Today I heard a new term, "Scam Pacs". All political action committees are to some degree a scam. It's a way to circumvent political campaign contribution limits. Anyone can create a PAC and run issue or campaign ads and as long as there's no overt cooperation with a candidate, it's just a citizen exercising their free speech rights.
Listening to what distinguishes a Scam Pac from a less scammy PAC, it began to sound familiar. Many years ago, my wife was a bookkeeper in a CPA's office. She did stuff like balance the checkbook of small businesses and code all the checks so the cost would go into the correct column on the financial statement. Pretty standard stuff. One of the accounts was not exactly a business. It was a charity created for the sole purpose of collecting money. I don't want to give too much detail, but I'll try to explain how it works.
Imagine you are an employee of your local sheriff's department. You can create a charity organization under state law and collect donations from the public. You can call it the Deputy Sheriff's Association. The real title was a catchy acronym. Begging for contributions is lot of work and you have a full time job. That's not a problem because you know a guy who owns a company that employee people who do nothing but call other people and ask for money. There's always a good story about school programs to teach the dangers of drugs and similar uses for the contribution. They also get a monthly newsletter, reminding them to keep sending a check so the good work can can continue. The checks are sent to a post office box, which is rented by the CPA's office. Once a week the book keeper finds a pile of envelopes on her desk, which she opens and sorts. The checks get listed on a deposit slip and the accompanying letters go in the trash. Sometimes it's just a note of apology, explaining they are a little short this month.
The checks are deposited into the charity's account and then the book keeper writes a check for 90% and sends it to the telemarketer. Other checks are written for expenses, most of which is the post office box rental. It's all perfectly legal. This was all before the days of cell phones and email. Scam Pacs operate on the same principle, but cut out the telephone, going to email and text.
In the same manner as urban legends are created, someone, no one knows exactly who, said DOGE would save the government so much money, every American could receive a check for $5000. It didn't take long before Elon and Trump heard this and talked about it as if it were real.
Enter the Scam Pac. A text or email from a group with an name something like "American Women for Freedom and Nice Stuff" is received with the dire warning, "They want to kill your $5000 DOGE check. Sign our petition now." If you ever wondered how mailing lists of stupid people are assembled, this is it. The message always ends with a request for a small donation to allow them to continue the good fight, because you deserve $5000.
It's actually illegal to collect political contributions and not spend some on politics and quite a few people have gone to prison for not understanding where the line is.
Besides those who actually coughed up for a Scam Pac, most of whom are oblivious, the real outrage is heard from political professionals who know the scam is syphoning off money from more legitimate Pacs.
Listening to what distinguishes a Scam Pac from a less scammy PAC, it began to sound familiar. Many years ago, my wife was a bookkeeper in a CPA's office. She did stuff like balance the checkbook of small businesses and code all the checks so the cost would go into the correct column on the financial statement. Pretty standard stuff. One of the accounts was not exactly a business. It was a charity created for the sole purpose of collecting money. I don't want to give too much detail, but I'll try to explain how it works.
Imagine you are an employee of your local sheriff's department. You can create a charity organization under state law and collect donations from the public. You can call it the Deputy Sheriff's Association. The real title was a catchy acronym. Begging for contributions is lot of work and you have a full time job. That's not a problem because you know a guy who owns a company that employee people who do nothing but call other people and ask for money. There's always a good story about school programs to teach the dangers of drugs and similar uses for the contribution. They also get a monthly newsletter, reminding them to keep sending a check so the good work can can continue. The checks are sent to a post office box, which is rented by the CPA's office. Once a week the book keeper finds a pile of envelopes on her desk, which she opens and sorts. The checks get listed on a deposit slip and the accompanying letters go in the trash. Sometimes it's just a note of apology, explaining they are a little short this month.
The checks are deposited into the charity's account and then the book keeper writes a check for 90% and sends it to the telemarketer. Other checks are written for expenses, most of which is the post office box rental. It's all perfectly legal. This was all before the days of cell phones and email. Scam Pacs operate on the same principle, but cut out the telephone, going to email and text.
In the same manner as urban legends are created, someone, no one knows exactly who, said DOGE would save the government so much money, every American could receive a check for $5000. It didn't take long before Elon and Trump heard this and talked about it as if it were real.
Enter the Scam Pac. A text or email from a group with an name something like "American Women for Freedom and Nice Stuff" is received with the dire warning, "They want to kill your $5000 DOGE check. Sign our petition now." If you ever wondered how mailing lists of stupid people are assembled, this is it. The message always ends with a request for a small donation to allow them to continue the good fight, because you deserve $5000.
It's actually illegal to collect political contributions and not spend some on politics and quite a few people have gone to prison for not understanding where the line is.
Besides those who actually coughed up for a Scam Pac, most of whom are oblivious, the real outrage is heard from political professionals who know the scam is syphoning off money from more legitimate Pacs.
