GOP set up phishing sites to trick Democrats into donating to the NRCC

At least 16 fraudulent sites attributed to the National Republican Congressional Committee have been discovered. These sites, whose domains are the names of Democratic candidates, use large type and photos that make them appear to be fundraisers for those candidates, though the small-print text makes it clear that these are actually sites set up opposing their apparent candidates. The NRCC claims these are all fair game and blame Democrats for not registered their candidates' names as for campaign sites. But when there's a site at AnnKirkpatrick.com, with the words ANN KIRKPATRICK FOR CONGRESS and a DONATE button beneath it, and when that DONATE button sends money to Ann Kirkpatrick's GOP rival, the intent to deceive is pretty clear.

Annkirkpatrick.com is one of a series of websites (TIME has found 16, so far) the NRCC has set up that are clearly designed to trick the viewer—at least at first—into thinking they’re on a legitimate campaign website. The tactic smacks of “spoofing” scams, whereby spammers masquerade under fake phone numbers or email addresses to win trust (it’s how you might have once received an email that looked addressed from a friend but turned out to be a plaintive plea from wealthy Nigerian prince). But the line between clever and criminal is an ambiguous one in American politics, and anyone claiming to be shocked by less-than-truthful campaign materials hasn’t been around much.

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This is probably not what the National Republican Congressional Committee was expecting when they decided to make the contribution page on their websites targeting Democratic candidates mimic the Democrats' websites. First, after public backlash, they had to start offering refunds to donors who'd been misled, and now, Google has put a "reported phishing website" warning on at least the anti-Alex Sink site.

Why so many American citizens play along with this charade is beyond me.

DrEugeneFixer
Anybody who defends this kind of criminal fraud must be in some kind of deep denial.

It might be that only someone who was careless or somehow impaired would fall for this, but it's still a criminal act to steal through deception, even if your victim is dumb. That applies whether it's political or not.

DrEugeneFixer
It might be that only someone who was careless or somehow impaired would fall for this, but it's still a criminal act to steal through deception, even if your victim is dumb.

MOMof3
reply to post by VictorVonDoom

 

So if it is ok for the Republicans to be crooks like everyone else, why care what Obama does?

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MOMof3
reply to post by VictorVonDoom

 

So if it is ok for the Republicans to be crooks like everyone else, why care what Obama does?