First for the definition – Phishing as provided by the SEC:
“Phishing†involves the use of fraudulent emails and copy-cat websites to trick you into revealing valuable personal information — such as account numbers for banking, securities, mortgage, or credit accounts, your social security numbers, and the login IDs and passwords you use when accessing online financial services providers. The fraudsters who collect this information then use it to steal your money or your identity or both.
Now the claim:
Now the details:
“Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards’ team has been collecting e-mail addresses from supporters who’ve sent his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, notes – and using them for fund-raising requests, aides acknowledged yesterday.
The link on Edwards’ campaign Web site invites people to “send a note to Elizabeth and John” and features a sad letter from the former senator penned just after the couple found out her breast cancer had spread and is now incurable.
But people who’ve been sending such well wishes have been hit with e-mail solicitations from Team Edwards, asking for donations just as all candidates are looking to post big online fund-raising numbers.
In the letter, Edwards says the pair is staying optimistic and fighting hard for Elizabeth. Below the letter is a space for writing the couple a message – which can’t be sent without all sections completed, including one asking for the sender’s e-mail address.
That, in turn, is added to the campaign’s online database for boosting Internet donations.
In response, message-senders get a “thank you” for their kind words, but no other indication that their e-mail addresses are being stored.
So how is this “phishing”? This is a common practice by all campaigns, and all campaigns include a link to no longer receive emails at the bottom of their messages. This is in no way phishing and in no way illegal. What Malkin’s article does consist of is slander against Edwards. She is saying he is doing something illegal without any conviction, let alone charges or investigations. Again Malkin proves her lack of intelligence.