Tag: scams

20% of the proceeds go directly to MCLEF. MCLEF raises funds to help offset the college tuition costs for children who have lost a parent defending our county or in the line of duty.

20% of the proceeds go to charity. Net or gross? Net or gross proceeds or profit? So many questions. How much has been donated since the game appeared in 2012? Lipinoga lists himself as the “President” of the app, but the app itself is evidently offered by the Lipshall corporation, which is owned by Lipinoga and Keith Marshall of North Tonawanda. 

The game is a direct rip-off of Angry Birds, complete with caricatures of supposed “socialists” that look like something a 12 year-old did for free using Microsoft Paint and a broken mouse.

 

The American way isn’t to take something great, copy it wholesale, and make it awful. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kDhM0AzK1w]

Lipinoga’s corporate partner, Keith Marshall was a debt collector sued in 2009 by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for unfair debt collection practices. Marshall ran a debt collection scam with two other Buffalo men that was so abusive that it racked up 850 consumer complaints with the Better Business Bureau, as well as state and federal consumer protection authorities. They stand accused of threatening debtors with imprisonment and physical harm if they didn’t make payment arrangements. When rebuffed, Marshall’s employees would hurl vicious verbal abuse and make obscene sexual comments at people who, in some cases, owed as little as a few hundred dollars. One of Marshall’s operations is featured at “RipoffReport.com“. 

Cuomo’s office uncovered that Marshall’s collectors would demand payment for debts that didn’t exist, and they would sometimes inflate the amounts owed. They would pretend to be law enforcement to frighten and humiliate people. One collector threatened to rape a purported debtor’s daughter, using her name.  Collectors routinely called consumers “drunks,” “scumbags,” “deadbeats,” and, in one instance, “a low-life piece of trash.”

Marshall appears to still be active in the debt collection industry. In the comment thread here, someone with that name practically begs the Association of Credit and Collections Professionals (ACA) to intervene in a class action suit: 

A few weeks ago, Weppner played word games with the Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski over whether she was a birther – one of the people who believe that President Obama was born in Kenya. Weppner’s campaign treasurer, David Lipinoga, holds similar doubts.  Here, Lipinoga speaks to someone from Mother Jones and wonders why it is that Barry Hussein Soetoro of 1600 Kenya Avenue has a “Social Security Number from Connecticut with an 1895 date of birth”. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn9AKxGLkKE]

 

He wonders why that isn’t being investigated – these are, in some circles, considered to be reasonable questions.

 

Back in early March, I wrote, that Weppner is a “walking, talking anti-Obama chain email, and anyone reporting on her should be sure to have Snopes queued up on their mobile browsers. Seriously – there will be no point covering her campaign if you’re not able immediately to vet her pronouncements and cross-examine her on the inevitable fabrications and fantasies she’ll discuss.” Cue Snopes.com, which reveals that the people who think Obama’s Social Security number was stolen from an elderly French immigrant aren’t good with numbers.  The Social Security Death Index reveals that the Connecticut Frenchman’s SSN was 045-26-8722, while Obama’s is  042-68-4425. Because Obama was born in Hawaii, he was assigned his own SSN at birth. 

 

To learn more about the game that Lipinoga developed, here are some images of characters and gameplay (all via Facebook.com). 

 

The images speak for themselves. 

We’re well aware of Weppner’s penchant for birtherism and her aversion to human sexuality. But you are also known by the company you keep. 

Kathy Weppner and her campaign team can associate with whomever they want. They can associate with unfair debt collectors and birthers, they can spread half-baked propaganda about “socialism” and equate people with Karl Marx. No one says they can’t. But when you run for federal office, you should take the clown shoes off – not make them bigger and brighter. If you want to be an elected representative of the people in Washington, you can’t base your campaign on lies, and misrepresentations that are easily debunked by a common website. You shouldn’t run away from the hatreds and insecurities that you worked so hard to cultivate and profit from for a decade, either. Doing so will make you look opportunistic and false. 

I contacted Lipinoga via Facebook to find out how much the app has donated to MCLEF. I have not yet received a response. 

