Intellectual Property Law

One of the first things that recipients notice about phishing e-mails is their shoddy, bizarre and stilted use of the English language.

To some, the only difference between politicians and these online scammers is their vastly-different skill levels in the use of language and rhetoric.

To make the point, David Alpert, a political organizer whose day job is product manager at Google, recently established a new web site named Gastaxscam.com.

The greeting page reads:

CONFIDENTIAL/URGENT POLITICAL PROPOSAL

Dear Sir

First we must solicit your confidence in this issue. This is by virtue as being utterly confidential and "top secret".

We are SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, the wife of the former United States head of state, PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, and also SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, friend and associate of current head of state PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH. We got your contact through business inquiries as we were searching for contacts of a citizen who can help save our and our family's political careers since our country has been frustrating us.

We are top officials of the United States Senate Government who are interested in importation of oil into our country with funds that are presently trapped in the FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND dedicated to improving transportation. We wish to send this money to overseas accounts in the MIDDLE EAST but cannot due to restrictions in Congress Transportation Equity Act requiring that this money must be spent to build roads, bridges and high speed trains.

...

Alpert, of course, supports Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama. The Illinois senator opposes the idea of giving American drivers a summer "holiday" from paying federal taxes on gas because it doesn't address the fundamental problems that are driving high gas prices.

Both New York senator Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain have pushed the idea of giving voters a summer break from paying federal taxes on gas.

Experts have weighed in on the idea, and concluded that it stinks. Nevertheless, the issue has become a major rhetorical pivot point on the campaign trail as voters headed to the polls in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday. MSNBC's Tim Russert reports that Obama's strategists used the issue to divert the campaign conversation away from Obama's association with Reverend Jeremiah  Wright. 

"I started thinking about the idea of a "scam", the way Clinton and McCain were trying to fool people," writes Alpert in an e-mail to Threat Level. "That led to thinking about various scams, and suddenly I hit on the idea of the Nigerian spams. Some of them are even about oil, and they're all about promising money which won't actually be delivered. That's the same dynamic here. I found some samples of these spams, and the letter almost wrote itself, down to the fact that many of them purportedly come from relatives of former heads of state and the concept of sending money overseas, which we are doing by consuming so much gas."

Alpert says that he'd already been blogging about the issue, but that Clinton's attacks on Obama sent him over the edge.

"When Hillary Clinton started not only pushing her terrible plan, but attacking Obama with it and calling on Members of Congress to take a position, it motivated me to do something," he writes. "I think we as a country need to seriously start investing in infrastructure like high-speed rail or more local commuter trains and buses that enable people to go about their everyday lives without consuming a lot of gas, and Clinton and McCain were moving us in the wrong direction. Not only is it bad policy, but they were out there persuading that high gas prices could be solved with a quick fix, and that's very dangerous as well as wrong."

Clinton has repeatedly defended the plan as having real benefits for the trucking industry and the economy. She has also called for reducing reliance on foreign oil, as well as for investments into research into  alternative sources of energy. So has McCain.

So far, 1,493 people have signed Gastaxscam's petition, which made its debut Monday.

It's likely to get more attention, as this chart from Google Hot Trends shows that searches for the subject are spiking.

The site promises: "We won't sell or rent your email address to anyone. We'll keep you updated about energy and transportation in the Presidential race, and you can unsubscribe at any time."

No word yet on whether your e-mail may be swapped with other non-profit organizations, which is common in the political world, nor whether the online signatures will really be delivered to the campaigns. (Hat tip, Joshua Levy, TechPresident)

See Also:

• Online Campaign 2008: A Phishing Bonanza?