What Is a PAC?
A Federal political action committee (PAC) is an organization that raises and spends money to elect or defeat candidates for Federal office. All PACs can run independent advertising campaigns and fund voter contact programs. Traditional PACs can directly fund candidates. Super PACs cannot fund candidates, but they can raise and spend unlimited money to influence elections.
PACs are regulated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and are required to publicly disclose their fundraising, spending, and vendor payments. This transparency is what makes our research possible — and it’s what scam PACs are counting on you not to check.
PACs Drive the Majority of Political Giving
PACs raised close to 70% of the $25 billion reported to the FEC in the 2023-2024 Federal election cycle. In 2025, PACs captured 63% of political donations.
PACS Captured 69% of 2024 Political Donations
Source: FEC. https://www.fec.gov/data/browse-data/?tab=raising
Given that most political donations now flow through PACs, how PACs spend the money that they raise directly affects election outcomes. Most Democratic PACs raise funds to advance their stated mission — electing candidates, advancing policy goals, or mobilizing voters. Fundraising itself (digital advertising, email and text platforms, payment processing) costs money, and some overhead is normal.
The defining feature of a legitimate PAC is that a meaningful share of the money it raises supports candidates or electoral programs through direct contributions, independent expenditures, voter outreach, or other programmatic spending.
By contrast, most dollars captured by scam PACs are dollars unavailable to competitive campaigns. At scale, this diversion weakens Democratic competitiveness and massively erodes donors’ trust in political giving.
Scam PACs
In 2022, the FBI warned the American public about scam PACs.
“In every election cycle there are billions of dollars invested in political spending. This attracts criminals who use deception to cheat Americans out of their hard-earned money. The FBI assesses that seniors are at a high risk of being targeted.” Source: FBI website
PACs operate in a grey area of the law. They are mostly under the supervision of the Federal Election Commission, an underfunded politically-hobbled government entity lacking a quorum and thus unable to enact fines or other penalties, issue new rules or advisories or conduct audits. Source: The Hill
Every year since 2016, the Federal Election Commission has asked Congress to give it the authority to protect donors from so-called “scam PACs.”
Their recommendation:
“Congress should examine potentially fraudulent fundraising and spending activities of certain political committees that are often referred to as “scam PACs.” These committees solicit contributions with the promise of supporting candidates, but then disclose minimal or no candidate support activities while engaging in significant and continuous fundraising. This fundraising predominantly funds personal compensation for the committees’ organizers. In many cases, all funds raised by this subset of political committees are provided to fundraising vendors, direct mail vendors, and consultants in which the political committees’ officers appear to have financial interests. Based on its examination, Congress should amend the Federal Election Campaign Act to address, define, and prohibit fraudulent fundraising practices.” Source: Legislative Recommendations of the Federal Election Commission 2024.
In the absence of meaningful regulatory controls, scam PACs have flourished on both sides of the political spectrum. Republican PACs have led the way in deceptive fundraising practices, including pre-checked recurring donation boxes; often scamming elderly donors of thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars.
Many scam PACs remain lawful because the current legal framework does not require PACs to spend a minimum percentage on candidates or electoral activity. A PAC can raise millions of dollars, spend 95% on vendors, and face no legal consequence — as long as the PAC files accurate FEC reports. That’s why public education and pressure campaigns directed at fundraising platforms such as ActBlue are often the most effective tools for protecting donors.
- Disproportionate spending on solicitations
- Consultant fees paid to PAC insiders or family members
- Minimal actual contributions to candidates or causes