IS THIS A MOVEON SCAM BY PHISHING ? OR ONLY BAD TASTE

[tocqueville]

My wife got the following email :


"Nita Chaudhary, MoveOn.org Political Action" <[e-mail]> wrote:
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:05:12 -0700
From: "Nita Chaudhary, MoveOn.org Political Action" <[e-mail]>
To: (removed)

Subject: Urgent: Exploiting 9/11

In just over 48 hours, ABC will air a partisan "docudrama" about 9/11—apparently part of a right-wing attempt to exploit the anniversary. The movie was written and produced by a right-wing activist who fabricated scenes to smear Democrats and excuse Republicans. Sign the petition to tell ABC not to air partisan propaganda on 9/11.


Sign the petition

Here's the full petition text: "ABC must not air partisan propaganda on 9/11."
Dear MoveOn member,
In a little over 48 hours, ABC will air a five-hour "docudrama" on the 9/11 attacks. The movie was written and produced by a right-wing activist who fabricated key scenes to blame Democrats and defend Republicans.1 It's so partisan that even Rush Limbaugh was surprised ABC decided to air it.2 And an FBI agent who was brought in to consult on the docudrama quit because, he said, "they were making things up."3

Public outrage is mounting across the country, and Variety reports that ABC is now "mulling the idea of yanking the mini altogether."4 But we only have a little time to act. We'll start delivering this petition to ABC headquarters tomorrow at noon and continue as more signatures come in. So we're looking for 200,000 signatures TODAY.

Can you sign? Click here:

Then please pass on this message to folks you know who can help.

The Path to 9/11 appears to be part of a coordinated push—including speeches by President Bush and millions of dollars in advertising—to exploit the five-year anniversary of 9/11 for political gain. That's not acceptable from anyone—especially not a news organization like ABC.

It's not just that ABC's movie is slanted. Big parts of it are simply untrue. The producer himself even admitted to simply improvising a key scene which depicts the Clinton administration letting bin Laden go when they had him in their sights—a complete fabrication.5 Last night, the movie's star, Harvey Keitel, said "It turned out not all the facts were correct."6
It's really pretty simple: ABC shouldn't have any role in the political exploitation of 9/11. But this docudrama is designed to do just that—spreading a false message to millions of viewers across the country.

Sign the petition to tell ABC not to air partisan propaganda on 9/11. Click here:

Thank you for all you do.
–Nita, Eli, Carrie, Joan, Jennifer and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Friday, September 8th, 2006

P.S. For the most current information on the scandal involving this film, and for more information on the movie itself, please visit our friends at ThinkProgress:
http://www.thinkprogress.org
Sources:
1. "Writer of ABC's 9/11 'Docudrama' Is Avowed Conservative Activist," ThinkProgress, September 1, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2047&id=8709-5873297-F2VOXqZY0NLZxxqRuv8IOA&t=6

2. "Clintonoids Prepare To Attack 9/11 Movie," The Rush Limbaugh Show, August 30, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2049&id=8709-5873297-F2VOXqZY0NLZxxqRuv8IOA&t=7

3. "FBI Agent Who Consulted On Path to 9/11 Quit," ThinkProgress, September 7, 2006
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/07/fbi-agent-quit/
4. "Under fire, ABC mulls yanking mini," Variety, September 7, 2006
http://www.variety.com/VR1117949675.html

5. Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher, MSNBC appearance, September 7, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2077&id=8709-5873297-F2VOXqZY0NLZxxqRuv8IOA&t=8

6. "Harvey Keitel speaks out on Path to 9/11: 'It turned out not all the facts were correct'", Showbiz Tonight, September 7, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2078&id=8709-5873297-F2VOXqZY0NLZxxqRuv8IOA&t=9

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.3 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:


PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subscription Management:
This is a message from MoveOn.org Political Action. To change your email address, update your contact info, or remove yourself ........ from this list, please visit our subscription management page at:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

so far so good (why she got the mail when she is not a member of MoveOn is a mystery)

but when you go to the link to sign the petition and fill in the form, you come to a page which makes mandatory
to contribute (given reason is to publish a TV ad) if you want to go further. The page is done in such a way that it is not really clear that your signature can be sent without contributing money.

if this is not a scam, it's a despicable way to collect funds and tantamount to illegal in Europe.

anyway it's counterproductive, and if this really comes from moveon they ought to know that it's not by using republican methods they will get support.

anybody had the same experience ?

edited to remove personal information

[KT2000]

1. I don't think so

I signed the petition, submitted it and then the page for donations came up. I think the petition signature went through though - unless I am missing something.

