The DNC also reported the matter to law enforcement, said the official, who stressed that the committee utilizes thorough training and security protocols to defend against fraud and other nefarious activity.
Those protocols obviously need a bit of a review. Though, my bet is on Martin being one of those leaders who regularly doesn't follow protocol and throws a tantrum when other people try to insist he does. This sort of failure happens because the staffers are more afraid of pissing off the tantrum thrower than breaking protocol.
I used to have a boss who wrote just like those scam emails, absolutely could not spell, all sorts of syntax errors. He once emailed ‘thanks for the help Brandon’ to one of the IT staff named Brenda.
Whenever hr would send those fake scam emails to test employees, it would be impossible to tell if it was from him or not. Total pain in the ass to deal with. He was also a terrible boss and constantly violated protocol and threw tantrums, so I could totally see that.
The worst is that they set up outlook to obfuscate all urls, so you can’t even validate by eye.
I work in cybersecurity and this sort of thing drives me straight up a wall. I understand why these sort of things exist, but they fail so often that they are worthless. My work has the Microsoft "urldefense" bullshit URL mangling. As far as I can tell, it has never stopped someone from clicking on a phishing email. In fact, since the URL now looks like a Microsoft URL, users think they are safe to click on. All the money and effort for training, right in the shit can. Thanks Microslop!
The DNC had about $16.3 million cash on hand versus about $18.5 million in debt through June 30, according to FEC records. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, had more than $128.5 million cash on hand and no debt through June 30.
Uh...
If we're not gonna force a neoliberal down America's throats again, we don't need the DNC to have a billion dollar war chest...
Asked for comment, a DNC official noted that they’ve raised more money to date than the party did over a similar period during President Donald Trump’s first term in office and have more donors who’ve given more than $100,000.
The difference is that the party has been willing to spend the money as fast — if not faster — than it is raising it.
Last fall, the DNC increased the amount it sends state parties. Blue states began receiving an additional $5,000 a month, for a total of $17,500, and red states got a boost of $10,000 a month, for a total of $22,500.
While some state party chairs voted against Martin in last year’s chair race, the investments have garnered him goodwill, particularly among DNC members in less competitive states where parties struggle to fundraise. State party chairs and their vice chairs make up roughly a quarter of the DNC’s membership and would be a key voting bloc in the event of a vote to try and oust Martin. (The chair also selects dozens of at-large DNC members and appoints members to key committees, further complicating a potential effort to oust him.)
Martin has defended his approach, which he argues will help Democrats win now and build sustainable infrastructure for future elections. The party’s low cash on hand is a result of the party investing early in organizing, technology and state parties, he’s said.
“That answer may be unsatisfying to people who believe the purpose of a political party is to accumulate the largest possible bank balance until the final days before an election,” Martin wrote in a recent Substack post. “But a party is not a savings account. Its purpose is to build power.”
The staffer, who is no longer at the DNC, made a payment to the fraudster.
You'd think that they would have more oversight from leadership positions for handling funds, like this.
The DNC official said the committee caught the error within minutes and reported it to its financial institution — Wells Fargo, according to federal records — but could only recover $7,000 of the lost money.
This shit happens to large organizations all the time. It happened days after Martin started and was caught in minutes, and they even managed to recover about $7k which is a rarity with these kinds of things. Any one of us can fall victim to a smart scammer on a bad day, you wouldn't believe the amount of insurance claims there are for this kind of thing and from companies that should be more tech savvy or conscientious about scams of this nature.
The DNC might've even had insurance and this loss wasn't worth claiming bc they have a high enough deductible or something along those lines.
7 Comments
sylver_dragon@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 30d
Those protocols obviously need a bit of a review. Though, my bet is on Martin being one of those leaders who regularly doesn't follow protocol and throws a tantrum when other people try to insist he does. This sort of failure happens because the staffers are more afraid of pissing off the tantrum thrower than breaking protocol.
KnitWit@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 30d
I used to have a boss who wrote just like those scam emails, absolutely could not spell, all sorts of syntax errors. He once emailed ‘thanks for the help Brandon’ to one of the IT staff named Brenda.
Whenever hr would send those fake scam emails to test employees, it would be impossible to tell if it was from him or not. Total pain in the ass to deal with. He was also a terrible boss and constantly violated protocol and threw tantrums, so I could totally see that.
Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 30d
We now have an email to forward scams to, and I'll gladly forward Anything that looks sketchy or AI generated. The best was sending an IT email to it.
The worst is that they set up outlook to obfuscate all urls, so you can't even validate by eye.
sylver_dragon@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 30d
I work in cybersecurity and this sort of thing drives me straight up a wall. I understand why these sort of things exist, but they fail so often that they are worthless. My work has the Microsoft "urldefense" bullshit URL mangling. As far as I can tell, it has never stopped someone from clicking on a phishing email. In fact, since the URL now looks like a Microsoft URL, users think they are safe to click on. All the money and effort for training, right in the shit can. Thanks Microslop!
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 30d
Uh...
If we're not gonna force a neoliberal down America's throats again, we don't need the DNC to have a billion dollar war chest...
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/28/politics/ken-martin-democrats-dnc-party-debt
The current DNC not following the same roadmap we did in 2016, 2020, and 2024 is obviously a good thing.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 6 pts · 30d
You'd think that they would have more oversight from leadership positions for handling funds, like this.
TBH I don't trust national banks for anything.
Whirling_Ashandarei@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 30d
This shit happens to large organizations all the time. It happened days after Martin started and was caught in minutes, and they even managed to recover about $7k which is a rarity with these kinds of things. Any one of us can fall victim to a smart scammer on a bad day, you wouldn't believe the amount of insurance claims there are for this kind of thing and from companies that should be more tech savvy or conscientious about scams of this nature.
The DNC might've even had insurance and this loss wasn't worth claiming bc they have a high enough deductible or something along those lines.