Obama Campaign Disabled Credit Verification (AVS) for Donors

By Albert N. Milliron, Editor Politisite.com

How does a candidate raise 700 million dollars in a recession? 

What is the reason that the Obama campaign cannot verify information on donations below 200.00?  Could it be that the campaign has disabled the credit card address verification feature as well as the 3 number code found the the reverse of the card?  Both of these features are to prevent credit card fraud.  With in the last few days, reporters have entered credit card numbers under various peoples names.  The result?  The Obama campaign credit card system comes back with a statement that says, “Thank you for your support”.

Under present election laws, all donations are to be carefully documented as to the originator of the donation.  Now the law does not require a candidate to post this information but it must keep a accurate records of every transaction,  so one cannot give more then the maximum for each election cycle.  Under Obama’s present credit card donation system, there is no way of telling who is actually giving the donation as the Name, address, and security code are not verified.  Thus the possibly of election fraud.

One can simply maximize his/her donations then go to a name that has not given the maximum amount and enter their credit card number into the system. 

How does a candidate raise $650 million dollars and $150 million in one month?  New evidence is emerging that the Obama camp has deliberately disabled the address verification feature for all of their credit card transactions. Normally, when you go to Amazon.com or some place and try to purchase an item, Amazon will ask for your CC# and your address, then they run a check to verify that the card# you are using matches that card’s # of record. Ace of Spades reports that credit card companies typically do not let companies disable this feature, and it can only be done deliberately:

Having worked for companies that process credit cards online, it is necessary to go through and manually disable the safeguards that they put in place to verify a person’s address and zip code with the cardholder’s bank. But international banks don’t currently have the same safeguards that banks in the US have, which also works in the One’s favor.

So most likely they’ve disabled the necessary safeguards for US cards which their merchant bank would be angry about if they found out since it exposes them to risk, as well as international cards which is an even greater risk because there’s no way to verify the information electronically for most countries, so they could just say they’re in the US with phony info and the card will still process online. The One could then just claim that they said they were from America.

Senator Clinton’s website worked with a reputable company that had the same safeguards in place for her online donations, seems like someone just doesn’t like to play by the rules that credit card companies have put in place.

Is there a legitimate reason to disable the AVS system? Apparently not:

Visa/MC banks hate it when merchants blow off AVS, as it increases the risk of chargebacks (which are a hassle/expense for the bank to handle). Consequently they demand a much higher discount rate to take cards with AVS-overrides.

If a merchant’s chargeback rate goes above 1% the banks will wallop the merchant with research fees. Merchants with high chargeback rates (like porn sites) can end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra monthly fees in order to be able to continue to accept cards, on top of huge discounts on each transaction.

If you think this is exaggeration, I would invite you to try it yourself, but I wouldn’t want anyone donating money to this scam artist. However, here are several testimonials of people who have tried to donate:

Frankly, its easier than I’d believe to do this. Courtesy of my (real) CC number and expiration date, the Obama campaign has just received a $19.45 donation from mister Adolf Hitler, whose occupation is “Dictator” at the company “National Socialist Party of Ger” (I got cut off). I captured screenshots to prove this.

No verification required. The listed address wasn’t even close to my real address.

Good to know that Obama is taking donations from Adolf Hitler, he truly is a post-racial candidate! What is even more frightening, is that apparently the Obama web page AVS system is also designed to take credit cards issued in foreign countries.

Republican donated Max to Obama Campaign, They didn’t know it until they got their statement!

Steve and Rachel Larman say a strange credit card charge appeared on their statement this month — a $2300 donation to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The Larman’s say they don’t want this to be about their political affiliation, but they say they’re not about to give the Obama campaign any help from their pocketbook.

They said they notified Chase, their credit card bank, to report the fraud.

“(They) said that they had seen-they were familiar with this,” said Steve Larman. “It was fraud, they believe through telemarketing but they were going to be doing some more investigations.”

The Larman’s don’t want their politics to enter into what is essentially just a fraudulent charge. But they say that the charge involves the Obama campaign adds insult to injury for the registered Republicans.

“They (Chase) kept on asking me ‘are you sure you wouldnt have gone to a site in support of Obama’,” said Rachel Larman. “And I repeatedly said ‘Im voting for McCain – I would not be going to an Obama site’.”

John Galt donating to Obama. RNC files new complaint with FEC, Foreign credit cards being accepted too!

I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn’t ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and… “Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift.”

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it’s donors. Also, I don’t see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn’t allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn’t match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

Can one donate to McCain with out giving correct information?  Not a chance!

dunkelberg, NowPublic Contrbuter  Pointed out this article- Donor Patrol: Obama’s Online Site Accepts More Fakes

To be fair to the Obama campaign, officials there have said much of their checking for fraud occurs after the transactions have already occurred. When they find something wrong, they then refund the amount.

But a New York Times analysis of campaign finance records looking for obvious anomalies in donor information quickly found more than a dozen contributors to Mr. Obama using obviously fictitious name. This was a tiny fraction of Mr. Obama’s donor pool, but it appeared from the analysis that Mr. McCain had far fewer apparent fake names among his donors.

Unlike Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain provides on his Web site a searchable database of all of his donors, including those who fall below the $200 threshold that the Federal Election Commission requires campaigns to itemize in their reports. The political blogger Marc Ambinder recently reported that searches of this database turned up seven contributions from someone named Jesus II of Las Vegas giving a total of $851 to Mr. McCain.

The Obama campaign pointed out that a search of the name “Anonymous, Anonymous” also turns up pages of contributions to the McCain campaign, including more than two dozen that exceed $200 but for some reason do not appear in F.E.C. records. It should be pointed out that campaigns are permitted to accept donations of up to $50 in cash or anonymously. There are other odd donors that appear in searches of the McCain database but fall below the $200 threshold, including “The Gun Shop” from Hood River, Oregon., who contributed $100 and “Adorable Manabat” from Winnetka, Calif., who gave $200.

In an attempt to file a counter claim, the Democratic National Committee filed the Following on October 24th-Read the Full Complaint Here

DNC Files FEC Complaint Over McCain Campaign’s Missing, Excessive and Anonymous Donors

Washington, DC – The Democratic National Committee today announced that it will file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday morning to request a thorough investigation of the McCain campaign’s most recent attempt to skirt campaign finance laws.  According to the complaint, an analysis of the information provided by the McCain Campaign on its website shows that the campaign received 6,653 contributions that were at least $1,000 in excess of legal limit of $2,300–including one donor who contributed $56,047.  The McCain Campaign website also lists 23 anonymous contributions in excess of fifty dollars, despite the legal requirement to maintain the name and address of each contributor any amount in excess of $50, and dozens of additional donors who provided incomplete information. 

The complaint also cites the McCain campaign’s pattern of ignoring federal election laws including violating the Presidential Matching Payment Account Act, the campaign’s refund of approximately $50,000 in donations solicited by a foreign national, its continuing pattern of soliciting foreign nationals including the Russian Ambassador to the U.N and the FEC’s September 30 request for additional information on numerous excessive contributions. 

“The McCain campaign’s lack of disclosure and disregard for the law he helped write raises serious questions about John McCain’s commitment to the openness and transparency the voters expect from their leaders,” said DNC General Counsel Joe Sandler.  “In view of the McCain campaign’s clear history of violating campaign finance laws, it is imperative that the Commission promptly conduct a thorough investigation of these violations; and a full audit of all of the McCain Campaign’s contributions.”

“If the Economy is so bad, how is it that one candidate can raise 500 million dollars” said one commenter on Politisite

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