Carol Mahre, an 81-year-old grandmother from Minnesota who has voted Democratic since Eisenhower’s re-election in 1956, said she wanted to make a one-time donation of $25 to Clinton’s campaign. But when she received her U.S. Bank statement, she noticed that multiple charges of $25 (and one for $19) were made to her account from the Clinton campaign.
Her son tried to help her get the charges stopped, claiming to make 40 to 50 calls to the campaign before reaching a staffer, who agreed to stop the charges.
Then, of course, the charges did not stop.
Wells Fargo’s fraud department had this to say:
“We get up to a hundred calls a day from Hillary’s low-income supporters complaining about multiple unauthorized charges,” the employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told Crokin. The source added that they had not received any calls about the Trump campaign and donations.
The source said this has been going on since the spring, and that the campaign stops after it has taken a little less than $100 from a one-time donor.
“We don’t investigate fraudulent charges unless they are over $100,” the source said. “The Clinton campaign knows this, that’s why we don’t see any charges over the $100 amount, they’ll stop the charges just below $100. We’ll see her campaign overcharge donors by $20, $40 or $60 but never more than $100.”
That would explain the oddball charge of $19. It helped to keep the amount under $100.
The Wells Fargo source said the bank refunds Clinton donors between $700 and $1,200 a day.
The source said he was apolitical but thinks what the Clinton campaign is doing “is so messed up, she’s stealing from her poorest supporters.”
Similar charges were made against the Trump campaign. An investigation found that it wasn’t really impossible to stop the charges. It required starting an account with the Trump campaign site, and was more the fault of a third party interface, than the Trump campaign, itself.
After Mahre’s story was investigated by the NBC affiliate, her son Roger said they began hearing from others who had been overcharged by the Clinton campaign.
The whole thing left a bad taste in Mahre’s mouth, and she says she won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton in November.
No word yet on if she plans to vote for Trump or Johnson, instead.
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