various websites like Amazon and a few other places, then altered to feature him as an astronaut, rock star, etc.
They sell out fast and he gets millions each time. He kept about 1000 of the more “rare” images to boost their value.
The first part of the scam is Trump is selling them. The second part is he’s using stolen images that have been altered. The third part of the scam is Trump is selling them.
The value of these had gone from the sale price of $99 to about $200 in February. Two weeks ago, the price plummeted to $1.04, losing 99% of their initial value.
Scam #2:
Now available: Trump Bucks.
Yes, now you can buy checks, coins, paper currency and collector cards with Trump’s image, name and/or signature on them. Donald Trump has created a new monetary system called “Trump Rebate Banking”. Support him now and help him get into the White House in 2024 and you will be rewarded later.
“Make Your Dreams Come TRUE, because this is your ONLY chance to get a hold of the TRB Black Collect Card. We know all of you have been waiting patiently for so long and now is the time when you will have everything that is promised! Live the American Dream, live the Life you were promised and get the things you always wanted without thinking twice!”
Our line of of Official TRB System Black Collect Cards allow you to conveniently and easily purchase multiple Trump Bucks at one time. Choose from a 1X card at $89.99, 3X at $209.99, 5X at $299.99 or 10X at $499.00. On sale now at 90% off, with free shipping and handling! It’s got Trump’s golden signature, just like how everything he touches turns to gold. (Pay no attention to the fact that the 1X card is only a 10% discount, the 3X card is 30%, 5X is 40% and 10X is 50%. And definitely don’t pay attention to the fact that the only thing being multiplied is getting you to shell out more by you assuming that it’s about the future value of the card.)
But if a 10X return on your investment isn’t enough, why not go for “$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks” notes? They’re also just $99.99 each but will be worth a hundred times what you paid for it! Turn that hundred bucks into ten thousand! Use them at banks! Use them at Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and more!
Or maybe if you don’t want to have the Black Collect Cards, you can just buy the Diamond Bucks themselves. Choose one for $99.99, three for $79.99 each, five for $69.99 each or ten for $49.99 each. (Also pay no attention to the fact that discount rate is listed as a flat 80% off for each one but is different based on how much you buy. But hey, 80% off instead of 90, amirite?)
If that isn’t a good enough deal, buy a “10X Diamond Trump Bucks” at $9.99 each (total of $99.99) and you’ll get two $25,000 Trump Diamond Checks for free. This deal is also 80% off. (Also also ignore the fact that this is a much better deal than buying a single Diamond Trump Buck because that one DTB will cost you ten times more and you get more than a dozen times less than this deal.) In fact, why not get the best deal possible by buying a “100X Diamond Trump Bucks” package with “10X $25,000 Trump Diamond Checks for free” for just $499.99? That’s another 80% savings! (Also also also just flat-out ignore that our “deals” are completely skewed to make it look like you’re stealing from us. Also also also also ignore that our own ads show how worthless this actually is. Please, seriously. Just give us your money and don’t think about how you’re being ripped off.)
Show Trump and the world your loyalty, just like the people who came back and bought more when they realized what a good deal this is. Even Trump himself endorses it. Why, just listen to this recording of him on the phone announcing it. If you can’t believe Donald Trump when that’s clearly his voice, what can you believe in?
If you act now, Trump will give you a free $1000 “Federal Trump Note” that looks just like the Federal Reserve Notes in use today. See? Here’s a picture of him holding one so it’s totally legit and not one of the ten-pack of novelty notes you can buy on Amazon for twelve bucks.
Don’t delay, do it today! MAGA!
This is the latest version of the scam that’s been around a few years. It uses the conspiracy theory that Trump will create a new monetary system that makes what you spend now worth more later. This version of the scam says it’s already in effect. The victims are taking the Trump Bucks to banks and retailers and are being told these aren’t legal. And yet, some of the victims refuse to believe it’s a scam.
Trump Bucks come from different companies with similar names: Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future, USA Patriots. The Better Business Bureau identifies them as operating out of an industrial center in Aurora, CO, gives them an F rating and there’s 33 complaints about them on the BBB website. A couple of days after this story broke, the websites were shut down.
