Is there any law preventing any random scammer from creating a site to raise money intending to simply take the money from anyone stupid enough to give it?
Like, suppose I set up a webpage and call it, oh, “Save our Glorious True President from the Liberal Cabal” and throw up some paragraphs of glurge about how horribly poor lil Donny is being treated and send him your money. And pledge that 100 percent of the donations will go to him, well, after ‘administrative costs’, such as paying myself up to a million dollars per week to handle things.
“Fraud” is any activity that relies on deception in order to achieve a gain. Fraud becomes a crime when it is a “knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment” (Black’s Law Dictionary). In other words, if you lie in order to deprive a person or organization of their money or property, you’re committing fraud.
What if you fail to say what the donated money is used for? You are not deceiving anyone dumb enough to donate: “Please send me some money - our hee-ro is in peril!”.
writing on X, formerly Twitter, some raised concerns that the page could be in breach of the platform’s rules about fundraising for those convicted for crimes, and called for it to be shut down.
One user, Ginny McDonald, wrote: “Hey @gofundme I think you have to shut this down. Trump can’t profit from his crime according to your guidelines.”
Another user wrote: “Hey @gofundme, isn’t it against your rules to raise money for criminals?”
A third said: “Dear @gofundme, the Trump fundraiser violates your rules unless you will fund people CONVICTED of financial and violent crimes as Trump has been.”
Another said: “If true, Trump is violating your rules by accepting donations to repay himself for his defense. ‘GoFundMe does not allow campaigns for the legal defense of financial crimes.’ Trump is violating your terms & any funds shouldn’t reach him.”
Experts too, raised concerns about the fundraiser. Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi said: “The New York fraud trial opinion establishes one major theme: Trump World is a financial mirage perpetrated by a family of grifters and sycophant employees. The GoFundMe proposal is an unsurprising offshoot—and it against the platform’s strict rules and likely to end up in court with a request for an injunction or other civil remedy. Plus, there may be criminal implications if the GoFundMe sponsors know that what they are doing is itself a fraud. In sum, another Trump mess!”
But Jalen Drummond, the director of public affairs, told Newsweek: “This fundraiser is currently within our terms of service.”
I remember now, many conservative entities have no shame.
I think that’s the part that would get you in trouble. IMHO, you’d be better off with the glurge being vague and not making any concrete promises or beneficiaries. So, rather than ‘send him your money’, maybe ‘donate today to help make america great again’ or ‘donations will be used to help push back against corrupt political ideologies’.
Interestingly, I bet you could get some of them to make donations directly to the left if you made statements like “Your donations will be used to help the evil Jack Smith and his team of corrupt attorneys that are hell bent on prosecuting PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP”
