Amid ongoing investigations into the 6 January Capitol riots, the Save America political action committee has promoted “golden” loyalty cards to the former US President Donald Trump.
Multiple posts on Telegram have discussed the false benefits of the so-called Trump’s gold card, spreading online misinformation. Euronews has fact-checked these claims.
Many misleading claims about the cards were shared in Telegram channels affiliated with the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.
QAnon is a right-wing group that believes former President Donald Trump is fighting a Satan-worshipping paedophile ring that includes the likes of Barack Obama and philanthropist George Soros.
Its followers were among the mob that stormed the US Capitol building in January 2021.
A series of posts on social media claims that these new Trump gold cards guarantee customers “free food, free fuel, free healthcare or even free electricity”. Each single gold card is sold online at a hefty price of around €95.
A number of Twitter users have since questioned whether the gold card scheme is a scam.
“Can I ask what the benefits are of this Trump Gold Card? My friend bought 5 after seeing you promote it thinking she will be getting great benefits,” one Twitter user asked Trump’s son, Donald Jr.
Although the cards look similar to real bank cards, the official sales website states “this is a commemorative card and is solely intended as memorabilia.“
The card therefore merely serves as a business card to show a person’s support for Donald Trump.
Fake Trump coins
This is not the first time that these sorts of online scams have flourished surrounding the former US president. Certain Telegram accounts have previously urged their followers to buy the “TrumpCoin”, promising huge returns through cryptocurrency.
However, the coin had nothing to do with Trump and was not a registered cryptocurrency.
The Trump family — through Donald’s son Eric — has since threatened to sue the website selling these supposed coins.
“It has come to our attention that someone is promoting a crypto currency called TrumpCoin,” Eric Trump tweeted in January 2022.
“This has nothing to do with our family, we do not authorise the use and we are in no way affiliated with this group. Legal action will be taken.”
In an immediate response, the TrumpCoin then changed its name to Freedom Coin.
