WHO IS JOHN GALT? A CONTRIBUTOR TO COLLECTIVIST OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN, OF COURSE! UPDATE: RNC FILES SUPPLEMENT COMPLAINT TO FEC

THIS STORY HAS LEGS, OTHER BLOGS DON'T CITE ATLAS - BUT IT BROKE HERE FIRST yesterday 6:-01 pm

UPDATE: JUST IN FROM RNC: (hat tip Mark)

The Republican National Committee (RNC) today filed a supplement to its complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Obama for America campaign addressing its acceptance of foreign national and excessive contributions, donations from unknown sources, and demonstrated lack of oversight or concern for compliance with the law. The complaint demonstrates that the Obama campaign has failed to comply with federal campaign finance law in its fundraising. RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross released the following statement today concerning the supplement to the complaint: “Based on numerous press accounts that have come to light since our initial filing in early October, it is clear that the Obama for America campaign is operating outside of the law. The complete and total lack of any control mechanisms within the Obama campaign’s fundraising operation has undermined any confidence in their ability to curtail excessive, foreign, and fraudulent contributions and demands immediate attention from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).”

UPDATE 11:58: SCREENSHOTS BELOW

UPDATE 11:08 pm: Washington Post reports Woman's Credit Card Charged $175,000 to Obama.
This is a part of Obama's financial donating money laundering.

There is enormous amount of money being secreted into the Obama campaign from foreign sources. It is fairly safe to say these countries will be richly rewarded - Kenya, Indonesia but most of all - Obama will drop a load on the UN. Fosho.

The crooked, corrupt international one world global warmers have the largest stake in this election.

Back on August 14th, I wrote that Julia Gorin told me a funny story. About four months ago. Her husband's co-worker wanted to see what would happen if he tried giving a contribution to the Obama campaign via a credit card. He used his Macy's card. The system accepted it. He tried the same with McCain's campaign, and the transaction wouldn't go through. 

Atlas reader Craig submits to me the following,

I may have just uncovered how the Obama campaign is facilitating massive donation fraud.

I’ve read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering; how is this possible?

I run a small internet business and when I process credit cards I’m required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchasers address must match that of the cardholders. If these don’t match, then the payment isn’t approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. 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.

Not unless Obama's campaign is warehousing donations (held back) and any that fail or are rejected by the credit card companies or for any other reason are covered by illegal donations.

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.

Yes, and then cover them with illegal funds.

Sincerely,

Craig

PS I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn’t allow the transaction.

Pss I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went thru using the same credit card. I saved screen shots of the transactions if you want them

CLICK BELOW FOR SCREEN SHOTS

Cathy found this at Free Republic:

Somebody, high up, has access to millions of credit card, and possibly debit card accounts. This is how it works: An apparent charge appears on your account, then through the correction process, it disappears. An unauthorized charge delivers the funds to control of an intermediary, and the intermediary then reimburses the original draft on the account. The intermediary is a wealthy consortium of manipulators, who take the small contribution (always less than $200, so as to avoid the reporting requirements of name and occupation of the original source), thus providing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of “contributors”, and allowing ineligible contributors to cover up their participation. It would take the research of literally thousands of these accounts to uncover the pattern of “mistaken” charges, and if these accounts are held outside the US, there would be no overview of these transaction by any of the authorities that govern these transfers in this country. The only check on this is to review your own account, and those who had their accounts used in this manner. If individuals or corporate entities are already supporting Obama, or the Democrat National party, or any of the 527s that are anti-Republican, THEY are not going to say anything.

Couple Finds Unauthorized Charge on Credit Card from Obama Campaign (hat tip Miira)

UPDATE: Craig sent the SCREENSHOTS and notes  that on Obama’s site you can self-select whether you’re a domestic or international donor. Thus, any foreigner could simply fill out the form the way I did as long as they use a credit card.

This is how Qaddafi donates :)

Osama Bin Laden donation page!

Osama Bin Laden donation confirmation page

Saddam Hussein donation page!

Saddam confirmation of donation page.

