Watch Out for Political Scams

There was an article in the Los Angeles Times on July 9, 2023 about a local man that ran multiple national Political Action Committee (PAC) scams.

Matthew Tunstall, 36, a Los Angeles resident, and an associate, Robert Reyes Jr, 41, of Hollister, CA are now getting free room and board in a federal prison.

Here’s how they took advantage of the current animosity in both the Republican and Democratic races.

In 2016 Tunstall set up two PACs, Liberty Action Group, saying it was to raise money for Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. And he set up Progressive Priorities PAC saying it was to raise money for Hillary Clinton.

The groups made 275 million robocalls, netted $4 million, and distributed $19 (as in nineteen dollars) to political campaigns. They did provide scripts to the call center employees designed to mislead donors into thinking their money would support a candidate.

This wasn’t all profit. They did have to pay money for the call center employees that had live operators who collected credit card information. But they did get the vendor to over-bill by $353,000 and launder the money into shell companies. They only netted about $1.6 million.

In 2018 for the mid-term elections, they created two new PACs and collected about $3.7 million.

The point is, do not give credit card information to anyone that calls you for anything.

Protect yourself by visiting the Federal Election Commission’s website at www.fec.gov and search for the organization’s name where you may want to send a donation. If it’s not registered it’s not legal. You can also see how a PAC spends its money.

Do you feel ready to resist the political calls for money?

To Your Prosperity,

Rennie