The weirdest online campaign tactic I’ve seen

BoingBoing reports a very odd fundraising tactic/scam from the US:

At least 16 fraudulent sites attributed to the National Republican Congressional Committee have been discovered.

These sites, whose domains are the names of Democratic candidates, use large type and photos that make them appear to be fundraisers for those candidates, though the small-print text makes it clear that these are actually sites set up opposing their apparent candidates.

The NRCC claims these are all fair game and blame Democrats for not registered their candidates’ names as for campaign sites. But when there’s a site at AnnKirkpatrick.com, with the words ANN KIRKPATRICK FOR CONGRESS and a DONATE button beneath it, and when that DONATE button sends money to Ann Kirkpatrick’s GOP rival, the intent to deceive is pretty clear.