$5,000 “DOGE Checks" Scam Revealed!

Summary

Bulwark Takes Podcast Summary
Episode: "$5,000 'DOGE Checks' Scam Revealed!"
Release Date: June 4, 2025

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Introduction to the Scam Pack

In the June 4, 2025 episode of Bulwark Takes, host Sam Stein is joined by Andrew Egger, author of Morning Shot, to delve into the intricacies of a recent scam pack exploiting political fundraising mechanisms. The discussion centers around a deceptive campaign promising $5,000 in Dogecoin to unsuspecting individuals, highlighting the broader issues of fraudulent practices within political financing.

Unveiling the $5,000 DOGE Checks Scam

Andrew Egger provides a comprehensive breakdown of the scam:

Andrew Egger [01:13]: "The whole idea of a scam pack is they're bringing in money, saying they're going to use it to fight political battles, but they're mostly just spending it on themselves."

Egger explains that the scam involves sending out messages claiming recipients have earned a $5,000 Dogecoin check, prompting them to act quickly to receive the funds. However, the reality is far from genuine:

Andrew Egger [02:02]: "You earned that $5,000 doge check. Say yes before it's gone... Well, that's not a real thing."

Sam Stein likens the scam to classic frauds, emphasizing its blatant nature:

Sam Stein [02:57]: "That's such a good analogy... it's really straight up fraud... it's malicious and bad."

Affiliations and Origins of the Scam

The scam is orchestrated by a group masquerading as "Women for America's Freedom," previously associated with the website atwomenforamerica.org. Egger uncovers troubling connections to established political figures:

Andrew Egger [06:52]: "The president of the PAC, Mary Vote, is a senior vice president at the Heritage Foundation for Communications... Carolyn Levitt, who was a former Trump campaign staffer."

Despite attempts to distance themselves from these figures, the Heritage Foundation denies any affiliation:

Andrew Egger [06:59]: "The Heritage Foundation reached out today after we published the piece. They said Mary Vote is not in any way affiliated with this organization."

Further investigation reveals Thomas Datweiler's involvement—a figure with a questionable reputation tied to multiple fraudulent activities:

Andrew Egger [08:25]: "His whole rap sheet includes connections to George Santos and other dubious campaign finance abuses."

Broader Implications on Campaign Finance

Sam Stein expands the conversation to the systemic issues within campaign financing, highlighting how such scam packs exploit loopholes:

Sam Stein [09:29]: "Someone gets good at standing up these generic sounding organizations that build up email lists to raise money... they prey on donors and spend very little on actual politics."

Stein criticizes the current regulatory environment, arguing that enforcement is insufficient and largely delegated to fundraising platforms like ActBlue and WinRed:

Sam Stein [05:04]: "A more honest and effective campaign finance system with actual regulations would crack down on these groups more."

Conclusion and Call to Action

The episode culminates with a strong call to action for listeners to remain vigilant and proactive in combating such scams. Sam Stein urges the audience to report suspicious activities to Bulwark's tips line:

Sam Stein [10:15]: "If you see something, say something. We have a tips line at thebulwark.com/tips. We love blowing these people up."

Andrew Egger and Sam Stein emphasize the importance of public awareness and regulatory reform to prevent the proliferation of fraudulent political fundraising schemes. They encourage listeners to subscribe to Bulwark's platforms for continued insights and updates on combating political scams.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Mechanism of the Scam: Fraudulent organizations masquerade as political groups, promising financial rewards (e.g., $5,000 Dogecoin) to solicit personal information or donations.

2. Misuse of Affiliations: Scammers exploit the names and reputations of legitimate political figures and organizations to lend credibility to their false promises.

3. Systemic Vulnerabilities: Current campaign finance regulations are inadequate in preventing such scams, highlighting the need for stricter oversight and enforcement.

4. Public Vigilance: Increased awareness and proactive reporting by individuals are crucial in identifying and dismantling these fraudulent operations.

5. Call for Reform: There is a pressing need for comprehensive campaign finance reform to address and close loopholes exploited by scam packs.

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Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Egger [01:13]: "They are claiming they're going to fight political battles but are mostly spending on themselves."

• Sam Stein [02:57]: "It's really straight up fraud... it's malicious and bad."

• Sam Stein [09:29]: "They prey on donors and spend very little on actual politics that they pledge to do."

• Sam Stein [10:15]: "If you see something, say something. We have a tips line at thebulwark.com/tips."

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This episode of Bulwark Takes sheds light on the deceptive practices within political fundraising, urging listeners to remain informed and engaged in safeguarding the integrity of political financing.

Transcript

[Ryan]

Hello, it is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere. So sign up [e-mail] to claim your free welcome bonus. That's chumbacasino.com and live the Chumbalife sponsored by Chumba Casino.

