A 25-year-old man is scamming thousands of Donald Trump supporters with a fake chance to win dinner with the Republican presidential nominee, according to a report from Politico.
Ian Hawes runs dinnerwithtrump.org, a website that claims to offer a chance to win a meal with Trump. By Sunday, Politico reported the site had raised more than $1 million for Hawes' American Horizons PAC. Of that, none has gone to the Trump campaign.
On the homepage for dinnerwithtrump.org is a photo of the presidential candidate standing in front of an American flag. Atop the photo is an entry form for the contest to win dinner with Trump.
"The flight, food and stay are on us," the site claims.
Lured by the chance for some one-on-one time with the business mogul, more than 410,000 people have signed up for the contest, Politico reported. Of those, more than 21,000 people have donated.
The contest, however, appears to be a scam. It's winner will not win a dinner with Trump but will instead get tickets for a "winner and guest to attend a Donald Trump fundraising event with other attendees," according to fine print, written in small gray letters on the homepage for dinnerwithtrump.org.
Many donors contacted by Politico believed the site was affiliated with the Trump campaign, an impression Hawes said is "simply a matter of pure chance."
He denied that dinnerwithtrump.org is a scam.
"I feel ripped off and taken advantage of. This is horrible. That was not my intent," Mary Pat Kulina, who donated $265 to Hawe's American Horizons PAC. She told Politico she believed her money was going to the Trump campaign.
"This is robbery," she told the news website.
American Horizons PAC registered with the Federal Elections Commission in June. Commissioner Ann Ravel would not discuss the PAC specifically with Politico, although she admitted the FEC had little options in the way of fighting fraud.
"That's the frustration I have, that there's very little recourse," she told Politico. "People give money thinking it's going to go to a particular person or a particular cause and it's a consumer protection issues as far as I'm concerned."
Read more on Politico.
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