LYDIA BRIMELOW: EMERGENCY MESSAGE REGARDING VDARE.COM YEAR-END DONATION CYBER ATTACKS. (Send Checks!)

12/29/2023

We’ve had a lot of Cancel Culture setbacks this year. But right now I need to address the most urgent and the most crippling: VDARE.com is now enduring relentless online attacks specifically designed to disrupt our donation system during the most critical fundraising days of the year. And they are working.

The first attack in early December wiped out our system emails by overwhelming them with requests.

What are system emails? They are the emails you get prompting you to opt-in to your subscriptions to VDARE.com lists, or to set up a VDARE.com account or to verify your bank account to send transfers. These were wiped out by a bot entering an overwhelming number of fake sign-ups, triggering an overwhelming number of automatic opt-in emails, resulting in a spam alert lock-down on our system. The “I am not a robot” puzzles didn’t help.

It may not be a big deal if we don’t have ebulletin sign ups for a few weeks. But it is a very big deal if new donors can’t register, and ACH (Automatic Clearing House = bank transfer) donors can’t verify their bank accounts, which is currently the case.

The second attack was less effective: they tried to sign up some of VDARE.com’s email accounts for tons of spam emails. Easily outmaneuvered but still annoying.
The third attack, a direct result of me posting our office number 860-361-6231 to the website for donor use: harassing calls to the office, weird voice messages, and old men on the line with foul language.

I’m not new to harassing calls. In fact, I’m reminded of the old schoolyard taunt against bullies: “I’m made of rubber and you’re made of glue, what bounces off of me sticks on to you.”

Dial away if it makes you happy.

The fourth attack was by far the most serious, troubling not only VDARE.com but also some entirely innocent banks with whom we have no association at all.

On our donations page vdare.com/donate there is an option to “give by bank account,” i.e., set up a bank transfer rather than a credit card charge.

When a NEW donor uses this payment method, two things happen:

An email is triggered to the user with instructions for how to verify his bank account. But since our system emails were wiped out in early December, this verification process does not happen right now.
The bank through which the charge is routed gets a verification request.

The distress call I got earlier this week from a small midwestern bank overwhelmed by verification requests was the first I knew of the problem. By the time we were able to block the bot, there were more than 20,000 verification requests sent to a number of banks.

We thought we had solved this problem a couple of days ago. But it started up again late this week and we were forced to take more drastic measures.

Currently, ACH (Automatic Clearing House = bank transfer) payments can only go through for existing donors who are logged in to their VDARE.com accounts (see top right on home page), or over the phone 860-361-6231 with me at the office.

The latest attack as of this writing: unprecedented numbers of fraudulent credit cards. Luckly, our processor has strong protections for this type of thing. To my knowledge, no illegitimate donations have made their way through. Pray that it stays that way.

VDARE.com is under serious, unrelenting, coordinated attack aimed at crippling our funding and destroying our immigration patriot operation. As battle-scarred veterans of 2023 (see: New York Attorney General Letitia James), we are hopeful that the New Year brings some relief.

But we know that without your help, it won’t have an opportunity.

PLEASE HELP VDARE.COM STAY ONLINE. Click here to make a fully tax-deductible donation now, before the clock strikes on New Year’s Eve.

PS: If the donation form blocks your payment for any reason, please call me at the office 860-361-6231 or email me at I can fix most of the problems from the other end.

PPS: Paper checks mailed to VDARE.com PO Box 211 Litchfield CT 06759 are once again the most reliable way to donate.

Just make sure the postmark on the check is in 2023 for your tax deduction!

Lydia Brimelow
VDARE.com Publisher

A native Texan, Lydia Brimelow graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2006. She is fundraiser and office manager, lion tamer, fire extinguisher and miscellany handler at VDARE.com. She and Peter married in 2007 and have three daughters together.

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This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.