Conservative political commentator April LaJune is facing increasing allegations that she is scamming people into a well-known fraud scheme that sells the idea there’s a secret government bank account people can use to pay off their bills and debt.In an interview with The Durango Herald on Tuesday, LaJune adamantly denied the accusations, and argued her business, while dealing with similar concepts, is different than those that defraud people of money.
“A lot of scammers are combative and lead people to think they can quit their job and not pay their bills,” LaJune said. “For us, it’s about using the ‘Accepted for Value’ process to push debts and credits across lines in commerce like people do every day.”
The allegations are tied to a 40-year-old scam that promotes the notion the U.S. Treasury creates a secret cash account in one’s name at birth. Scammers claim that through the proper paperwork, people can use this money to pay debt, bills and other expenses.
“Redemption,” “Strawman” or “Acceptance for Value” are common names for the scam, according to an FBI warning about the scheme on the agency’s website.
Scammers trying to profit off this unfounded theory often charge fees for “kits,” the FBI says, to teach people how to navigate the supposedly complex process to access these secret funds.
“This scheme frequently intermingles legal and pseudo legal terminology in order to appear lawful,” the FBI warns.
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Through her website and daily online show “America Matters,” LaJune has episodes that specifically explain the process that supposedly allows people to access these funds.
But over the years, this idea has been continually disproved and cast as a conspiracy theory.
The FBI, for instance, explicitly warns people not to believe this scheme and asks people to report would-be scammers.
“Do not believe that the U.S. Treasury controls bank accounts for all citizens,” the FBI says. “This scheme predominately uses fraudulent financial documents that appear to be legitimate … (and) other official documents are used outside their intended purpose.”
ScamBusters, a website that provides information on common scams, said there has “never been a single verifiable case of anybody identifying the existence of a secret Treasury account in their name, let alone getting their hands on any of this mythical money to pay taxes or any other bill.”
But LaJune claims she has successfully accessed this account on two occasions: once to pay for a medical bill and another time to get credit on an electricity bill. She declined to provide documented proof.
― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 17 May 2018 16:36 (six years ago) link