Alvin Finkelstein alert! Trump scammed donors with shady pre-checked boxes. I smell a class action!

[Walter Sobchak]

Druff, do you still have Alvin Finkelstein's number? Get him on the case!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/u...donations.html

People unwittingly signed up for weekly donations or double donations LMAO

Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.

It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.

What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.

“It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”

But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.

Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.

As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.

The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

WAS AN EASY MARK

WAS FUN

SFO

[tgull]

Druff, do you still have Alvin Finkelstein's number? Get him on the case!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/u...donations.html

People unwittingly signed up for weekly donations or double donations LMAO

Stacy Blatt was in hospice care last September listening to Rush Limbaugh’s dire warnings about how badly Donald J. Trump’s campaign needed money when he went online and chipped in everything he could: $500.

It was a big sum for a 63-year-old battling cancer and living in Kansas City on less than $1,000 per month. But that single contribution — federal records show it was his first ever — quickly multiplied. Another $500 was withdrawn the next day, then $500 the next week and every week through mid-October, without his knowledge — until Mr. Blatt’s bank account had been depleted and frozen. When his utility and rent payments bounced, he called his brother, Russell, for help.

What the Blatts soon discovered was $3,000 in withdrawals by the Trump campaign in less than 30 days. They called their bank and said they thought they were victims of fraud.

“It felt,” Russell said, “like it was a scam.”

But what the Blatts believed was duplicity was actually an intentional scheme to boost revenues by the Trump campaign and the for-profit company that processed its online donations, WinRed. Facing a cash crunch and getting badly outspent by the Democrats, the campaign had begun last September to set up recurring donations by default for online donors, for every week until the election.

Contributors had to wade through a fine-print disclaimer and manually uncheck a box to opt out.

As the election neared, the Trump team made that disclaimer increasingly opaque, an investigation by The New York Times showed. It introduced a second prechecked box, known internally as a “money bomb,” that doubled a person’s contribution. Eventually its solicitations featured lines of text in bold and capital letters that overwhelmed the opt-out language.

The tactic ensnared scores of unsuspecting Trump loyalists — retirees, military veterans, nurses and even experienced political operatives. Soon, banks and credit card companies were inundated with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.

WAS AN EASY MARK

WAS FUN

SFO

Did not read. All I know is you think 82 year old Nancy Pelosi is a great person, leader and is saving the planet. You sir are an indoctrinated shill.

[Dan Druff]

I actually did a segment about this on radio, which will be archived later tonight.

But in short, yes I agree this is awful and a big scam. It's a negative checkoff scam... literally.

It's about 50/50 whether Trump knew about this, though even if he didn't, it's very possible he wouldn't have objected to it. If you cut through the heartstring-tugging NY Times bullshit where they interviewed cherrypicked individual victims, and just focus upon the allegations themselves, it's pretty damning.

There was a clear and intentional (and successful) attempt to trick well-meaning donors into signing up for double donations and recurring donations, when they believed they were only making a 1-time donation.

Perhaps most obnoxiously, the for-profit company processing all of this refused to refund their 4% fees when ordered to refund the unauthorized recurring/double donations!

Sad!

[Walter Sobchak]

Druff, do you still have Alvin Finkelstein's number? Get him on the case!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/u...donations.html

People unwittingly signed up for weekly donations or double donations LMAO



WAS AN EASY MARK

WAS FUN

SFO

Did not read. All I know is you think 82 year old Nancy Pelosi is a great person, leader and is saving the planet. You sir are an indoctrinated shill.

You had to have a woman come and protect your precious online rep. You are the biggest faggot ever. You're also a deadbeat dad and and craigslist plumber with negative net worth.

[Sloppy Joe]

Likely sinister but a mimimal chance it's simple idiocy from the Trump campaign. They fucked up basic things in major ways all throughout 2020.

Remember, Team Retard isn't just a playful moniker. There's some truly stupid people in that orbit.

Of course Trump knew almost certainly knew about it, he's empirically crooked. This is accepted by Team Retard because it's a retarded cult.

I do feel bad for lemmings that were forking over Monday and got swindled by their king. Hopefully a lesson learned, but minor lulz regardless.

[Dan Druff]

Likely sinister but a mimimal chance it's simple idiocy from the Trump campaign. They fucked up basic things in major ways all throughout 2020.

Remember, Team Retard isn't just a playful moniker. There's some truly stupid people in that orbit.

Of course Trump knew almost certainly knew about it, he's empirically crooked. This is accepted by Team Retard because it's a retarded cult.

I do feel bad for lemmings that were forking over Monday and got swindled by their king. Hopefully a lesson learned, but minor lulz regardless.

It wasn't idiocy or an oversight. If you read the article, it outlines a very carefully orchestrated attempt to trick people into unknowingly authorizing these additional payments.

