If you're looking for a way to make easy money, make sure that your con targets people who believe anything they hear and don't possess much in the way of critical thinking skills. That was the plan of a Colorado-based company operating under the names "Patriots Dynasty", "Patriots Future" and "USA Patriots" when they started selling "Trump Bucks" to MAGA loyalists.

Trump Bucks are fake bills with Donald Trump's picture on them, but they're being sold to the MAGA faithful by telling them that purchasing them will somehow help put Trump back in office and that the Bucks will be worth many times their purchase price once he is back in office. The bills were being sold on Telegram and other websites popular with the MAGA crowd.

On social media sites and in promotional videos, many featuring faked celebrity endorsements, the scammers have targeted people that believe Trump’s ouster was part of a great conspiracy, and that by investing in the Trump Rebate Banking System (TRB), Trump will reward their devotion by making them rich beyond their wildest dreams.

When John Amann, one of the faithful, took the $2200 worth of Trump Bucks he'd purchased to his bank he found out they were worth $0 in real money. His Twitter messages indicate that he's beginning to suspect that he was scammed, saying "Alert if you purchased any of the TRB SYSTEMS ITEMS. YOU GOT SCAMMED. THE TRB VOUCHERS, DJT GOLDEN CHECKS, DJT DIAMOND CHECKS, TRB GOLDEN CHECKS have no monetary values they are COMMEMORATIVE ONLY!"

He later wrote directly to Eric Trump "Eric what is going on with the TRB SYSTEM is it a scam? I own several products from the TRB SYSTEM and went to Bank of America to redeemed [sic] and was told they never heard of it!"

Eric Trump did not respond. John did get a response from @Fiercemama_1977 who wrote back "Lolololol. Perfect."

In another case, a Florida woman who asked not to be identified by name, said her 77-year-old mother-in-law had invested tens of thousands of dollars in Trump Bucks.

"My mother-in-law has always been conservative and prone to believe in conspiracy theories" Florida woman said.

To prove to her mother-in-law that she had been swindled, she drove her mother-in-law to a nearby bank and had her try to cash in some of her Trump Bucks. The bank would not cash them.

"We thought she got it, she even admitted she got scammed," the Florida woman said. "But then giant boxes arrived at the house full of Trump checks and other stuff that she bought for $500 and that would supposedly be worth $6 million one day. We tell her she’s getting scammed and she says, 'Just wait, Trump will make all the patriots rich.'"

"It's like she’s in a cult," Florida woman said.

So if you're looking for someone to con, it's not surprising that people who have pledged their allegiance to Trump turn out to be easy marks. They don't question what you tell them as long as it's what they want to hear and the person they hear it from sounds sincere. Even better, they almost never realize they've been conned, so you can take their money again and again and again.

Check it out yourself

dunsmuir@pigdog.org