this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
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Mildly Infuriating

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founded 2 years ago
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  1. never signed up for anything like this,
  2. never donated to or signed up for emails from the DNC, et al.,
  3. political texts like this come all the time, and
  4. I hesitate to reply “stop” because I don’t want them to know this is a live number (is my instinct here outdated/inapplicable?)
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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 127 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Hey there we’re the krazy kaucasians for Kamala…

Wait a second, let’s just go with White dudes for Harris

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You ever see the show Modern Family? I want a new show starring the husband from that show, about a wholesome totally not racist white guy who goes about life COMPLETELY oblivious to how his actions are percieved by other people.

Almost like a not racist version of Mr Magoo.

[–] finley@lemm.ee 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

that could be any of the 4 husbands on that show, to varying degrees. you'll have to be more specific.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

The white one

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[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 89 points 4 months ago (7 children)

For sure don't in any way respond, just report spam and block the number. Lots of these things are phishing attempts, trying to get you to give personal information (or even money), and aren't connected to the things they mention.

[–] dogsnest@lemmy.world 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

~~Lots Most~~ Pretty well all of these things are phishing attempts.

Follow parent's advice.

Never, ever, ever respond, even reverse-uno.
Otherwise, you've helped them.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just to note - white dudes for Harris is a real group.

I still wouldn't click the link, I'd go direct to their site if there was an interest there, just noting that it is a real group.

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

Yep, I looked them up just to see but, like you said, the fact that it exists doesn't mean anything. I didn't find anything (good or bad) associated with that phone number - could be spoofed.

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[–] PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works 52 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Got 9 in one day. If they include a name it’s never mine

[–] Korne127@lemmy.world 34 points 4 months ago (4 children)

What the fuck… how can people in the US live with something like that? And how does this not massively hurt her chances?!

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

how can people in the US live with something like that?

We've had a number of deeply corrupt individuals in charge of our federal department meant to police this sort of thing.

And how does this not massively hurt her chances?!

Even odds are that it's meant to.

[–] droans@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Most don't get that many. OP is likely targeted in the systems. My guess is that he votes often in the primaries and has shown interest elsewhere, like by signing up for communications or donating to or volunteering for campaigns.

I just checked my spam and I've received four political texts in July.

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[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

The politicians made sure to exempt themselves from all the consumer protection, anti-fraud laws. They live in bubbles where their own political agendas are too important for limitations.

But I suspect, because my brand new phone number gets a lot of political spam, that 1) a lot of people can't live with it and change their numbers to escape or 2) a lot of it is recycled burner-phones, previously used to launder donations to fit legal donation limits. But it's given me a personal rule to never make a donation from my real phone or allow my real phone to become associated with any political process.

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[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Use their numbers to sign up for stuff

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[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 45 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I have a Pixel. I did not realize how bad this gets until work made me take an iPhone as my work phone. Holy hell. No amount of "Delete and report as junk" helps.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Your country is crazy.

I get maybe 3-4 spam messages a year and those are all scams, not ads, much less political ads (which I don't think would even be legal)

[–] Halosheep@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have never once received one of these messages. Doesn't happen to everyone.

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[–] Marketsupreme@lemm.ee 16 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Is the reason I dont ever see these because pixel hides these

[–] LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz 17 points 4 months ago

Lately my Pixel cant even keep up with all of them and some are slipping through. Going into the spam folder is almost comical.

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[–] JackiesFridge@lemmy.world 37 points 4 months ago

Respond to nothing. Block everything.

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

God damn I love my Google phone. Every once in a while I check my call logs and spam text folder to see the hundreds of calls and texts it screens for me, without any notifications. It's nice

[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

It is easily the most important feature on my phone. The call screening and spam blocking is unparalleled. I don't think I have had anything blocked that shouldn't be, and it maybe messes up 5 or less times a year.

[–] droans@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Call screening is honestly one of the best features to ever come to a phone. I really wish this could be added to every handset.

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[–] Binette@lemmy.ml 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Hey, it's White dudes for Harris. We're getting ready to promote Kamala Harris this November and we need your help. Our first call is this Monday at 8pm EST - will you join us?

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[–] Para_lyzed@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

Your number is on a list of real numbers with real identities associated with them that was sold to them. Data brokers sell this information daily. They already know your number is real, but in order to comply with the law, they have to provide you with a legitimate option to opt out, so you will actually stop receiving correspondence from them if you ask them to stop (it is legally required). If not, they could be subject to a fine, but you'd obviously have to file a complaint with the relevant regulatory body for that.

If you do not attempt to opt out, they cannot be fined for spam if this is part of a legitimate donation campaign. If you don't reply, they will continue sending messages to you in the future. It costs them almost nothing to do, so even if they didn't know your number was real, they would do it anyway. Most of the people who donate from these messages don't reply through text message anyway. And if this were an actual scam, then there is nothing they gain from receiving a text back so long as you do not open their link. But again, in order for legal action to be taken (since these political reach outs are legal and not spam so long as there is an option to opt out), you must first try to opt out.

