Cruz donation website shared certificate with Nigerian-Prince.com

It can be hard to get a secure website off the ground without fumbles, as Ted Cruz’s fledging presidential campaign is learning.

The Texas Republican senator announced his bid for the White House on Monday morning and launched a website to gather campaign donations via credit card.

{mosads}First, the website did not appear to offer encryption for online transactions, the level of security illustrated by a padlock next to the URL on most common browsers.

Once the security certificate was discovered, it was revealed that TedCruz.org listed Nigerian-Prince.com as an alternative address for the same website. The latter site pokes fun at email scams that often target the elderly.

Nigerian-Prince.com was removed from the certificate around 11 a.m., but it did not stop the story from circulating on tech blogs.

“[The glitch] still raises some questions about just who he has hired to build his websites,” wrote TechDirt’s Mike Masonic, who noted that fellow Republicans have criticized Cruz’s understanding of net neutrality.

The listing was first reported by Twitter user @pwnallthethings.