Reply #39: OK!!! EVERYONE JUST RELAX!

[Nickster]

Seriously folks, just relax. I submitted my donation this morning and got this silly response back when I hit submit. I was shocked and pissed when I got it, but I've been looking at every little aspect of what happened. There was nothing at all that happened to make me believe that I was scammed.

If anyone is afraid of being scammed through the internet link, then give the DNC a call directly at 1-877-336-7200. They will take your information over the phone and everything will be just fine.

I got an email from the DNC talking about this grassroots program. They wanted to match grassroots donors who had made a pledge to match other donations with people like me who wanted to donate to the DNC.

What I found was that all I have to do as Mr. Dum Freeper is to go to the democrats.org page and click the link at the top of the page marked as "Make a Pledge" at this link:

http://www.democrats.org/page/match/pledge/2006

Now if you click that link, you'll see that ANYONE is able to select an amount and leave a message for the donor that they will be matched with. This will allow two grassroots donors to come together and possibly build a lasting relationship via their donations. This is a GREAT idea, that's why I wanted to be a part of it. BUT what happens is that as the person making this pledge, I don't have to submit a credit card or be verified in ANY WAY. Let me say that again, the person making the pledge is not verified in ANY WAY! That person also doesn't have to put money in upfront, so they can submit cute messages like I got and suffer nothing. This is a gaping hole in the plan and allows other donors to get these stupid messages and defeat the purpose of the matching program.

The idea is for the match to be made and then the system will send out an email to the person making the original pledge and say "Ok, time to pay up". If I didn't leave any valid information as Mr. Dumb Freeper, that email is not going anywhere and a donation is not made.

My credit card information was not submitted to this person and they didn't have access to my data at all. They just got the satisfaction of knowing that they held up a matching donation and making me freak out a bit. I didn't expect to hold up any other donations by spreading any fear. That wasn't my intent at all.

I checked the original email and it came directly from the DNC. I checked all the links and they didn't redirect me to anywhere other than www.democrats.org . I'm quite aware of the paypal scams and how they work. This was NOT the same situation. My transaction was secure, I'm quite confident of that.

Ok? So everyone take a deep breath and send some damn money to get more Democrats elected!!!!!