scam?

[radfringe]

received the following e-mail this morning. the friend who sent it is not someone who normally does "forwards" or passes along the chain-emails, or similarly annoying messages... my friend does live in georgia, however, the phrasing/formating of the message is not her style, which leads me to believe she did a cut/paste and is passing this around

I checked it out on SNOPES.com, and nothing there... anyone else receive something similar?

...just fell for what I think was a well-plotted phone scam, and hereby issue a warning.


This involved a very eloquent and polite young man who said he represented the local Democratic Party. We chatted
about politics for several minutes before he got to his wonderful spiel, which included the reason why I couldn’t send

a donation by check in the mail. Fool that I think I be, I happily gave him my credit card number to make a donation.

As I hung up, it dawned on me what I had done without an ounce of suspicion; so I called the number he had called from, hoping I’d get assurance by reaching the GDP (Georgia Democratic Party) When a very sleepy-sounding woman with no background sound of phones ringing and people talking, a la the first call, I jumped to cancel our cards.

Done, before the GA Democratic Party could get online and shop.


I am amazed by how easily I was fooled, having read a long article about such only yesterday.

This guy was really good.


Or he really was representing the GDP, and is feeling fooled by a crazy woman who was big time ObamaMama
on the phone, took up fifteen minutes of his time chatting, and then made a fake donation with a cancelled card number...

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Nice find.

It sounds like the GOP are trying to make us Dems look bad by stealing credit card numbers and saying we did it!

[radfringe]

2. if true, the other possibility

is GOP sending out the email, hoping it goes viral to scare off people from donating over the phone via credit card from legitamate dem sources

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Yup. Works for the GOP either way. n/t

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

4. I will say this:

When I get a call from the DNC, the caller ID says something like DEMOCRATIC_NATL_COMM.

When I get a call from Al Franken's campaign, the caller ID says something like AL_FRANKEN_FOR_SENATE.

When I get a call from an Obama fundraiser, the caller ID says BLOCKED ID, or gives a phone number I don't recognize, with no ID. I've never gotten a call from OBAMA_FOR_PRESIDENT.

I rarely answer calls from unidentified callers or numbers I don't know. I only know some of these were Obama calls because I picked up expecting someone else.

(I will also say this: I didn't have time to reply, but your post about the neighbor with the peaches was my favorite on DU yesterday. Al-caribou. Ha!)

[tpsbmam]

6. Even with caller ID supposedly confirming who is calling

I still don't give over the phone when they call me -- it's just a blanket policy that keeps me safer. That's bad on the part of the Obama campaign though -- with blocked ID they wouldn't get through to me at all since I block those who block their numbers. And I'm with you -- I often don't answer the phone if I don't know the number.

[tpsbmam]

5. Rule of thumb.....

If THEY call ME, I give next to no information and I most certainly don't even consider giving them any financial information or agreeing to donate. No matter what they say they're raising money for, it can always be a scam.