Where this scam did better in roping it its victims isn’t just that it played into the conspiracy theories many Trump supporters believe in, but they used AI to generate a recording of Trump announcing it. There were also AI-generated celebrity endorsements from Elon Musk and others. You can even watch a “review” of Trump Bucks, which includes the red flags the victims would have ignored if they had heard it (listed below).
The victims heard Trump’s voice and because they were already predisposed to believe anything that he says, they believed it. They believed this was created by him, it would help him get back into the White House and they would get a yuge reward for helping him.
Now they’re out thousands of dollars each because they thought they were buying legal tender that was magically worth more than what they paid for.
These companies (likely the same one under different names) will get away with it because there was just enough disclaimers and specific words used to make what was being sold technically not illegal. If you somehow did manage to resell it for more than what you paid, then it’s not a scam.
But in most of the cases, you have to hunt for those clues and the Trump faithful did not or would not let themselves find those because they wanted to believe it was true.
Here’s what I see were the red flags that should have at least caused people to question whether this was legitimate or not.
- The usual “you have to do this now” urgency so common with scams. “Grab this deal right now and don’t look back”.
- No explanation of why an item bought at price A would suddenly become a hundred times more valuable.
- No explanation of how Trump got a new currency implemented or will implement in the future, and no explanation of what’s going to be used to back the value of it (gold standard, crypto, NFTs, etc.)
- AI-generated content. Even though it used Trump’s voice to generate the announcement recording, it just didn’t sound quite right.
- The “review” of Trump Bucks, which was AI-generated and more of an ad than a review, slipped in the pieces that keep this scam from being illegal:
“It is important to note that it cannot be used as a store of value. It is exclusively used as memorabilia and not as investment.”"
“Trump bucks are not legal tender and are for entertainment purposes only.” - The Review System account that released the video has 18 subscribers. (I just looked at it and it has a LOT of videos that are all about the same thing: Health products and Trump Bucks/Box/Golden Checks/Vouchers.)
- On the Patriots Future website (which I linked to before as the version saved by the Internet Archive) makes no mention that this is legal tender. It implies it is legal tender by calling it a “banknote” and an “investment”, plus using a picture with “Federal Reserve Note” on it. In contrast, “Commemorative Buck” is used.
- The bill uses embossing to adhere gold foil to it. This would not be durable in the long run.
- The aforementioned picture of Donald Trump holding what looks like a $1000 bill can be bought on Amazon. It adds “Federal Trump Note” in the main body of the design, replaces “Federal Reserve Note” in the top border with “President Donald J. Trump”, the serial number is “GOLD99999999”, the number 100 is part of the design instead of 1000 (and has odd spacing like 10 0 and 1 0 0) and instead of a security filament that becomes visible when you hold the note up to the light, it’s a dark band printed in ink on the surface of the paper.
- The picture of the “$10,000 Diamond Trump Buck” does have “Federal Reserve Note” on it, but it also has that weird spacing issue for the number 100. Current standard is the number worked into the image matches denomination of the note, so this is not in compliance.
- If this is a new currency Donald Trump created or will create, why are Trump Bucks a “special edition”, “limited edition” and a “Limited Special Offer”? Isn’t this a currency that will have ongoing use, or is it supposed to be a one-time deal? Seems like a lot of hassle to create a currency that will have a small window of time for it to be used.
- Why is this new Trump-created currency “sold exclusively here and can’t be bought anywhere else”? Why wouldn’t it be issued through the Federal Reserve System? Why a private company for a government-backed money? And if it can’t be bought anywhere else, why were there three companies selling it?
At the present, it appears that Trump wasn’t involved in this. “Appears” is the operative word.
Trump made a lot of his money by licensing his name and image. He is very protective of both. He goes after people who don’t license the use of them from him. It doesn’t matter that as a politician, he became a public figure and the rules on how his image can be used are different for him now. He threatened to sue the Republican Party because they were fundraising by using his name and image and they weren’t paying him for them.
So far, Trump hasn’t threatened to sue Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots for creating “Trump Bucks”, using his image and signature and creating a recording supposedly of him endorsing this. Jesse Dollemore pointed this out. The lack of a law suit or even just the threat of one leaves the door open for the possibility that he was involved in this. Precedent is there. He teamed up with a small company for his NFTs and got a payout for each of them. Maybe he teamed up with these three companies for another grift that’s left a lot of his supporters angry that they got scammed.