Ok, I'm just a bit ticked off right about now. WTF??

[Nickster]

So I got the DNC grassroots email about having your donation matched by another grassroots donor which I'm sure everyone got. Well, today is my payday so I had a few bucks to donate.......

I went to the website through the email link and felt pretty good about having my little donation doubled by someone else and got this and I'm not sure if it's one of our guys trying to be funny or if it's some damn dirty freeper screwing up the system.

I submit my donation and then get the confirmation screen where you get to see who matched your donation and get a chance to send them an email if you want. This is what I get after my donation.


Get this:

Thank you for your contribution. Each year, tens of thousands of people from across the country make the decision to support the Party and Democratic candidates. Today you stood up and added not only to the Party's available resources, but to the larger sense of community and civic responsibility that we as Democrats stand for.

As part of that community, a Democratic donor agreed to match your contribution today. Their information appears below, and you have the opportunity to send a message to the person who is matching you. If you like, you can exchange information and build a longer-lasting relationship -- or, you can move on without sending a message at all.

Again, thank you for your support.

Your contribution has been matched by:
Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan

A message to you from the person who matched your contribution:
With Democrats in charge of the Congress, America will run like dogs from Iraq. What a glorious day for jihad that will be! Defeat the infidels. Vote Democratic in '06!


What a bunch of friggin animals!

[Clark2008]

1. What's the website? Have you reported it?

[Nickster]

4. It's on the democrats.org page. I'm trying to come up with a witty respons

to send back in the hopes that it actually reaches the dirtbag who did this assuming they gave a legit email which they probably didn't. I still have this confirmation page up on the screen.

[rockymountaindem]

28. How about "thanks for the money, sucker!" n/t

[Branjor]

2. You need to get your money back

and report it!

[Kingshakabobo]

38. That's a FABULOUS idea!

Help the freeps with their goal!

[Branjor]

45. Oh for god's sake....

I wrote that very early after the original post and thought the donation had gone to a fake site.

[jarnocan]

3. they are so sickening

I almost puked watching Ken Melhman on the Today show as well.
I hope they can fix the system. The far right will lie and try anything, they have no real values or morals. They have cost US all so much.

[BootinUp]

5. Sounds like a scam

I'd check with your credit card company, you might have to put a fraud claim on it.

[bluethruandthru]

6. I got the same e-mail.

I haven't donated so it's just the one telling me that my contribution will be matched. WTF?
Report this asap! Thanks for the heads up.

[ClassWarrior]

7. Please report it to the Party so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

NGU.

[wyldwolf]

8. look on the bright side...

The person who posted that had to donate at least as much as you did for the pleasure.

[mykpart]

9. I was going to contribute, but now I won't.

But I probably will mail in a donation. You should go to the website and email them to let them know what happened.

[Connie_Corleone]

13. You can donate through the regular contribution link...

instead of the match contribution link. That's what I did.

[Nickster]

10. Ok how about this for an email response back.

Heh, heh....well Osama ole buddy I sure am glad that you're still spreading that message around to all those durn Demoncrats! Heck if I didn't have you around sending out video tapes everytime that I'm failing in the polls I never would have been re-elected and let me tell ya Osama ole buddy the GOP sure needs your help as much as ever. Heh heh. So keep up the good work, I can hardly wait until we get to work together again when I'm finally in the Carlyle group with Poppy! Whoo Boy! It'll be just like the old days with you and me!

Hugs and Kisses,
Your Ole Buddy-George Dubya (aka The Decider)

[badgerpup]

36. One thing...you spelled everything right.

Better fix that...or unfix it.
You know what I mean.

I got that email too. Glad I didn't respond now.
Thanks for the heads-up!

I love you guys, you know that?

[Solly Mack]

11. OK. That's internet fraud - you need to report it to the FBI

Definition of internet fraud
http://www.internetfraud.usdoj.gov/#What%20Is%20Interne...

How to file a complaint here and the complaint form to IC3
http://www.ic3.gov /

You need to verify if the email you received was actually from a legitimate organization or if it was someone posing as the legitimate organization. Many times people use what looks like legitimate email addresses from legitimate organizations only for it to turn out to be scam.

Verify...and then report if it was a scam.

[Nickster]

16. Just finished looking through the headers of the original email that I

donated through. Looks clean to me. I don't see any hidden links or redirects in it. If the email is bad it's a darn good one. Going to run it through a few more tools and see if I get anything, but I'm pretty sure it's a good email.

[Nickster]

12. I've sent a message back to the DNC and gave them whatever information

that I could glean from this transaction. Hopefully everything is ok. I got an auto-email response back from the DNC thanking me for my donation, so I'm hoping that just the matching donor match up part of it is being freeped rather than someone hacking the actual donations.

[mykpart]

14. Good for you. But it's still fraud.

You should still report it to the FBI.

