+- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com)
+-- Forum: Culture (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-49.html)
+--- Forum: Law & Ethics (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-105.html)
+--- Thread: Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco (/thread-10763.html)
Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco - Magical Realist - Aug 8, 2021
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-gop-refund-128-million-after-donors-unwittingly-agree-recurring-contributions-1617244
"Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have refunded millions of dollars in donations this year after their aggressive fundraising tactics led donors to unwittingly agree to recurring contributions.
Newly released federal records show that Trump, the GOP and their shared accounts returned $12.8 million to donors in the first half of 2021, reported The New York Times. The figure represents about 20 percent of the $56 million that Trump and his committees have raised this year.
In April, an investigation conducted by the Times found that Trump's political operation started to opt online donors into automatic recurring contributions last September amid a cash crunch.
Trump donor websites pre-checked a weekly recurring donations box for each contributor, with a fine print explainer that was buried under multiple paragraphs of bold and capitalized text.
Donors had to manually untick the boxes to opt out of weekly withdrawals and a money bomb. The tactic caused a short-term spike in revenue as many were unaware of the pre-checked boxes, but donors have since demanded refunds and lodged complaints with their credit card providers.
Records show that $8.1 million of the total refunded came from Trump's shared bank account with the Republican National Committee (RNC), $2.2 million from his re-election committee, and $2.5 million from the Republican Party, according to the Times.
"It's pretty clear that the Trump campaign was engaging in deceptive tactics," said Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University's Project on Ethics in Political Communication. "If you have to return that much money you are doing something either very wrong or very unethical."
Pre-checked recurring donation boxes have become common among Republican politicians who use WinRed, a GOP fundraising platform endorsed by the RNC.
In May, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously asked Congress to pass legislation that would ban the use of pre-checked boxes for recurring donations. State attorney generals in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Maryland have also launched investigations into the practice.
Despite the backlash, Trump political action committees have continued to use pre-checked boxes. One email seeking donations on Saturday, seen by Newsweek, linked to a Save America site that pre-checked two boxes, one committing to monthly contributions and another that adds $50 in contributions."
RE: Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco - Syne - Aug 8, 2021
Your thread title is missing a decimal point. It's 12.8 million, not 128 million.
Many online payments/donations use pre-chcecked recurring payment options. The difference is that Trump/Republicans actually did refund it. If it's overtly deceptive, why haven't these same leftists gone after others who do the same? This is only news to those seeking any excuse to hate on Trump or Republicans.
RE: Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco - Magical Realist - Aug 8, 2021
(Aug 8, 2021 03:00 AM)Syne Wrote: Your thread title is missing a decimal point. It's 12.8 million, not 128 million.
Many online payments/donations use pre-chcecked recurring payment options. The difference is that Trump/Republicans actually did refund it. If it's overtly deceptive, why haven't these same leftists gone after others who do the same? This is only news to those seeking any excuse to hate on Trump or Republicans.
"Pre-checked recurring donation boxes have become common among Republican politicians who use WinRed, a GOP fundraising platform endorsed by the RNC.
In May, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously asked Congress to pass legislation that would ban the use of pre-checked boxes for recurring donations. State attorney generals in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Maryland have also launched investigations into the practice.
Despite the backlash, Trump political action committees have continued to use pre-checked boxes. One email seeking donations on Saturday, seen by Newsweek, linked to a Save America site that pre-checked two boxes, one committing to monthly contributions and another that adds $50 in contributions."
RE: Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco - Syne - Aug 8, 2021
(Aug 8, 2021 03:08 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: "Pre-checked recurring donation boxes have become common among Republican politicians who use WinRed, a GOP fundraising platform endorsed by the RNC.
In May, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously asked Congress to pass legislation that would ban the use of pre-checked boxes for recurring donations. State attorney generals in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Maryland have also launched investigations into the practice.
Despite the backlash, Trump political action committees have continued to use pre-checked boxes. One email seeking donations on Saturday, seen by Newsweek, linked to a Save America site that pre-checked two boxes, one committing to monthly contributions and another that adds $50 in contributions."
Because until Congress passes a law on it, it's perfectly legal. And if you think pre-checked recurring payments is isolated to Republicans (note, it says "common among", with no point of comparison, not "more prevalent among"), you're naive.
RE: Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco - Magical Realist - Aug 8, 2021
(Aug 8, 2021 03:16 AM)Syne Wrote:(Aug 8, 2021 03:08 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: "Pre-checked recurring donation boxes have become common among Republican politicians who use WinRed, a GOP fundraising platform endorsed by the RNC.
In May, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously asked Congress to pass legislation that would ban the use of pre-checked boxes for recurring donations. State attorney generals in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Maryland have also launched investigations into the practice.
Despite the backlash, Trump political action committees have continued to use pre-checked boxes. One email seeking donations on Saturday, seen by Newsweek, linked to a Save America site that pre-checked two boxes, one committing to monthly contributions and another that adds $50 in contributions."
Because until Congress passes a law on it, it's perfectly legal. And if you think pre-checked recurring payments is isolated to Republicans (note, it says "common among", with no point of comparison, not "more prevalent among"), you're naive.
"It's pretty clear that the Trump campaign was engaging in deceptive tactics," said Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University's Project on Ethics in Political Communication. "If you have to return that much money you are doing something either very wrong or very unethical."
RE: Trump campaign refunds 128 million in donations in prechecked box fiasco - Syne - Aug 8, 2021
GWU is about as leftist as they come.
The simple fact is that people either didn't take personal responsibility to read everything they were agreeing to or that they simply wanted a refund since Trump lost. The only ethical problem here is people blaming others for their own lack of attention.
And again, where's a comparison to Democrat campaigns? If this is so bad, certainly they could give us some numbers on how much better Democrats are in this respect.
Oops:
The never-ending election: How to stop recurring campaign donations
Terry Hendricks supports Hillary Clinton — up to a point.
The Fullerton resident thinks that point was reached Nov. 8 when Clinton lost the presidential election to Donald Trump. Hendricks, 69, reckons that her recurring $10 monthly contributions to the Hillary Victory Fund should have come to a halt once the contest was decided and the candidate stopped running.
Last week, however, the fund helped itself to another $10 credit-card payment, and Hendricks is worried that the contributions may never end.
She said she’s made over two-dozen calls: to the fund, to her bank, to the Democratic National Committee, to the Federal Election Commission. Either she got no response or she was informed that there was nothing to be done.
- https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-hillary-donations-20161202-story.html
They are known to turn your one time donation into a recurring donation without asking your permission. I had to cancel my credit card because there was no way for me to turn off the donation at their end. I tried to cancel my account with them and they refused to do it. There is really something wrong going on. Why politicans and social groups use ActBlue to manage their donation solicitations is beyond me. you cannot go online and stop or change your credit card that is being used for the last donation. Criminal behavior. Check out all the complaints online.
...
They have absolutely the worst record I've ever encountered in correcting charging errors. On two occasions their system doubled my donation and I let it go the first time because it was small, but the second time I went to their website and logged in and wrote THREE TIMES asking to have it corrected. NO ONE responded.
- https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/actblue-profile/reviews/