[Andrew Egger]

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[Sam Stein]

Hey, Sam Stein managing Under the bulwark here, joined by Andrew Egger, author of Morning Shot, who has a doozy of a morning shot this morning. We can call it a morning shot shot in the morning. It's about scam packs, specifically one scam pack, which is kind of my thing. I love writing about scam packs, reading about scam packs. We're going to get into it before we do subscribe to the feed. All right, Andrew, tell us about this scam pack that you uncovered and what exactly is so scammy about it.

[Andrew Egger]

So this is for people who aren't kind of in the know this. The whole idea of a scam pack is they're they're bringing in money. They are saying they're going to use it to, you know, fight political battles. And they're mostly just spending it on operating the pack, which is basically giving themselves kickbacks, treating themselves to various sort of luxury, you know, niceties, goodies, different things, not actually fighting the political fight that they're, that they're saying they're going to do. So parties kind of hate them because they take money away from what would otherwise be, you know, actual party activities. Voters tend to hate them as well because they are scams. The one today though is kind of remarkably shameless. Like even among the scam packs, I mean, I don't know how you felt about it, Sam. You've spent more time kind of just like getting a thick skin to these things. But let me just read you a little bit about.

[Sam Stein]

Sure.

[Andrew Egger]

Here's, here's the text message from this from this group. You earned that $5,000 doge check. Say yes before it's gone. Well, that's interesting. There are no $5,000 doge checks. That's not a real thing. Let's find out more. All right, click through the link. Doge saved you $1 trillion and you said no. Our records show you may have said no to your Trump savings check. This can't be right. This isn't a handout. It's your hard earned money that corrupt bureaucrats stole from you. You only have until midnight to update your response. Oh, my gosh. The. The bureaucrats were stealing my money. $5,000 doge check. Trump wants to give me back my money that bureaucrats stole, and all I have to do is sign on the dotted line here and maybe. What's this? Give a donation to this. I mean, it's, it's really remarkable because it's, I mean, really what you're working with here is like one of those old, like, Nigerian princes scam type stories, like, give me a little money now and you're gonna get a lot of money later. But it's.

[Sam Stein]

Why didn't we put that in red?

[Andrew Egger]

What's that?

[Sam Stein]

Why didn't we put that in the piece? That's such a good analogy.

[Andrew Egger]

I only thought of it just now mid riff. I should have. We got to start doing a riff. We got to start doing the riff halfway through the morning. Morning shots. Editorial process.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, yeah, because it doesn't take that long to begin with. So the group that did this is. What's it called? Women for America.

[Andrew Egger]

Women for America's Freedom, which is like the most generic, amazing. I mean, there are so many different groups that contain the words women for America in them. But yes, this is Women for America's Freedom, formerly atwomen for America.org.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, so my thoughts on this are that it is indeed a different level of scam than what is customary. So scam is the sort of shorthand for it. But yeah, I mean, this, this you described correctly. They take, they advertise that they're going to spend money on political projects and they ain't spending money on themselves, more or less. And we see this across now. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. This is universal. And you're right, like, operatives hate them because they do prey on the most vulnerable, which tend to be elderly people who don't really have a good sense of how this stuff works and will believe what's in their inbox and assume that they can, in this case, qualify for $5,000 if they just give a few bucks here or there or sign up for an email list. In this case, the reason I think it's worse is because they're not saying, hey, help us support Doge or hey, help us support Donald Trump by giving to this. And they're saying, hey, you deserve, you're going to get $5,000. And that to me is like fraud. That's just like straight up fraud. Now, I'm not a lawyer, so I shouldn't say straight up fraud, but whatever, it's, it's, it's malicious and bad. And so to me, that sets us apart.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah. And you can tell when you're reading through the solicitation that they're trying to like sidle right up to that line without going over it. They say, because when you actually get down to the call to action, it's just sign our survey, you know, to say that you want your dose check back. But, but, but that language I read earlier, I mean, I think it's open and shut, that it goes beyond just there's this money floating around out there.

[Sam Stein]

And I mean it clearly is meant to leave the impression that you have $5,000 coming your way if you just fill out some forms. Right?

[Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

And that, and everyone knows that that's because there's no such things. Doge check. Now, as you went about reporting this, what did you discover about the origins of this? About who's behind it or, you know, does the White, is the White House even aware of this? Like, if I were those. See, this is the thing that always gets me. If I were the White House, I'd be pissed. I'd be like, what the hell? You're misleading our people. And they're going to be angry because you're promising $5,000 and you're never going to get it.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, so this is, this is an interesting thing because this group is not large. I mean, this is kind of a rinky dink little scam pack in some respects. They operated in the, in last cycle, they pulled in, you know, mid six figures of total donations, $370,000 about, you know, if you remember, that was like the most expensive election in history is kind of like a decimal point of, a decimal point of getting thrown around. But what was interesting about it was not the quantity of money so much as some of the names that were attached to it. Right. The website no longer exists. But if you go back into kind of the archived versions of their, of their website, you find that this group listed as the president of the pac, Mary Vote, who is a senior vice president at the Heritage foundation for Communications, who is the, the former wife of Russell Vogt who is one of Donald Trump's biggest right hand hatchet men, big project 2025 guy who now heads the Office of Management and Budget at the White House. And then if you head over to their, their page for their advisors, their, their kind of, I forget the exact word, their advisory committee for the, for the, one of the three names there, one of the three women for America's Freedom, you might say, is Carolyn Levitt, who was at that time not, you know, the Carolyn Levitt that we all know and love today, this kind of very central Trump world figure. But she was kind of emerging in that way, right? She had been a former low level Trump. Com staffer.

