Fundraising scam?

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Friday May 01, 2015 · 10:32 PM PDT

2015/05/01 · 22:32

Yet another "org" opposing "Citizens United" has sprung up, this one calling itself EndCitizensUnited.Org Now, working to overturn that outrageous decision is a fine thing, as is supporting candidates who commit to supporting a constitutional amendment. However, there are already several excellent orgs that have been in this battle for years, with considerable effectiveness, notably Move to Amend. So why another?

The newly-minted EndCitizensUnited has a website that invites petition sign-ups and those result in a series of unusually high pressure solicitation emails. So unusual in fact that they're almost beyond the pale of any tactics used by other, legitimate, real orgs.

Of course I signed a petition, got these high pressure solicitations (multiple per day) and decided to investigate. There is nary a single real name on the website. Nada. No mention of who's in charge, who's on a board, who controls the bank account, nada. I read the "privacy policy" which suggests writing to admin@ if you have any questions. I did, and received an automated solicitation for more money.

Even the domain registration is private. That's not unusual in the biz world, but normally, a legitimate non-profit will proudly list the org name as owner of its own domain. Not here. The address given for the anonymous registrant is Scottsdale, AZ -- FWIW. Could be anywhere, or nowhere.

The site claims to have raised over $300K already. Assuming it's true (which I doubt) that's a helluva lot of money going to something that is totally anonymous and apparently, unaccountable. Maybe my suspicions are incorrect, and this is a bona fide (though still unnecessary) effort that's just being attempted by somebody without a clue about how to properly organize a legitimate, transparent, accountable non-profit org.

Activism is good. Transparent, accountable activism. But it's amazing people will send money to something so anonymous. Unfortunately, it's not true that anyone claiming to 'Like' what we like is worthy of our money. Sometimes, it's being fraudulently siphoned off for personal benefit.

If you know more about this one, do tell. Onward.

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Fundraising scam?

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