Every now & then, even the New York Times decides to get it right. (Bold/Italics added by me)

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Donor Patrol: Obama’s Online Site Accepts More FakesBy Michael Luo

Erika Franzi...had been following recent news reports examining how people using obviously fake names had made thousands...in contributions to Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign without being detected.

So this afternoon ... while her 2yr-old was watching “Sesame Street,” Ms. Franzi got on her laptop to conduct an experiment. She used her debit card to make a $15 donation to Obama’s campaign.

Ms. Franzi, who described herself as conservative and preferring Sen. McCain over Obama, used the name “Della Ware” and entered an address of 12345 No Way in Far Far Away, DE 78954. Under employer, she listed: Americans Against Obama; for occupation, she typed in: Founder.

To her surprise, she said, her contribution went through in “fewer than three seconds.” Then, in order to be fair, she repeated the experiment on McCain’s Web site, entering the exact same information. 3 times, she said, she received the message: “We have found errors in the information that you submitted. Please review the information below and try again.”

Ms. Franzi’s experiment would not necessarily be notable, except it appears that many others are doing the same thing. Power Line, a conservative political blog, reported a reader had successfully made donations under the names Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers. While those experiences could not be immediately verified, Ms. Franzi sent The Caucus a screenshot from her bank account that showed a contribution to Obama for America going through at 1:02 p.m.

To be fair to the Obama campaign, officials there have said much of their checking for fraud occurs after the transactions have already occurred. When they find something wrong, they then refund the amount.

But a New York Times analysis of campaign finance records looking for obvious anomalies in donor information quickly found more than a dozen contributors to Mr. Obama using obviously fictitious name. This was a tiny fraction of Obama’s donor pool, but it appeared from the analysis that McCain had far fewer apparent fake names among his donors.

Unlike Obama, McCain provides on his Web site a searchable database of all of his donors, including those who fall below the $200 threshold that the Federal Election Commission requires campaigns to itemize in their reports...

The Obama campaign pointed out that a search of the name “Anonymous, Anonymous” also turns up pages of contributions to the McCain campaign, including more than two dozen that exceed $200 but for some reason do not appear in FEC records. It should be pointed out that campaigns are permitted to accept donations of up to $50 in cash or anonymously. There are other odd donors that appear in searches of the McCain database but fall below the $200 threshold, including “The Gun Shop” from Hood River, Oregon., who contributed $100 and “Adorable Manabat” from Winnetka, Calif., who gave $200.

Other news reports have surfaced recently of people discovering credit card charges they had not made to the Obama campaign. The Washington Post reported this week the tale of Mary T. Biskup of Manchester, MO, who received a call recently from the Obama campaign asking if she had donated $174,800 to the campaign. Ms. Biskup said she had not and told the Post it appeared someone had used her name but not her credit card number, because nothing had showed up on her own bills.

The Obama campaign said it quickly spotted the donations ostensibly made by Ms. Biskup and began looking into it right away, contacting her and then charging back the money to the credit card.

The main problem, according to Ms. Franzi, seems to be that Obama’s Web site apparently does not require that the donor’s information match the information on the credit card making the contribution, while Mr. McCain’s seems to have stricter standards.

Ms. Franzi insisted her experiment had nothing to do with her being a McCain supporter. “Nothing that I did today would have turned out any different if I were an Obama supporter. I would be equally disgusted with my own candidate for doing the same thing.”

Nevertheless, a half hour after her “fake” contribution to Mr. Obama went through, Ms. Franzi, who had made no donations to either candidate, felt compelled to perform her ablutions. She contributed $15 to Mr. McCain.