Look-Alike Web Sites Hoodwink Republican Donors

Hugh Pickens writes "Shane Goldmacher writes that a network of look-alike campaign websites have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in what some are calling a sophisticated political phishing scheme. The doppelgänger websites have the trappings of official campaign pages: smiling candidate photos and videos, issue pages, and a large red "donate" button at the top and exist for nearly three-dozen prominent GOP figures, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and donation magnets such as Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Allen West of Florida. The only difference is that proceeds from the shadow sites go not to the candidates pictured, but to an obscure conservative group called CAPE PAC run by activist Jeff Loyd, a former chairman of the Gila County GOP in Arizona. 'The only thing they are doing is lining their pockets and funding their own operation,' says Republican political strategist Chris LaCivita. CAPE PAC has a strong Web presence, with over 100,000 followers on Twitter and 50,000 on Facebook and its business model is to buy Google ads — about $290,000 worth, as of the end of June — to promote its network of candidate sites whenever people search for prominent GOP officials. A search for 'Mitt Romney,' for instance, often leads to two sponsored results: Romney's official site and CAPE PAC's mittromneyin2012.com. Once on a CAPE PAC site, users would have to notice fine print at either the top or bottom of the page revealing that they were not on the official page of their favored politician. A dozen donors, including some experienced Washington hands such as Neusner, had no idea they had contributed to the group before National Journal Daily contacted them. 'It confused me, and I do this for a living,' says Washington lobbyist Patrick Raffaniello. 'That's pretty sophisticated phishing.'"

Re:Question

[tilante]

Yes, they are non-profit corporations, and as such, hold trademarks on their logos, company names, etc. So the Republican Party would be able to sue you for trademark infringement.

Re:Here's another old scam for your examination

[jpapon]

Careful son, that's voter fraud, and could earn you a nice vacation in your local Federal penitentiary.

Re:Sleaze vs Party

[bmo]

What you don't understand is that the party that rails against regulations is now the victim of fraud.

Which makes the schadenfreude especially sweet.

Why do you hate the free market?

--
BMO

Re:Just goes to show you...

[Anonymous Coward]

If by "liberal", you mean "Allen Greenspan", then yes. He famously, privately averred that the government shouldn't prohibit fraud, that the marketplace would sort it out more efficiently.

So, like most conservatives, you have no fucking idea what you're talking about.

Re:regulations would help

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that coal mining companies dump all sorts of fun waste in the rivers every day, right?

And coal power plants put out more radioactivity than nuclear plants, into everybody's air, right?

Re:Dang!

[Abalamahalamatandra]

Funny and true! Their name servers show as domaincontrol.com, which is, in fact, GoDaddy.

Re:Just goes to show you...

[Anonymous Coward]

Blind skepticism is little better than blind faith.

Since your name suggest you chose the right editor, I'll assume there is hope for you.

When you say "they have identical donors" that simlply isn't true. The billionaires that make up Crossroads GPS are not donating to Obama's campaign or PACs, and LGBT PAC is not spending money saying nice things about Romney. There is a choice. If you're in the 1%, or an ultra-conservative religious enthusiast, Romney will undoubtedly have your back. If if you're.. well... everyone who doesn't care to see the desires of the ultra-conservatives and the wealthy prioritized above the rest of us, then it would seem Obama is a clear choice.

If you want to cut out all the bullshit, take two good examples. Read the 2010 Affordable Care Act (as passed)

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/ [healthcare.gov]

And then Read the Paul Ryan budget (which Romney claims is very similar (if not identical) to his):

http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf [house.gov]

These are outstanding examples of what each camp would like to do with your money. You can read into the past versions if you like. The orignal Obama Care included the highly controversial Public Option, and the original Ryan plan turned Medicare into Vouchercare. Both were bad ideas if you ask me, but they have since adapted their plans.

If your argument could be amended to: "Both sides are far too influenced by money and special interests." Then I would wholeheartedly agree and highly recommend this book by Lawrence Lessig on how we should go about fixing this problem:

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress--/dp/0446576433/ [amazon.com]

Re:ssssshhh!

[Lumpy]

"More likely age and familiarity with technology.
Republicans tend to skew dumb."

I fixed that for you.

Re:Question

[HornWumpus]

That's not fraud, it's completely typical. Not just for political causes, but all non-profits.

Don't forget that 'officer salaries' come off the top of donations.

You do have to file a metric buttload of paperwork every year to stay legal and not get greedy/stupid with the foundation credit cards.

The hard part is, as always, finding the suckers with money.

Re:Sleaze vs Party

[fermion]

I don't see it this way at all. What I see is a website that has palusible deniability. This is only so much money one can donate directly to a political candidate. Given that it is ok to donate unlimited amounts to a PAC not directly associated with a candiate, it makes sense that websites like this would be set up. It makes sense that lobbyist and insiders would feighn ignorance. OTOH, the political party or candidate could likely take such sites down with a simple DCMA notice if they were in fact phising operations and in fact did do harm to the candidate. But these are not phising sites. They do not appear to be stealing personal information, nor do they appear to be misusing the money. I mean maybe not all the moeny is being used to promote the candidate, and certainly the candidate does not have control, but that is normal and the later is the definition of how these PACS are supposed to work. They are not supposed to controlled in any way by the cadidate.

Re:Just goes to show you...

[BasilBrush]

Depends what nationality he is. His is spelt correctly for British English, yours is spelled correctly for American.

Re:Question

[Kittenman]

Incidentally, the word "Republic" comes from a Latin term meaning "the public thing".

Tut. "Republic" comes from "Res Publica" - 'public matters' (matters as in, concerns) in Greek. I'm fairly sure of that source language as Plato (Greek) wrote a book (well, sorta) called 'The Republic'.

Sorry to be such a pedant.