Any organization taking in billions for Democratic causes, quite aside from what they take as their cut, HAS to be on constant vigilance for Republican scams to make them vulnerable to verifiable claims of fraud. If Act Blue has been as effective as they claim, they HAD to know that the Republicans would only too gladly invest a couple of hundred thousand in some scheme to make it look like they were accepting foreign contributions on a regular basis. If a few watchdogs within Act Blue noticed this, and were told to shut up because it was nothing, they were right to speak up if they really did find something.
The reason I initially stopped using them was because I was tired of being called an idiot for not making sure every time to uncheck the automatically checked "make it monthly" box. I didn't think it was the responsibility of the contributor to look for that every time and uncheck it. They disagreed with me, although it was my understanding that they discontinued the practice soon after, quite independently of my trivial complaint. My objection to the large amount they took out (when combined with what their credit card partners took out, which amounted to close to 8%) came later when I found out how much it was. Several Democratic Congresspeople and Senators acknowledged that 8% was a big chuck to be deprived of, but said that there was no replacement for Act Blue's wide umbrella of small contributors, and I had to agree with that.
I had no idea that they had raked in $16 billion over the last 20 years, or how big they were. With that kind of size and turnover, it's no wonder they were ripe juicy targets for a Republican infiltration and scam if they weren't being constantly vigilant about the danger. The more effective they were, and the more they raised for Democrats, it had to have been obvious to them that they were a prime target for sabotage and retaliation. Like another poster said above, only Republicans are allowed to receive illegal contributions.
I'll be on the lookout for more specifics about the who and what (including to see if this turns out to be nothing at all, other than Republican troublemaking about a major thorn in their side.
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