Donald Trump’s Truth Social is reportedly riddled with scams. Victims claim to have been fleeced out of thousands on the alt-tech platform, which was launched by the former president and current Republican presidential nominee in 2022.
Complaints obtained by Gizmodo through a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Trade Commission reveal a large number of elderly supporters of the former president have apparently been swindled by such schemes, well into the six figures.
The most common scams happening on Truth Social appear to be pig butchering, a type of scam that lures victims into investing money in seemingly legitimate and profitable ventures by gaining their trust in the same way that a pig is fattened before slaughter.
While anyone can fall victim to these types of scams, where might a scammer find a congregation of dupable Boomers with access to a lifetime of savings and retirement accounts? Unsurprisingly, Truth Social seems to be a meeting ground for easy targets.
One victim in their 60s was contacted by a con artist on the platform about a lucrative investment opportunity. “Elite Republican trades” supposedly had “well-known investors namely President Trump (cofounder), Dan Bongino, Devin Nunes, and many more.” The victim began investing on the platform, seeing profits daily and “promised to make no less than 3M.” Victims of these types of scams don’t seem to understand that the amount of money in “their” account is bogus, only used to convince them to continue investing. When it comes to withdrawing the money, they are instead met with reasons and excuses as to why they need to keep investing ever-more funds. In this case, the victim was swindled out of $150,000.
Another victim in their 60s was convinced to invest $6,000 in Forex Trading by a scammer they were romantically involved with on the platform. They were convinced to take a further $92,400 from their retirement account, sell their house, and raise $1.75 million to supposedly purchase a house together in LA. In all, they are reporting a loss of $100,000.
One 72-year-old man who reported chatting with a “beautiful” woman on the site was ultimately scammed out of $21,000. He reported, “I haven’t told my wife about this blunder. She still doesn’t know about it.”
A representative at the MZ Group, which works for Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, told Gizmodo that they have “a robust team that actively searches for scams and bots on the platform and bans them as soon as they’re found.”
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