Randi Rhodes Forums

When MaryAnn Nellis tried to pay for groceries on April 14, her credit card was declined. Later, she said, she found out why: Her credit card company, Capital One, had flagged an earlier purchase as potentially fraudulent. The problem? A $5 donation to Friends of Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor’s campaign committee, Nellis said.

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At ProPublica’s request, Nellis called Capital One and asked a representative about the $5 charge to Friends of Scott Walker.

“She told me that they watch for fraudulent merchants who will put through a bunch of charges that are not legitimate,” Nellis said. “I said, ‘The fraudulent merchant here was Friends of Scott Walker, right?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ They had a little flag on any Scott Walker activity.”

As an experiment, a ProPublica employee also made a $5 donation to Friends of Scott Walker on her Capital One card on May 10. Almost immediately, Walker’s campaign sent an email thanking her. Less than a minute after that, Capital One emailed a fraud protection alert, saying the company “noticed potentially suspicious activity” on her account and asking her to call fraud protection as soon as possible.

When she inquired, a Capitol One representative said the donation wasn’t in line with her spending pattern and “our fraud department had some potential fraud concerns on the account.”

Another $5 donation, made to Walker’s opponent on the Capital One card, was not flagged as potentially fraudulent. Neither was a $5 donation to Friends of Scott Walker made on an American Express card. (The employee is seeking refunds of all three donations.)

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Bizarre. Obviously they are going to make a big noise trying to claim that they are being "targeted". But it will be interesting to find out - if we ever do - what caused Capitol One to make this decision. The only victim so far appears to be a Scott Walker supporter confused about why the donation was flagged. But unless Capitol One has just decided to obstruct the Walker campaign there must be someone or someones out there who had money extracted from them without wanting to place a donation. Funny that Barker went with this story before finding such a person. It sounds like she's fishing for such stories.

Well, good fishing I guess.

Read the story again. Nellis is NOT a Walker supporter, and did NOT make the actual donation that was flagged as fraudulent.

D'oh! I didn't see that you snipped that important part of the story out and when I looked at the full version I began at the end of your clip. My bad.

Sorry. I snipped in one place when I meant to snip another.

(Note to self: never hire Stoon as a moyel.)