Thread by @Melanie_Paradis

⚠️CPC member data has been stolen ⚠️

By now you all know how much I hate disinformation & internet fraud.

Prepare for a very weird tale involving at least one CPC leadership candidate, Kyiv and hundreds of CPC members. 🧵

#cdnpoli #cpcldr #CPC
… 1/14

Earlier today I received an email from a CPC leadership campaign thanking me for pledging to donate $120 to the candidate.

I never made such a pledge. I’m staying neutral.

Immediately I was on alert. 2/14

I quickly messaged the campaign manager and asked if this was a marketing ploy or just a mistake.

I was told that their data shows I filled out an online pledge form on March 19 at 9:55am.

Except I was driving around Bay of Quinte at that time. Weird. 3/14

At this point we are calmly joking that maybe I meant to sign up for emails and hit the wrong button.

But then they notice my postal code is for the wrong city. 4/14

My phone number and my email address were entered correctly, but my postal code is wrong.

It’s important for you to know that I have moved twice in the past two years.

Immediately, I think an old list may be at play. 5/14

Then, suddenly, it gets so much weirder.

The campaign manager says “wait a minute, the IP address is in Kyiv.”

I laugh and think this a joke.

It was not. 6/14

Now I ask if my postal code was for Ottawa or Toronto, the two cities I lived in before this year.

Also important to know that the party database has me correctly residing in Belleville now.

Again, alarm bells. 7/14

The postal code used was for my address in Toronto, circa 2018-2020.

AKA: during the last leadership race. 8/14

I say “someone is using the old list. Are you guys running the IP address through your data to see if they did this with anyone else?”

Immediately they find hundreds more members whose data had been similarly entered from Kyiv. 9/14

To be clear, no one is in Kyiv entering CPC membership data into a leader’s website.

Rather, someone has masked their IP address using a fake location.

They then entered hundreds of party members’ names, emails, phone numbers & postal codes into a candidate’s website. 10/14

I understand that the campaign in question has notified the Party and LEOC about this.

But I am pissed garbage like this is happening.

It needs to be made clear to campaigns that digital sabotage will not be tolerated. 11/14

Look, some people may think this is just juvenile trolling meant to mess with a campaign’s data or to make them look bad when members like me say “I didn’t make this pledge, why are you asking me for money?” 12/14

But it’s actually an attempt to corrupt the process of electing our next Leader.

It’s an attempt to use legally protected membership data in an illegal manner.

Very simply, it’s identity theft. 13/14

Now, this is the sloppy thing that I caught by simply pestering a campaign manager when I thought something was wrong.

But are more sophisticated things happening behind the scenes?

And if so, who is behind it? 14/14