The Spin: Campaign Fund Used To Test Stolen Credit Cards (Ron Paul's money bomb)

[Capt. Obvious]

Campaign Fund Used To Test Stolen Credit Cards
(CBS 11 News) CROWLEY Officials say thieves used a presidential campaign to rip people off.

Christine Horton of Crowley said her account was charged several times to support Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

"I had never even heard of him," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my God! Someone is stealing from me."

Monday the Paul campaign made history. They raised more than $4 million online in 24 hours from more than 36,000 contributors.

Frost Bank investigators discovered overseas thieves used Paul's Web site to test stolen cards with $5 contributions.

"The Ron Paul campaign has noticed that dozens, perhaps hundreds of these charges have occurred," said Jesse Benton, a finance coordinator for Congressman Paul's campaign. "We are in the process of refunding that money."

Five hundred credit card numbers were stolen from Frost Bank, but fraud management teams spotted the unauthorized charges and notified customers immediately.

The bank refunded money from nearly 100 customers and canceled all 500 credit cards. Paul's campaign refunded $3,000 in stolen funds.

"He's getting money, stolen money," said Horton. "Whether he's affiliated with it or not, I have no clue. But it's too fishy."

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_312000255.html

[Beelze-bush]

WTF? 500 cards stolen from Frost bank? How the heck does that happen? Was it the actual cards or just the account information? That just doesn't sound right. Something's fishy alright, Mr. Horton. And I think it has a lot to do with the bank. I just don't trust bankers when it comes to anything involving politics and control.

[industria]

To me this whole card fraud thing sounds like a government op to discredit Dr. Paul. And folks, we ain't seen nothin' yet! As this populous ground swell of support for the Congressman's candidacy grows the entrenched powers are going to come at him from every direction.

[Beelze-bush]

To me this whole card fraud thing sounds like a government op to discredit Dr. Paul. And folks, we ain't seen nothin' yet! As this populous ground swell of support for the Congressman's candidacy grows the entrenched powers are going to come at him from every direction.

Indeed. Nearly everyday there's a scandal of some kind being attributed to the Ron Paul campaign. Then there's the "Ron Paul votes NOT to impeach" e-mails and myspace bulletins that were flying around a couple days ago. Trying to divide and create unrest among the supporters. Smear campaigns are the order of the day anymore. Ron Paul's the only guy running an honest campaign and that irks the heck out of them.

[dystopia]

All kinds of donation funds are used to test stolen cards, this is the common practice and anyone remotely familiar with this type of fraud knows this so the story is a bunch of hot air.

Since cvv2 is required they were probably phished or pharmed rather than skimmed (unless the actual plastic cards were stolen, this is unlikely) and the campaign site used to test them prior to making some larger online purchases.

The problem is the other presidential campaigns are probably getting just as much or more fraudulent donations but strangely no reports on that.

Obviously 3k is a drop in the bucket compared to the total contribution.