Prepaid Debit Cards - Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use stored value debit cards, known to be untraceable compared to a credit card, that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give, campaign officials confirmed.
Faced with a large amount of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.
In recent weeks, uncertain contributions have created headaches for Obama's bookkeeping and finance team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those findings prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama's finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid debit cards that can be bought at a convenient store and cannot be traced to a donor. |