BILL AYERS! (Donation page)

Ayers confirmation page

Good old John Galt.....

UPDATE: Powerline has the story as well. Kudos to Powerline for giving credit where credit is due. Good men all.  (hat tip the intrepid Cathy)

Atlas exclusive coverage of Obama's contributions: foreign, domestic, illegal

UPDATE: fro Mccain's website, Cathy grabbed this screenshot - On the form:

The address below must match your credit card billing information and they ask for your security code too.

 

UPDATE: Cathy caught this in comment section:

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.

Posted by: someone who knows at October 22, 2008 08:34 PM (54lqZ)

UPDATE: More reader handiwork: I donated $15 as "Ben Dover." lol

Comments

[Tazz]

Exellent post. I sent it to Fox and posted it on Greta's open blog.

[Pamela Geller]

Thanx Mark!

[TINBH]

What's the FBI, FEC, etc. doing about this ...

[formerwm]

Pam you seem to have so much scoop on BHO but it just seems to fizzle out and go no where. What is the latest doings in Hawaii on the secret life of BHO? By no means do I think you are off target,I just wish it would be picked up and put out there for everyone to see. Thanks for what you do!

[miira]

Exemplary investigative journalism!

formerwm - ANDY MARTIN, Executive Editor ContrarianCommentary.com posted the time and date of his press conference. It is scheduled for Wednesday, October 22, 2:30 P. M. Honolulu time(about an hour and 40 minutes from now)

WHAT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: HAWAII INVESTIGATION YIELDS MAJOR NEWS ON BARACK OBAMA’S SECRET TRUTHS National anti-Obama leader Andy Martin announces “the secret truths” about Senator Barack Obama ANDY MARTIN’S NEW RESEARCH IS SURE TO ROIL THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN WHERE: Hawai’i State Capitol, in front of the statute of Queen Lilioukalani (rear of building)

Now, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. . . Andy, like API has been promising to release details in each of their possession, for days. But, just in case . . .you've got the link to Martin's site.

[JewishOdysseus]

I can confirm 100% what Craig just wrote--I just sent $15 to Obama as "Ben Dover" at 5555 5th St--the contribution went thru w/out a hitch.

You know, a really wealthy, unscrupulous person cd sit there all day long, tapping out $199 contributions under phony names, and contribute tens of thousands of dollars A DAY THAT WD NEVER BE REPORTED.

And if he had a little--or not so little-- group of zealous, unscrupulous ACORNish volunteers, it wd be child's play to set up a Niagra of unsourceable funds into the campaign every day.

The only thing that wd dissuade me wd be the certain knowledge that the vigilant ethical watchdogs of the media wd smell out my wicked little scheme, and the resultant scandal wd spell doomsday for my candidate. So I'd NEEEEEV ER d anything like that.

Right?

Where's the FBI? They're out making sure that honor-murderers' feelings aren't hurt...

You know, when a govt is too stooooooopid--or corrupt?-- to enforce its own laws, or even defend itself or the citizens who pay for it, it richly deserves to be annihilated.

[Tazz]

sent it to ace of spades and he's got it up

[miira]

Expect this site to get a lot of sudden traffic. I sent a link to this post to Michael Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and 250+ main stream media addies.

[C Max]

Perhaps we're looking at a reverse Watergate here. Obama will be ripe for impeachment before he even gets elected.

[Pamela Geller]

Thanks!
u da best!

[miira]

Related? Link provided in comments at Ace:

Couple Finds Unauthorized Charge on Credit Card from Obama Campaign

At least four credit card holders in Missouri have recently opened their statements and found unauthorized transactions, which charged $2,300 to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

By Alex Fees

KSDK -- At least four credit card holders in Missouri have recently opened their statements and found unauthorized transactions, which charged $2,300 to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

It happened to Tom Brown and his wife a couple weeks ago. They became aware of it after Discover sent them an e-mail about an unusually large purchase.

"My wife said, 'Oh my God!' Right away, she called Discover to cancel the card," Brown said. "I talked to Discover about it, and they said it looks like it was keyed in from Chicago."

