Truth Social users say they’ve been scammed out of massive amounts of cash

Story by Mike Bedigan. October 7, 2024.

  • Scams on Truth Social: Users, particularly elderly supporters of Donald Trump, have been scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars on Truth Social1.
  • Types of Scams: Pig Butchering2 was the preferred scam, although other scams involved romance schemes, where victims were convinced to send money for various reasons, including fake investments and personal emergencies.
  • Victim Stories: Individual losses ranged from $21,000 to $500,000, with victims often being persuaded to move conversations to other platforms like WhatsApp.
  • FTC Involvement: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received numerous complaints, highlighting the widespread nature of these scams.

One individual, a 72-year-old man, reported chatting with a “beautiful” woman on the site before being scammed out of $21,000. According to his complaint he did not tell his wife about the “blunder.”3

@RalphHightower: There are plenty of big “whales” on Truth Social. Those subscribers who are gullable to believe the lies from that pathological liar that Trump is will believe anything!3

  1. Truth Social is a social media platform that was launched by Trump after he was permanently banned from Twitter (B.M.)4 for inciting and encouraging the January 6, 2021 riot and melee at the U.S. Capitol to halt the certification of Biden as president and the peaceful transfer of power. ↩

  2. Pig butchering • Wikipedia: “Sha Zhu Pan” or Shazhupan, (Chinese: 杀猪盘), translated as Killing Pig Game, is a type of long-term scam and investment fraud in which the victim is gradually lured into making increasing contributions, usually in the form of cryptocurrency, to a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. They are commonplace on social apps. The scammer builds trust with the victim through online communication, subsequently persuading them to invest in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The “butchering” or “slaughtering” of the victim transpires when their assets or funds are stolen. ↩

  3. @RalphHightower: “Whoops! I wonderwhat she’ll do when she finds out.” ↩ ↩2

  4. B.M.: Similar to the time periods, B.C. and A.D., B.M. is that time period of Twitter, ‘Before Musk.’ ↩