October 28, 2025

Press Statement from the INYO350 Board of Directors:
A Cautionary Announcement from INYO350

In the spirit of honesty and transparency—and as a cautionary tale for others in our local community—INYO350 is informing the community that we have been the victim of a scam.

 

We’ve come to understand that we were duped into believing that, for the past several weeks, we had been in contact with nationally known political podcaster Dan Pfeiffer, and that Dan Pfeffer would be visiting our area and speaking at the NO KINGS 2.0 rally in Bishop on Saturday, October 18. As we now understand, we were being hustled all along by a scammer who was pretending to be Dan.

 

We realize that this news will probably be met with quite different reactions from our followers than from those who don’t agree with our local work for the environment, social justice, and democracy. We also realize that we could have kept the fact of this scam completely hidden—and not exposed ourselves to criticism or ridicule by revealing it.

 

The Board of INYO350, which is composed entirely of local volunteer community members, agreed that the right thing to do was not to hide the facts, but to come forward with the details of the fraud. We are doing this for two reasons. First, we highly value honesty and transparency. And second, we want to alert our fellow community members (regardless of party or politics) that, unfortunately, scammers abound, and we should all always be on our guard to not fall prey to them.

 

How did this happen to INYO350? In hindsight, which is always 20-20 as the saying goes, we were unexplainably naive from the start. What happened to us has many of the hallmarks of a “classic scam.” First, we were contacted by someone claiming (and seeming) to be the real Dan Pfeiffer. That first contact came through a WhatsApp message. Next, after a brief period of back-and-forth communications, “Dan” accepted our invitation to speak at the NO KINGS 2.0 event in Bishop and agreed to discount his usual speaker fee if we paid him at once to lock in the date on his calendar. Third, as communications continued, he provided a bio and headshot for our use in publicity, while at the same time warmly, or so it seemed, complimenting our resistance efforts and organizing strategies.

 

As our seeming partnership with “Dan” evolved, additional plans for his visit here were made, including a field trip in our area. All our planning and communications seemed to be going well until “Dan” contacted us Saturday morning saying he was ill and would not be able to visit with us or speak at the rally.

 

Since last weekend, we’ve realized that we were never in touch with the actual Dan Pfeiffer and that the whole thing was a scam. We learned the hard way that we failed to notice so many of the typical signs of a scam, including that scammers will: 1) contact you “out of the blue” and make an offer that is “too good to be true,” 2) create a sense of urgency to get you act quickly (without thinking it through) to lock in a “special” offer or deal, 3) keep you communicating with them via an online platform, such as WhatsApp, and not engage with you via a video call (or Zoom meeting), 4) provide information that makes them seem credible, and 5) lead you to believe that you are developing a connection and relationship with them that will lead to something you value.

 

Here’s our cautionary tale. Don’t fall for what we did. Scammers prey on our hopes, and sometimes on our fears. They create a false sense of trust and of urgency, so you act before realizing it’s all a con. We hope everyone reading this will remember at least this one takeaway—if you get contacted with an offer that “seems too good to be true,” be extremely skeptical and independently verify all the key facts of the situation before you pay for something or agree to anything.

 

If this scam had political motivations, there is an irony in it we hope the scammer will learn of. It’s because we thought we were bringing the real Dan Pfeiffer to town that we realized we needed additional fundraising efforts to step up our ongoing resistance efforts in our local communities. In fact, we raised several times the amount we were swindled out of. These generous community donations will expand INYO350’s resistance work in the Eastern Sierra in significant ways, allowing us to plan and promote future marches and rallies, community meetings, post carding to elected officials and voters, campaign forums, activism trainings, candidate trainings, speakers and special presentations, and to increasingly mobilize our community on behalf of our democracy, environment, public lands, our immigrant neighbors, and much, much more. If the goal was to hurt our work for the community, the actual impact offered an ironic silver lining indeed.