Specifically, the e-mail indicated the charge came from Obama for America Chicago Illinois. The Browns were able to get the charge refunded by Discover.

"It was under his name. Under 'merchant,' it read 'Obama for America.' And we basically would not give a politician $2,300 dollars. We would not give any politician, probably, a dollar. And I really, basically, don't know who's at fault, for this, or who did what," Brown said. "But someone out there is trying to hit people's charges and collect money. We were just interested in letting other people know that this could happen to them."

Brown pointed out this was not a story about politics; it's about credit card fraud.

"We mainly wanted to make sure it just got to the public that no one else gets taken advantage of?because our feeling is what happens if someone else would not check their charge, and then they're stuck with the charge?" he said.

Officials with the Obama Campaign in Missouri said they were aware of the suspicious credit card charges. Friday, the Missouri Obama Communications Director released this statement: "The Obama campaign is not responsible for these charges, but we have refunded all of the affected individuals and we are working closely with authorities regarding these questionable charges."

It was not known whether that statement was an indication that some of the credit card money did get to the Obama Campaign, even if they did not initiate the charges.

A spokesperson for the Missouri Attorney General's office has told the Associated Press that they were investigating a "handful" of similar incidents.

KSDK

BTW . . .commenter #24 at Ace's thread also tried this experiment and confirmed the pattern.

[pythagoras]

If this guy actually gets elected there is still one thing left we can do: recall the election! It worked in California a few years ago, so I have no doubt it can work with a tainted election like this.

Obama should be out within a year with any luck. A few well-placed media exposes revealing the depths of his corruption and ties to Islamofascism ought to do the trick nicely.

[oldowan]

I was just sitting here reading ace (ace.mu.nu) after dinner when I came across this article. I kinda got ticked-off and related the contents to Mrs.Oldowan (Dem, MA). Politics are a touchy issue here on the border, but this was just the end after a day hearing about our dear governor's gift of $35K of tax money to ACORN and the justice dept leaning on our sec'y of state for not sending ballots to our soldiers abroad since 2002. [Good luck finding THOSE stories in the Boston Globe tomorrow...]. Anyway, I'd had enough and read the article to my better half.

She, rather wisely, replied : "According to whom? How do you know that's actually true?"

"Excellent question." I said, "Let's find out."

$50 bucks later (to obama [and I only meant to risk $25 {I figure, the rhetorical worth of the fact is worth the fraction of the $$$ this guy is going to cost me in the long run}], and $0 TO McCain, who refused to process this bogus contribution), Mr. Henry Reardon of 7 Wyatt Drive, Galts Gulch, CO, 88888 has learned who he can and cannot contribute to, as long as he insists on using oldowan's credit card to pay for it.

I got screen shots of the whole set of transactions. Full descriptions with pics go to every news organ tomorrow. Mrs. Oldowan (IND, MA [soon?]) and I will be wathching for a response.

I cannot BELIEVE that nobody cares about this bull-bleep. The Mencken quote at the top of the banner is making my blood pump. It's time to do something.

I hope it's not too late....

[SimonStudio]

so... lets say the election is bought because of all that advertising... how will we be able to get this guy thrown out of office after we elect him because people believe what they see on TV. this makes me appreciate John McCain and his campaign finance reform all the more. I'm very frightened to realize that the scruples of the "Palestinian Authority" are about to buy America...

...and no I'm not crazy lady from the rally. I'm a college educated artist hipster from New York and I'm frightened.

[scrapiron]

No one had to sit at a computer all day and post the criminal donations. They simply hack an online phone book and develop a simple computer program and Hussein O has his criminal millions. Is anyone really stupid enough to believe he got $150 million in Sept legally? I suspect at least 95% of it came from his terrorists friends in Iran and surrounding countries. The American people have been had by the criminal element of the democrat party (that is also 95%) and are too stupid to know it.