[Sam Stein]

Why would these people get involved in these type. It's, it's such a rinky dink operation. Why would they get involved in it? Do we know?

[Andrew Egger]

Well, no, we don't know because they did not answer our request for comment. Although I will say that the Heritage foundation reached out today after we published the piece. They said Mary Vote is not in any way affiliated with this organization. And I wrote back, I said, okay, well was she affiliated? And they did not respond to that. So I mean, that's reading between the lines. It does seem like the likeliest thing rather than that they were just lying and misappropriating the names and likenesses of these Republican women that they were at some point affiliated with what, what formerly was a relatively normal scam pack. But the weird thing, I mean, like, I think it's important to kind of make this delineation here because the website no longer exists, right? The place kind of closed up shop after the last, after the 2020, but.

[Sam Stein]

They'Re still sending text messages.

[Andrew Egger]

But that's the thing. That's the thing, right? They took down their website. They, they just in the last couple of days have refiled a form for, for just like, you know, hey, fec, we still exist, we're still a pac. But, but obviously Carolyn Levitt is no longer affiliated. She's at the executive branch. Mary Vogt, who was apparently formerly the president. She's no longer affiliated. So who is affiliated with this group now? It's this one guy, at least according to these FEC filings, this one guy whose name is Thomas, I'm not going to get his name right. Thomas Datweiler, I guess is how you would pronounce it, who is not a figure that I had remembered hearing of until I started Googling him and started bumping into news stories that I had formerly read about him that I just didn't remember. Were him.

[Sam Stein]

Such as what?

[Andrew Egger]

Okay, well, so a whole bunch. He's got a good Santa.

[Sam Stein]

He's got a. He's got a good rap sheet.

[Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andrew Egger]

All kind of like, just like. And every single headline is like this FEC scam. Yeah. George Santos. So the, you know, the totally disgraced former.

[Sam Stein]

We know who George Santos lied about. Come on, move on.

[Andrew Egger]

All right, all right. Yeah. George Santos. You remember Jorge Santos? This guy was not his treasurer. He was like his shadow treasurer. He was the guy who was actually running George Santos reelection books while like, laying a false trail and suggesting to the FEC that he wasn't anywhere involved. He at one point was involved with this group called Dan Cox for Congress that was supposedly a campaign committee for this guy, this former Maryland delegate, that he was gonna run for Congress, which Dan Cox then had to go and smush and tell the fec, no, these guys are not affiliated with me. I'm not running for Congress. Like, don't let that group exist. He worked with Josh Mandel. He worked with. Who else did he work with? A number of. A number of people and got hit with. I mean, these campaigns are constantly getting.

[Sam Stein]

So he's a flag. In short, he's a flagrant abuser of the campaign finance system.

[Andrew Egger]

Yes, I will. Let me. Let me quote one more thing from a group called the conservative Nevada Leadership pac, which. Which denounced his, quote, knowing willful and intentional conduct, which, quote, continues to cause substantial harm to our electoral process. Apparently he had, like, in their telling, committed some wire fraud against them. Small ball stuff. But, yeah, this is the one guy who's at. Who's still at this place.

[Sam Stein]

Let me just. And I could close this on a bow here because this is what happens, folks, is that someone. And this happens again on both sides of the aisle, someone gets very good at standing up these generic sounding organizations that build up email lists to raise money to then spend that money to build up more email lists to raise more money to then build up those email lists to raise more money. And all the while, they kind of burn out donors. They prey on them. They spend very little money on actual politics that they pledge to do. In this case, Women's For America spent $10,000 total, about 5%, 5,000 on two different web ad campaigns. And a more honest and effective campaign finance system with actual regulations would crack down on these groups more. It's kind of become left to the fundraising platforms themselves, like ActBlue and Win Red to do the policing. And in this case, when Andrew did inquire about this one of the WIN red pages was removed but others do remain. But this is the shady underbelly of our campaign finance culture and unless people act to get rid of these groups and crack down on them, it will continue. So I encourage you to to keep your eyes open. Also, if you see something, say something. We have a tips line the bulwark.com tips the bulwark.com I always that up. Anyways if you see something, send us to us because we love blowing these people up. Andrew Great morning shots today. I really appreciate it. You guys should check it out on the site, subscribe to our substack and subscribe to our YouTube page too. We'll talk to you soon.

[Ryan]

Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on jumbaccasino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino's home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free, anytime, anywhere. So sign up [e-mail] to claim your free welcome bonus. That's chumbacasino.com and live the Chumba Life.

[Andrew Egger]

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