Regarding Trump knowing about it, you're assuming that he had his hands in the details of everything around him. He didn't. Trump likes to just give high-level commands from above, and let his underlings handle the details. He probably asked his campaign managers to make his fundraising "yuuuuge", and they promised him that they were coming up with innovative ways to do it. It's believable that they didn't outline all of these exact tactics, because his campaign managers wanted to look successful on the belief they were great fundraisers -- not that they did it via scamming. Trump wanted to hear that he got all those donations because he was so great, not because these campaign managers scammed additional donations.

I'll concede that, if the campaign managers told Trump they were doing this, and that it was the only way to keep up with Biden, he probably would have said okay. Trump has a long history of fucking people over. But it's also very believable that he had no clue about this as it was happening.

I don't donate to politican campaigns. I know they won't be working for me or my interests. They'll be self-serving and/or serving to the biggest donors -- on both sides of the aisle. I'll vote for the candidate I prefer, but zero point zero chance I will ever open up the Jew wallet for one of them.

[Sloppy Joe]

Likely sinister but a mimimal chance it's simple idiocy from the Trump campaign. They fucked up basic things in major ways all throughout 2020.

Remember, Team Retard isn't just a playful moniker. There's some truly stupid people in that orbit.

Of course Trump knew almost certainly knew about it, he's empirically crooked. This is accepted by Team Retard because it's a retarded cult.

I do feel bad for lemmings that were forking over Monday and got swindled by their king. Hopefully a lesson learned, but minor lulz regardless.

It wasn't idiocy or an oversight. If you read the article, it outlines a very carefully orchestrated attempt to trick people into unknowingly authorizing these additional payments.

Regarding Trump knowing about it, you're assuming that he had his hands in the details of everything around him. He didn't. Trump likes to just give high-level commands from above, and let his underlings handle the details. He probably asked his campaign managers to make his fundraising "yuuuuge", and they promised him that they were coming up with innovative ways to do it. It's believable that they didn't outline all of these exact tactics, because his campaign managers wanted to look successful on the belief they were great fundraisers -- not that they did it via scamming. Trump wanted to hear that he got all those donations because he was so great, not because these campaign managers scammed additional donations.

I'll concede that, if the campaign managers told Trump they were doing this, and that it was the only way to keep up with Biden, he probably would have said okay. Trump has a long history of fucking people over. But it's also very believable that he had no clue about this as it was happening.

I don't donate to politican campaigns. I know they won't be working for me or my interests. They'll be self-serving and/or serving to the biggest donors -- on both sides of the aisle. I'll vote for the candidate I prefer, but zero point zero chance I will ever open up the Jew wallet for one of them.

Anybody who does is an absolute moron.

[Walter Sobchak]

Likely sinister but a mimimal chance it's simple idiocy from the Trump campaign. They fucked up basic things in major ways all throughout 2020.

Remember, Team Retard isn't just a playful moniker. There's some truly stupid people in that orbit.

Of course Trump knew almost certainly knew about it, he's empirically crooked. This is accepted by Team Retard because it's a retarded cult.

I do feel bad for lemmings that were forking over Monday and got swindled by their king. Hopefully a lesson learned, but minor lulz regardless.

It wasn't idiocy or an oversight. If you read the article, it outlines a very carefully orchestrated attempt to trick people into unknowingly authorizing these additional payments.

Regarding Trump knowing about it, you're assuming that he had his hands in the details of everything around him. He didn't. Trump likes to just give high-level commands from above, and let his underlings handle the details. He probably asked his campaign managers to make his fundraising "yuuuuge", and they promised him that they were coming up with innovative ways to do it. It's believable that they didn't outline all of these exact tactics, because his campaign managers wanted to look successful on the belief they were great fundraisers -- not that they did it via scamming. Trump wanted to hear that he got all those donations because he was so great, not because these campaign managers scammed additional donations.

I'll concede that, if the campaign managers told Trump they were doing this, and that it was the only way to keep up with Biden, he probably would have said okay. Trump has a long history of fucking people over. But it's also very believable that he had no clue about this as it was happening.

I don't donate to politican campaigns. I know they won't be working for me or my interests. They'll be self-serving and/or serving to the biggest donors -- on both sides of the aisle. I'll vote for the candidate I prefer, but zero point zero chance I will ever open up the Jew wallet for one of them.

THIS

I donated once a long time ago then realized why would I ever do that?

Also LOL that their huge online fundraising platform WinRed is for-profit. That's taking money away from the candidates for whom they're raising the money. (ActBlue is non-profit.) I wonder if it would affect the conversion rate if they told people that a portion of their donation would go to the platform's profits? They also kept their fees when giving "refunds."