[david_vincent]

2. Guaranteed coming from some freeper

asswipe. Delete it and run your spyware scanning app.

[twenty4blackbirds]

3. do you see this page?

http://pol.moveon.org/abcdoc/
That's the normal link, it seems. I haven't checked my email, so I don't know about 'scam-iness'.

[tpsbmam]

4. Go directly to the website.....

And you see that the requirement is not there. This is the link for the petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/abcdoc/ And then, after signing, you are taken to a contribution page BUT I don't see anything about contributing being mandatory. They are asking for funds to run a Moveon ad, but I don't see anything anywhere about it being mandatory. The message I got was "Thanks for signing. Now let’s spread our message." And then below that, "Can you help expose Republican failures on security by putting our new ad on the air?" If you're seeing something about the contribution being mandatory, then it's most likely a scam email.

[tocqueville]

5. OK thanks

but the way the page is configurated makes you think that you have to contribute to send away the message. That was my wife's first reaction. I signed myself and got the same impression. I was unsure when I reread it, that why I posted this.

the "thanks for signing" should be must bigger and separated from the demand of contribution. The current presentation induces people to contribute (which is in itself not a bad thing) but in belief that they have to do it to be sure it went away. If I contribute I don't want to be "tricked" into it.

Some people have very little money but still want to do something

I don't think that an organisation like MoveOn should advertise in such a way.

[Nevernose]

6. I don't see anything like that at your link

It look like every other Moveon action I have ever seen.

Step one, sign the petition, step two, tell a friend, and a step three (donate) that actually takes an extra effort to open a new page.

Maybe the original page was just configured improperly on their end? A little sloppiness?

[tocqueville]

7. it's when you sign the petition

you are redirected to an "unclear page" that thanks you in a few words and is PART of a demand of contribution.
There is no separation between the "thanks" and the demand for contribution.

[Montagnard]

8. I signed the petition

it went through....then later I gave a contribution, which I usually do. Progressive and Liberal organizations cannot compete with Mellon Scaife and all the big money boys of the right wing. It depends on small donations from the progressive and liberal base.

[Bombero1956]

10. I had the same thing happen

I got the contribution page but closed it. I tried a second time and got the same thing.
Later I got two confirmation emails from whoever it was. I ran both Ad-Aware and Spybot.

[tocqueville]

12. it's not the fact that they ask for donations

it's the way it was done on that page

[DTinAZ]

9. not realling seeing the problem...

...I signed the petition, then passed on the donation (I'm already auto-giving up through the election), and wasn't at all confused. The "1, 2, 3" thing is pretty darn clear, IMO. However this part of your post is odd:

why she got the mail when she is not a member of MoveOn is a mystery

MoveOn doesn't spam, and the email you quoted is the one they sent to people who have opted in to MoveOn emails, so if she doesn't remember doing so at some point, she should unsubscribe, but otherwise, I rather doubt anything sinister, untoward, or even misguided has happened here.

DT

[tocqueville]

11. it's not the 1,2,3 that's unclear

it's the redirection page when you sign the petition

basically you hardly see a "thank you" and a confirmation, but a new form to donate. I think that it is unethical.

regarding the membership, she is pretty sure she never subscribed. She is a registered Democrat, but wasn't aware of MoveOn's existence.

that's why the whole thing made us suspicious.

[DTinAZ]

13. if she's sure...

...then someone else must have entered her address on their website without her permission, but if that was done, she would have received a "Thanks for Joining MoveOn.org Political Action" message with an unsubscribe link. So there are really only three possibilities here:

1. She signed up at some point and forgot.
2. Somone signed up using her address and she somehow missed seeing the welcome message.
3. Somone forwarded that message to her, but made it look as if it were sent directly from MoveOn (that's "spoofing," not "phishing")

I don't think there's really an option #4, because as I asserted before, MoveOn simply doesn't spam.

As for the design of the "Thanks" page, I can't really see it again, in that I shouldn't sign the petition a second time.

DT