Donald Trump was reportedly forced to return $122 million in donations after supporters were ‘tricked’ into making recurring payments to the former president’s campaign.
As the New York Times reported, their investigation found that deceptive tactics involving unwitting recurring payments were deployed by Trump’s fundraising campaign back in 2020.
According to the report, thousands of MAGA followers were tricked into agreeing to make recurring donations thanks to the fine print and pre-selected boxes they received via fundraising e-mails after opting to support Trump financially.
As seen in some of the screenshots dating as far back as March 2020, Trump followers who decided to back the Trump campaign were given the option to make their payments recurring. The catch, however, is that they were sent pre-checked boxes which they had to unselect manually in order to avoid being charged in the weeks and months to come.
The deceptive tactic reportedly tricked thousands of Americans into paying more than they wished to, resulting in countless fraud complaints.
As it was revealed, the Trump campaign was eventually forced to return $122.7 million in refunds to people who didn’t make recurring payments knowingly.
One such citizen who felt he was getting scammed was 63-year-old cancer-sufferer Stacy Blatt who allegedly ended up being charged $3,000 after willingly donating $500 in September.
“It felt like it was a scam,” he said as he recalled being charged hundreds of dollars per week after making his first payment.
Despite being forced to return $122.7 million, the Trump campaign appeared to downplay the severity of the issue as spokesperson Jason Miller claimed less than one percent of their WinRed transactions resulted in formal disputes.
“The fact we had a dispute rate of less than 1 percent of total donations despite raising more grass-roots money than any campaign in history is remarkable,” Miller insisted.
“Our campaign was built by the hardworking men and women of America and cherishing their investments was paramount to anything else we did.”
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Replaced!