Freeper #60 in Atlas' link provides another potential scenario for acquiring unsuspecting patrons credit card info for nefarious contributions to Obama:

Student/Nobama supporter works at a restaurant, etc. You eat there-pay your bill by handing over a cc- waiter/waitress disappears into the cash register area with your cc- they are processing your dinner purchase, but they are also—writing down all the info on your card, including the 3 number special number on the reverse. Then they get off work and go to the Nobama campaign location and process a $2300 “donation” to Nobama. The credit card statement takes between 3 days or 6 weeks to arrive, depending on when their statement cycles. You are unaware of this phoney charge and attenpted fraud until you open your statement. The bank must reverse the charge, since you were scammed.

Example:Restaurant chain customers' credit card data stolen

This also reminds me of the rash of recent stolen/lost/misplaced veterans, employee, hospital & sales records reported in the news. Identity theft on a grand scale like this would prove a bonanza for organizations like ACORN as well as for the credit card laundering scam reported above.

[Pamela Geller]

oldowon, yes please send me the screenshots - writeatlas@aol.com

the wife still digging the messiah?

[formerwm]

I know this may sound like I am living in an alternate world, but you would think or hope that some Democrates would put the country first and start telling the truth about this guy. There are 300 million people in this nation and some are underage sooooo just how can anyone get so much money in legal donations if the max is 2300.00 or 2500.00 per person. Is this fuzzy math?

[GuyInSD]

This is almost to much to believe but it is quite believable. Great work.

Recall seeing the various video clips of someone explaining the various mortgage derivatives? Very effective and easy to follow.

With all the talent in the audience, can someone create a short whiteboard explanation of how this works and post it to YouTube for others to pick up as well?

Of course, whoever does it needs to give Pamela her props!

[neverforget]

Any of you who have given their credit card number to Obama's thugs ought to get a new card and number immediately, and let your bank fraud department know why.

[Sedona Tahoe]

Check out the Superman vs. Obama (Superman vs. Socialistman) comparison at:

http://sites.google.com/site/sedonatahoe/Home/superman-vs--socialistman-2

[Sedona Tahoe]

Check out the Superman vs. Obama (Superman vs. Socialistman) comparison at:

http://sites.google.com/site/sedonatahoe/Home/superman-vs--socialistman-2

[Sedona Tahoe]

Check out the Superman vs. Obama (Superman vs. Socialistman) comparison at:

http://sites.google.com/site/sedonatahoe/Home/superman-vs--socialistman-2

[Sedona Tahoe]

Check out the Superman vs. Obama (Superman vs. Socialistman) comparison at:

http://sites.google.com/site/sedonatahoe/Home/superman-vs--socialistman-2

[Sedona Tahoe]

Check out the Superman vs. Obama (Superman vs. Socialistman) comparison at:

http://sites.google.com/site/sedonatahoe/Home/superman-vs--socialistman-2

[formerwm]

Just read the following artilce on Townhall.com by Amanda Carpenter.

http://townhall.com/blog/g/dabc5b80-44e2-41a5-be41-f8e6a9281f0a?comments=true&commentsSortDirection=Descending

[bill1969]

If you google the street name Ayn Rand, you will find out that it is an actual cult.

[Tazz]

The Obama scammer [Mark Steyn]

Further to my post below about the Obama campaign intentionally disabling security checks for their credit card donations, several readers have wandered over to the site to test it out. One was accepted with the following details:

Name: JarackBoe BOamabiden
Address: 2345 Fak Addrss Lane
Phone: 555-555-5555
Email: barackjoe@obama.com

The only query he got back was to ask him if he didn't want to give more money.

By the way, don't all stampede over to Barack's place to test out whether he accepts ten bucks from Kim Jong-Il and fifteen from Queen Marie of Roumania. Or, if you do, keep the donations low. It occurs to me this might be just another wheeze to sucker conservatives into ponying up his expenses for these last 12 days. If he pulls this off, we'll be doing enough of that after January.

You'd think a diligent New York Times reporter might want to check out this thing. After all, most of them have already been over there to make their own donations, so it's not like they don't know the URL.