The Kathy Weppner campaign for Congress is a carnival sideshow. 

20% of the proceeds go directly to MCLEF. MCLEF raises funds to help offset the college tuition costs for children who have lost a parent defending our county or in the line of duty.

20% of the proceeds go to charity. Net or gross? Net or gross proceeds or profit? So many questions. How much has been donated since the game appeared in 2012? Lipinoga lists himself as the “President” of the app, but the app itself is evidently offered by the Lipshall corporation, which is owned by Lipinoga and Keith Marshall of North Tonawanda. 

The game is a direct rip-off of Angry Birds, complete with caricatures of supposed “socialists” that look like something a 12 year-old did for free using Microsoft Paint and a broken mouse.

 

The American way isn’t to take something great, copy it wholesale, and make it awful. 

Lipinoga’s corporate partner, Keith Marshall was a debt collector sued in 2009 by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for unfair debt collection practices. Marshall ran a debt collection scam with two other Buffalo men that was so abusive that it racked up 850 consumer complaints with the Better Business Bureau, as well as state and federal consumer protection authorities. They stand accused of threatening debtors with imprisonment and physical harm if they didn’t make payment arrangements. When rebuffed, Marshall’s employees would hurl vicious verbal abuse and make obscene sexual comments at people who, in some cases, owed as little as a few hundred dollars. One of Marshall’s operations is featured at “RipoffReport.com“. 

Cuomo’s office uncovered that Marshall’s collectors would demand payment for debts that didn’t exist, and they would sometimes inflate the amounts owed. They would pretend to be law enforcement to frighten and humiliate people. One collector threatened to rape a purported debtor’s daughter, using her name.  Collectors routinely called consumers “drunks,” “scumbags,” “deadbeats,” and, in one instance, “a low-life piece of trash.”

Marshall appears to still be active in the debt collection industry. In the comment thread here, someone with that name practically begs the Association of Credit and Collections Professionals (ACA) to intervene in a class action suit: 

A few weeks ago, Weppner played word games with the Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski over whether she was a birther – one of the people who believe that President Obama was born in Kenya. Weppner’s campaign treasurer, David Lipinoga, holds similar doubts.  Here, Lipinoga speaks to someone from Mother Jones and wonders why it is that Barry Hussein Soetoro of 1600 Kenya Avenue has a “Social Security Number from Connecticut with an 1895 date of birth”. 

 

He wonders why that isn’t being investigated – these are, in some circles, considered to be reasonable questions.

 

Back in early March, I wrote, that Weppner is a “walking, talking anti-Obama chain email, and anyone reporting on her should be sure to have Snopes queued up on their mobile browsers. Seriously – there will be no point covering her campaign if you’re not able immediately to vet her pronouncements and cross-examine her on the inevitable fabrications and fantasies she’ll discuss.” Cue Snopes.com, which reveals that the people who think Obama’s Social Security number was stolen from an elderly French immigrant aren’t good with numbers.  The Social Security Death Index reveals that the Connecticut Frenchman’s SSN was 045-26-8722, while Obama’s is  042-68-4425. Because Obama was born in Hawaii, he was assigned his own SSN at birth. 

 

To learn more about the game that Lipinoga developed, here are some images of characters and gameplay (all via Facebook.com). 

 

The images speak for themselves. 

We’re well aware of Weppner’s penchant for birtherism and her aversion to human sexuality. But you are also known by the company you keep. 

Kathy Weppner and her campaign team can associate with whomever they want. They can associate with unfair debt collectors and birthers, they can spread half-baked propaganda about “socialism” and equate people with Karl Marx. No one says they can’t. But when you run for federal office, you should take the clown shoes off – not make them bigger and brighter. If you want to be an elected representative of the people in Washington, you can’t base your campaign on lies, and misrepresentations that are easily debunked by a common website. You shouldn’t run away from the hatreds and insecurities that you worked so hard to cultivate and profit from for a decade, either. Doing so will make you look opportunistic and false. 

I contacted Lipinoga via Facebook to find out how much the app has donated to MCLEF. I have not yet received a response. 

The Kathy Weppner campaign for Congress is a carnival sideshow.