4 Internet Rip-Offs That Targeted Trump Supporters

3 QAnon Is Nothing But A Huge Grift

QAnon is the name for a kooky conspiracy theory which alleges that the country is controlled by an elite cabal of pedophiles (honestly, that scans) which Trump will be taking down any second now (OK, never mind). That's according to "Q," a supposed anonymous high-ranking military officer embedded within the Trump administration who spends all day leaking information about the case to 4chan. Because that's the best way to go about dismantling a vast government conspiracy.

However, as NBC News' Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins revealed last year, the sudden popularity of QAnon wasn't an organic phenomenon. It was a calculated attempt by three internet randos to go viral and hopefully one day cash in on it. Back in 2017, "anon" postings like Q's were everywhere on 4chan. Then two of the site's moderators -- known as "Pamphlet Anon" and "BaruchtheScribe" -- seized onto Q and roped in YouTuber Tracy Diaz to help the message "go wider." Diaz's first video on Q, titled "/POL/- Q Clearance Anon - Is it #happening???," immediately went viral, and she soon pivoted entirely toward discussing and analyzing Q postings. As Diaz said in a now-deleted video, "Because I cover Q, I got an audience."

She also got a fat paycheck, too. Diaz would end every video asking viewers to fund her "research" via Patreon and/or PayPal. The mods who alerted her to Q didn't do too badly, either. After QAnon was picked up by Infowars, both Pamphlet Anon and BaruchtheScribe appeared on the network to discuss it -- and direct viewers to their bustling communities on Reddit, Facebook, 8chan, and "Patriot's Soapbox," a 24/7 livestream channel helmed by Pamphlet Anon and funded by viewers.

2 Ian Hawes Made A Million Bucks With A Shady PAC That Offered "Dinner With Trump"

In the months before the 2016 presidential election, the Trump campaign held a contest: Donate, and you could win a chance to have dinner with Ronald McDonald's neurosyphilitic grandfather. Thousands upon thousands of people applied. Altogether they wound up giving over one million dollars ... to a scammer.

1 There's A Popular Get-Rich-Quick Scheme Involving The Iraqi Dinar

Donald Trump won the presidency not just by appealing to virulent racism, but also by capitalizing on his reputation as a financial savant and big-time deal-maker. It's been decades and he's yet to demonstrate any of that, but that hasn't stopped internet scammers from preying on his supporters' belief in his economic acumen. Chiefly with promises that the only thing standing between them and untold riches is a fistful of worthless banknotes.

In scammer circles, the "Iraqi Dinar Special" is a con in which currency sellers persuade people to sink their money into Iraqi dinars. The idea is that in the years to come, Trump will revalue that currency and thus make these investors millions of dollars. Like all good scams, there's a sliver of truth here. The Iraqi dinar was at its height worth $3-4, meaning that anyone who bought them for cents really would make a fortune if the currency were to be revalued to anywhere near that level. The only problem is that the dinar hasn't been worth anything over a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a dollar since before the Gulf War.