-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of The Yes Lab
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:28 AM
To: gurstein-gmail.com
Subject: Bank of America still not yours... yet.
April 19, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ON-THE-BRINK BANK STILL NOT YOURS (YET)
Dow Jones posts fake release for two hours; bank gets fake website
blacklisted, briefly
Contact: [email protected]
Bank of America executives, investors, and opponents alike reacted with
surprise to yesterday's news <http://yeslab.org/yourbofa-announce> -posted
for two hours on Dow
<http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/04/18/bank-america-is-target-fake-pres
s-release/> Jones Newswire and elsewhere-that the mammoth financial
institution, realizing it was heading for a taxpayer bailout, was asking
Americans to start thinking about what they'll do with
<http://www.bank-of-you.com/ideas> the bank once they own it, and to start
advertising that vision <http://bank-of-you.com/gallery> too.
The news, of course, was a hoax.
The fake YourBofA.com website <http://www.bank-of-you.com/> was quickly,
but temporarily, blacklisted by Google as a potential "phishing scam,"
despite the site containing no forms, spyware, or other characteristics of a
site engaging in phishing. Firefox and Google Chrome users who tried to load
YourBofA.com were warned that the site may be "dangerous," while some
individuals with Gmail accounts reported that emails containing the URL were
bounced back or not delivered. An investigation
<http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/18/google-blacklists-bank-of-america-par
ody-website/> by Raw Story concluded that "It's likely that Bank of America
reported the site to Google as a phishing scam." Shortly after the article's
publication-and with the help of thousands of volunteers complaining to
Google-the website was taken off the blacklist.
Today's reports
<http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-america-profit-slumps-68-2012-04-1
9> of slumping profits make the fake site all the more timely. "This site is
a forum for people to imagine what they could do with this bank," said Jane
O'Heely of the Yes Lab, one of the site's creators. "The ideas
<http://www.bank-of-you.com/ideas> we've gotten already show we all know as
much as bankers about how a bank ought to be run-and actually, a good deal
more."
"A bank doesn't have to be something that charges you fees, invests your
money in things you abhor, destroys poor communities with predatory lending,
and then threatens to take down the global economy if you don't agree to
bail it out," said Logan Price, who helped create BreakUpBofA.com
<http://www.breakupbofa.com/> . "Thinking of alternatives to this
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fa
il-20120314> nightmare is not rocket science."
The hoax was perpetrated by means of a fake press release
<http://yeslab.org/yourbofa-announce> ; it was followed two hours later with
a fake <http://yeslab.org/yourbofa-retort> angry retort, so that no
journalist would be fooled for very long. "We wanted to get people thinking
about how they'd run banking differently, not to really fool anyone," noted
O'Heely. "The whole fake release thing was just a way to publicize it and
get people posting ideas <http://bank-of-you.com/ideas> and ads
<http://bank-of-you.com/creative> ."
"Any response by Bank of America would just help spread the word, and they
seem to know that," added O'Heely. When Bank of America got Google to
blacklist
<http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/18/google-blacklists-bank-of-america-par
ody-website/> the website as "phishing" (which it was not), the Yes Lab
mobilized 4000 volunteers to complain, which quickly worked to de-list the
site and give this press release a small extra hook.
The website's centerpiece is an open <http://bank-of-you.com/ideas> call to
American taxpayers to begin considering what they will do after a bailout,
when they'll have a chance to become the company's majority owners. The
"bank" also asks the public to advertise their visions with a tool
<http://bank-of-you.com/creative> for generating web banners-images that
could <http://bank-of-you.com/gallery> give Bank of America a very real
"google problem" not unlike Chevron's
<https://www.google.com/search?q=chevron+%22we+agree%22&hl=en&prmd=imvns&sou
rce=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=geGGT9ysIunn0QHMjZ3sBw&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&v
ed=0CBYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1058&bih=631> . The site also includes a letter from CEO
Brian Moynihan that admits to the bank's many
<http://bank-of-you.com/lessons-learned> failings-short-sighted investment
decisions and the massive accumulation of le gal liabilities, causing
plummeting share prices and inexorably pushing the company towards a public
bailout.
The YourBofA.com website was a collaboration between the Yes Lab
<http://www.yeslab.org/> , Rainforest <http://ran.org/> Action Network, and
New Bottom <http://www.newbottomline.com/> Line. A number of folks within
Occupy <http://occupywallst.org/> Wall Street's Alternative Banking working
group also helped with the site. Like other Yes Lab websites, this one is
hosted by May First / People Link <https://mayfirst.org/5-1> .
The website comes at a time of rampant distrust of big banks. Even top
Federal Government regulators have recently called for the end of "too big
to fail." As Harvey Rosenblum, the head of the Dallas Fed's research
department, recently
<http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/banking-regulator-calls-for-end-of-t
oo-big-to-fail/> wrote: "Many of the biggest banks have sputtered, their
balance sheets still clogged with toxic assets accumulated in the boom
years... creating a residue of distrust for the government, the banking
system, the Fed and capitalism itself."
"Most Americans, and even some regulators, see what's wrong with the state
of our banking system," said Price. "We have a real opportunity to safely
and proactively push this
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fa
il-20120314> company towards managed bankruptcy and create smaller
<http://www.breakupbofa.com/> , more responsive financial institutions that
help American communities rather than harm them."
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