EDIT: Feel free to block the number after opting out. If they are legitimate (though the name is really fishy), then opting out will remove your number from all of their solicitors' lists, so you won't get texts or calls from different numbers working for the same campaign. Again, replying doesn't give them anything even if it is a scam, as your number was obtained from a real list sold to them by a data broker; they already know the number is in service. Just don't click the link in the text, and don't reply with anything other than stop.

[–] Reverendender@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Pretty sure they won’t keep messaging me after I blocked their number and reported spam

[–] Para_lyzed@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (7 children)

True, but if you get a new phone and your blocked numbers list is reset, or they send messages from a different number, then you could get them again in the future. I see this often because there are multiple people in that campaign that will all reach out to people with their own phone numbers. Opting out prevents that for legitimate donor campaigns (you are removed from the list for all of the solicitors associated with that campaign), but obviously not for scams. There is no harm in doing both, and I would recommend that (it's what I do).

[–] lars@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s ALLLLLLWAYS new numbers and my long-curated block list already has hundreds of numbers.

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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 22 points 4 months ago

"White dudes for Harris"

[–] thesmokingman@programming.dev 21 points 4 months ago

A few different things contribute to this and, unfortunately, there’s very little you can do to fix it. I’ve spent (wasted) a ton of time trying to prevent it on my end.

  1. If you used your phone number on your voter registration, reregister immediately without your phone number. This is public information and it’s where these things start.
  2. Find contact info for your local, county, and state parties. All sides. Call them up and ask that your information be removed from their database(s). You might have to escalate a bit because usually phone bankers don’t know how to do it or don’t understand why you want privacy. Worst case scenario you can pull out a sob story about an abusive ex and how your information isn’t supposed to be public at all. That will usually get your shit pulled.
  3. While you’re on those calls, try to find out where they either send or pull their data from. Next go there and do step 2 again.
  4. Repeat step 3 as many times as it takes.

However, individual candidates who may have received a copy of your data or canvassed you might not get the notice. Eventually their copies of your data might get leaked. You have no control over this and no recourse. I know this from personal experience. Through a unique mixup with a name, I have slowly watched my data go from politician to politician to now general spam. It’s not coming from data brokers because the only place the mixup happened was with political data.

Best of all, the FTC doesn’t give a shit. If someone “manually” sends you a political text, it doesn’t require prior consent. The “manual” setup for this is a bunch of VoIP shit that doesn’t actually go back to a real human ever and is about as “manual” as the fully automated assembly lines from How It’s Made where a human is standing nearby with a clip board saying “yup that’s a widget.”

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

is my instinct here outdated/inapplicable?

Yes.

It's so cheap to send SMS messages, and you don't pay for undeliverable messages, so they can just send to random numbers.

They also receive deliverability responses for each number. So they know whether a phone received the message whether or not you reply.

Finally, if you reply STOP you're unlikely to fit their demographic very well anyway. As in... they're not trying to reach the type of people who will actively try to avoid receiving these messages.

That said, there's probably no point replying STOP because most firms just wont honor it in the long term. As in they might not message you for the remainder of that particular messaging project (campaign), but they'll just start a new campaign tomorrow with a new sender and no "STOP" requests.

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[–] eramseth@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Every 4 years.

First_time_?.jpeg

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[–] bquintb@midwest.social 11 points 4 months ago

welcome to the election season in the United States.

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

White dudes for Harris? This name seems a parody

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[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Political messages also are allowed to circumvent the CAN-SPAM act and other messaging regulations. I have plans to just leave my phone in airplane mode until mid-November. Sure, people may think I died, but at least I'll have peace.

They (politicos) argue it's necessary to get the word out, one party in particular has a habit of sourcing their messaging through various vendors that may or may not follow the rules.

Legally, they must honor stop. They can be reported and fined too.

...of course in real life, it's super hard to stop all this trash messaging nobody wants. Wonder how much carbon this spamming generates.

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[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago
[–] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

My wife gets a ton of political texts intended for me. Best I can tell is because her cell phone number is under my name with T-Mobile. (Used to be a Sprint account before the merger) I've never used her number to sign up for anything under my name. So it would seem either Sprint sold it or an employee leaked it or something.

I have a Google voice number and pretty much don't get political texts. The Google voice number rings a T-Mobile prepaid phone, that number doesn't get political texts either.

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

I just got this same bullshit.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 7 points 4 months ago (4 children)

when it started getting really bad, i started replying stop. it maybe made things a little better but i still get a fair number if these (including this one). it definitely hasn't made it any worse.

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[–] Wilzax@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Para_lyzed@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Political organizations and non-profits are exempt from this list.

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[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Good thing my browser doesn’t keep cookies, or that might’ve leaked my Google info. But here’s what the link goes to:

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[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 months ago

I keep getting emails from some republican Colorado group and I don’t even live in the US!

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