[UPDATE: And another - a $15 donation from:

Name: Della Ware
Address: 12345 No Way
Far Far Away, DE 78954
Employer: Americans Against Obama
Position: Founder] http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2IxMmNjMTIzZDc1OGU4MjMwMTRiMWFlODg2N2JjNTM

[Tazz]

Ace has another post on this http://ace.mu.nu/archives/276395.php And hot air has it too http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/23/john-galt-donating-to-obama-this-year-too-apparently/

[Tazz]

Update: Just across from the RNC:

The Republican National Committee (RNC) today filed a supplement to its complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Obama for America campaign addressing its acceptance of foreign national and excessive contributions, donations from unknown sources, and demonstrated lack of oversight or concern for compliance with the law. The complaint demonstrates that the Obama campaign has failed to comply with federal campaign finance law in its fundraising. RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross released the following statement today concerning the supplement to the complaint:

“Based on numerous press accounts that have come to light since our initial filing in early October, it is clear that the Obama for America campaign is operating outside of the law. The complete and total lack of any control mechanisms within the Obama campaign’s fundraising operation has undermined any confidence in their ability to curtail excessive, foreign, and fraudulent contributions and demands immediate attention from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).”

[turnright]

Why not everybody call their local FBI office and also the Republican congressperson nearest them, and Republican senator of their state, if existing. It's easy. I've done it in my state. Tell them to open up "atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com" and read the "Who Is John Galt? ... " article.

The FBI agent I talked to was interested. The congressperson's office in Washington was too.

Obama is dirty. Let's clean him up at his expense and help save our country.

[CreditCardGuy]

I am sorry to inform you, but your understanding of what is required to authorize a credit card transaction when the card is not present (CNP) is incorrect.

Exactly three pieces of information are required by the card issuer to process a CNP transaction:

- Card number
- Expiration date
- Transaction amount

Based upon those three pieces of information you receive what is known as the financial authorization.

All other validation beyond that is ENTIRELY OPTIONAL. Address validation, otherwise known as AVS, is an OPTIONAL service. Depending on the relationship with the acquiring bank, this service can cost the merchant extra. CVV verification (the little 3 or 4 digit security code) is also an OPTIONAL service. Again, a merchant sometimes has to pay extra for this service. Name verification is - again - an OPTIONAL service and many merchant processors do not even support name verification.

Now, the downside to the merchant who does not use these optional services is that the merchant may fall into a non-qualified rate. This means that if the merchant doesn't do AVS, CVV, etc. that they will pay a higher interchange fee. In addition, they will have less abilitity to repudiate chargebacks and will thus suffer a higher chargeback rate (frequency) and will incur higher chargeback fees as the merchant will be viewed as "riskier."

The decision to decline or authorize the financial portion of the transaction is the sole discretion of the issuing bank.

The decision to decline or authorize based on AVS, CVV, etc. is the sole discretion of the merchant. In other words, even if a merchant does run AVS and the AVS comes back bad (i.e. address entered does not match address on file) the merchant can still - at its sole discretion - approve the transaction. Same thing applies to CVV and name validation. These are extra, optional services used by the merchant to help mitigate risk. The merchant can either not use the services at all or, if they do use them, they are free to use the results as they see fit. The only penalty to the merchant is higher fees due the merchant's riskier behavior.

Trust me. Each of you has had a card transaction approved even though your entered address did not match the AVS address. Each of you has had a card transaction approved even though you entered the wrong CVV code. Do you notice how some sites don't ask for CVV code at all? That is because it not in any way, shape, or form required to complete a credit card transaction.

So, while your observations may be correct (screenshots showing fake names and addresses being used with valid credit card info), your conclusions are not correct. It is ABSOLUTELY AND ENTIRELY acceptable to authorize and accept a credit card transaction using only three pieces of information: card number, expiration date, and transaction amount.

As for what I do? I design software used by banks to process and authroize credit card, debit card, and ACH transations. There is a good chance that software designed by me has given the "yes" or "no" to some of your credit card transactions or ATM withdrawals.

[Tazz]

I just sent the post to Peter King, we'll see what happens.

[miira]

Other blogs are reporting it - sure. But to witness LGF headline it without crediting your work is just disrespectful.