[Nickster]

15. I'll check that out too. Just hung up with DNC member services, got a

number for their 2nd level support. Not too sure they can really do anything about it or they don't really seem to care. Took my name and number and the details.

[BlueEyedSon]

17. So a stupid freeper PAID to play a trick on you? DOH!

[Nickster]

18. No, I took a look at what you need to do to make a pledge to be a matching

donor. You fill out your information and select an amount that you'll match. All it does is puts you in the database and once you're matched up they send you a link to make good on your match. So all you have to do is put whatever you want in the database and it gets sent out to the next donor who makes a real contribution. It's being done on the honor system, so this didn't cost the Freeper a red cent.

[BlueEyedSon]

20. They should take a CC# and put a "hold" on the amount.

To avoid pranksters and renegs

[Nickster]

21. I agree 100%. Not sure why they didn't do that. n/t

[radfringe]

19. regarding honor system

so how many times has this particular freeper been able to do this? How many other people will get the same or similar message?

anyone here on the DU have connections to dem org?

[holboz]

22. That's fraud. Plain and simple. REPORT IT your Attorney General

Couldn't it be Theft by Deception? I'm no lawyer but this does not sound lawful.

If you paid by CC report it to the card issuer and let them know it is fraud. They'll refund your payment.

[Richardo]

23. It would help us all if you posted a deactivated version of the link...

...so we'd know what to look for.

[Nickster]

24. After looking through everything. I really don't think it's anything

devious to be worried about. You start off through this link:

http://www.democrats.org/match

All that I see happening is that ANYONE can make a pledge that they will match another donor's contribution without actually making any financial committment up front. They can also leave a message as this anti-American freeper decided to do. I make a donation and then they match me up with one of these submissions and send an email out asking the pledge to be made good at that time.

It's a neat idea, they just left a gaping hole in it. The message I got was just plain stupid. I wonder what other messages have been left that might not be as stupid.

[Richardo]

25. I know you're mad, but the response you got was pretty funny in a way.

Look at it this way -- the guy had to contribute to the Dems to put it there.

[Nickster]

26. No, see that's the rub. You can just put whatever you want in the

matching donor side of the database. He didn't have to put up a penny. Just fill out the form and leave whatever message you want. He didn't leave a valid email either, so I couldn't send my reply back to him.

[Richardo]

27. Ah. Not so cool then.

[progressoid]

30. Looks like somebody left a gaping hole in that system

I too got that email and was considering scrounging up a few bucks. Not now.

Guess it's time to give them a heads up about a huge problem with their operation.

[Nickster]

31. You can still donate, just call or mail them. Here's a link

http://www.democrats.org/a/2002/06/donate_by_phone.php

[Norquist Nemesis]

29. oops!

edited...I misunderstood. Still a slimy thing to do. It was probably Bill O'Reilly using his political nom de plume!

[LSK]

32. sounds like a scam

Theres an old email scam where they faked Ebay, sounds like something similar.

[Sammy Pepys]

33. Sounds like you got scammed

Either that, or some knucklehead put in some fake info and you just happened to get matched with him by the "luck" of the draw.

Are you entirely sure you made the donation through a legitimate portal? Scammers have been doing things like this for years. I'd keep an eye on your debit/credit cards....maybe even call them right now.

[ChiciB1]

34. I Got The Same Email, But I Had Already Donated Over The Phone

so I ignored it. I didn't donate to these people, just the DNC. Glad you posted this, but is there a solution here??

[helderheid]

35. REPORT IT. That is FUCKED UP

[NoSheep]

37. I just emailed MSNBC. Shouldn't the media be warning people?

[Nickster]

39. OK!!! EVERYONE JUST RELAX!

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!!!!!

[petronius]

40. To be honest, I think that's sort of funny

It seems as though the DNC left a flaw in their donation-matching plan (i.e. they should have gotten pledge commitments up front) and some freeper-type took advantage. While it clearly was a prickish thing to do it is a bit more clever than the typical troll bullshit, and I'd be laughing my ass off if this happened to a Republican pledge drive...

[trumad]

41. It's hilarious and if the tables were turned,,,,

I'd probably do the same thing.

[cobalt1999]

42. I agree.

It's pretty funny and it worked to perfection. I'm just amazed one of them had the IQ to think of it.

How long before that hole is patched?

[Overlord]

48. They're stupid?

Yea, and you all were stupid enough to fall for it thinking "OMG WE GOTS SCAMZORED"

[Gidney N Cloyd]

43. I'm with you. As warped as the reasoning behind it is, it was funny.

And whoever did it can pride himself in knowing he's the only freeper in the world clever enough to ever have come up with it.

[Kurovski]

44. We're in agreement. It's funny.

Especially when you consider that Bush and the bin Ladens have actually done business together.

[EFerrari]

46. Most Bush cronies donate some to both sides.

[elehhhhna]

47. Osama switched parties? When?