Five Signs That Asking for Political Donations Is a Scam
Right now, your phone and inbox are likely inundated with requests for political donations . These text messages, emails and phone calls often describe what is happening in desperate terms, placing the outcome of the election squarely on your shoulders. You may want to donate to candidates you support or fund causes that align with your beliefs, but it’s important to realize that many of these donation offers are scams , often backed by clever social engineering and cunning artificial intelligences. images or media. If you want to donate, how can you be sure you’re donating to the real deal and not a political scam?
Best practices
First, you can virtually avoid political donation scams by following a few simple guidelines:
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Never click on a link sent to you (via email, text message or social media). If you’re convinced by the message, find the official campaign website or political action committee (PAC) you want to donate to.
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Always research any organization or PAC before giving them money—the Federal Election Commission (FEC) maintains a list of registered PACs . If it’s not on the list, don’t donate.
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Never give in to pressure over the phone—there’s no reason to donate without giving up your credit card information right away. Just tell the person you are convinced and you will make a donation through the website.
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Always use a credit card—never send a check or use a debit card. Credit cards have strong fraud protections, and shady PACs will sometimes encourage you to send a check because it’s much harder to stop the payment and get your money back.
If you like the ease and convenience of simply replying to a message or clicking on a link, you might want to try looking for one of these signs that you’re dealing with a political donation scam:
This is related to TikTok
If you are asked for political donations on TikTok or directed to a TikTok account for donation information, it is a scam. TikTok banned all political fundraising several years ago and has fairly strict rules regarding political content in general. This means that simply seeing a TikTok somewhere in progress is a sign that someone is either trying to scam you, or at least trying to fly under the radar.
They ask for personal information
There are only two questions that an organization seeking political donations should ask you (see below): If a text message, email, or phone call wants your personal information (address, etc.), they are likely more relate to identity theft or the sale of your information. for marketers than a political reason. All someone needs to accept your donation is your credit card information and your name.
No confirmation of employment
If a PAC asks for a donation, the only question they have to ask you is who your employer is. This is because legitimate PACs are legally prohibited from accepting money from federal contractors and foreign nationals, so they need to make sure you are neither before accepting your money. This means that if they don’t ask this question, you’re probably dealing with a scammer who doesn’t care.
Financial performance is poor
If you are considering donating to a PAC because they seem to support the issues you support, you should check them out before doing anything. Start with the FEC list mentioned above to ensure it is a legitimate and registered organization. But you should also look up the PAC and visit the website created by the committee (Open Secrets has a search page where you can find a lot of information about the PAC). If you can’t identify someone or don’t have contact information, it may be best to skip this donation and direct your money elsewhere.
You’ll easily find a list of responsible individuals and financial information, including how much of the money they raise goes toward anything but promoting a cause. For example, Open Secrets found a group of PACs that spent between 74% and 93.5% of the money they raised on “fundraising”—meaning they spent it all on internal things like salaries, bonuses, and other “administrative” expenses. If you can’t find this information or it seems like they’re spending more on office space than on outreach, skip the link.
They demand non-standard payments
Finally, any request for political donation that requires a non-standard form of payment is fraudulent. All legitimate campaigns and PACs accept credit cards. If the process of giving them money is confusing or only requires the use of one very specific payment method (such as cryptocurrency or gift cards) and claims that good old credit cards are useless, it is almost certainly a scam.