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Cold texts from political sources

bbodb1

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As a FYI note, this thread is NOT meant to be about politics as that runs afoul of TUG's rules. This thread is about the trend of political parties using cold texting tactics - a trend that may not be new, but is certainly becoming more prevelant in our area of the country.

Another development this week around here - and one I have NOT seen/experienced previously - is the start of political candidate (and issue based) cold texting. I have never given my name and / or phone number to any political party and yet this campaign season, I have received numerous cold texts from many campaigns (mostly candidate affiliated, but some issue based campaigns as well). I suppose this may be a natural progression in the evolution of campaigning, but it is already bad enough that we have to put up with calls trying to tells us our social security number has been compromised, or Annette from the warranty department has important information for us and now campaigns seem to be embracing the junk (cold) texting techniques as well.

So much for the usefulness of the DNC (do not call) lists......

On well - at least it is sunny today.
 

klpca

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As a FYI note, this thread is NOT meant to be about politics as that runs afoul of TUG's rules. This thread is about the trend of political parties using cold texting tactics - a trend that may not be new, but is certainly becoming more prevelant in our area of the country.

Another development this week around here - and one I have NOT seen/experienced previously - is the start of political candidate (and issue based) cold texting. I have never given my name and / or phone number to any political party and yet this campaign season, I have received numerous cold texts from many campaigns (mostly candidate affiliated, but some issue based campaigns as well). I suppose this may be a natural progression in the evolution of campaigning, but it is already bad enough that we have to put up with calls trying to tells us our social security number has been compromised, or Annette from the warranty department has important information for us and now campaigns seem to be embracing the junk (cold) texting techniques as well.

So much for the usefulness of the DNC (do not call) lists......

On well - at least it is sunny today.
Same here. Mine are clearly targeted - but not from my registered party. I called them (took forever to get a human) and I spoke to a very nice but obviously very young idealistic man who *assured me* that they only use the numbers on the registered party list. Listen toots, someone somewhere made a typo and now I am getting spammed. I get texts and voicemail messages but according to that nice kid they are going to stop. We shall see. Until then I just have to block everything.
 

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In my case, I know where my info was sold from. So I am not surprised that my info was sold. However I did expect more candidates to better utilize the FREE information.(I personally hate that my data can be sold by companies w/out my approval nor compensation to me.)
 

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Something has to be done about unsolicited spam phone calls . I was in a meeting this week using my cell phone and received two spam calls that interrupted me. Some days are better/worse than others.
 

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As a FYI note, this thread is NOT meant to be about politics as that runs afoul of TUG's rules. This thread is about the trend of political parties using cold texting tactics - a trend that may not be new, but is certainly becoming more prevelant in our area of the country.

Another development this week around here - and one I have NOT seen/experienced previously - is the start of political candidate (and issue based) cold texting. I have never given my name and / or phone number to any political party and yet this campaign season, I have received numerous cold texts from many campaigns (mostly candidate affiliated, but some issue based campaigns as well). I suppose this may be a natural progression in the evolution of campaigning, but it is already bad enough that we have to put up with calls trying to tells us our social security number has been compromised, or Annette from the warranty department has important information for us and now campaigns seem to be embracing the junk (cold) texting techniques as well.

So much for the usefulness of the DNC (do not call) lists......

On well - at least it is sunny today.


I've never received a cold (or hot) text from a political source but then I'm not registered or affiliated with any political party
is there some kind election going on?
 

Brett

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Something has to be done about unsolicited spam phone calls . I was in a meeting this week using my cell phone and received two spam calls that interrupted me. Some days are better/worse than others.

There are "apps" that block spam calls - but they are not perfect!
 

Panina

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I recently started getting texts from one political candidate targeted with my step daughter’s name.

When she applied for college we used my phone as contact. That is the only place it could have originated from.

I know school volunteers had access to the number as a volunteer called me, assuming they were calling her, when she was accepted to see if she had any questions.
 

bbodb1

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In my case, I know where my info was sold from. So I am not surprised that my info was sold. However I did expect more candidates to better utilize the FREE information.(I personally hate that my data can be sold by companies w/out my approval nor compensation to me.)
Something has to be done about unsolicited spam phone calls . I was in a meeting this week using my cell phone and received two spam calls that interrupted me. Some days are better/worse than others.

That's the issue with technology today - the ability to exploit technology to gather personal data has never been greater while our ability to protect (to shield) one's self from that type of intrusion has never been weaker. Unfortunately, this situation reminds me of the fable about the inn keeper who had a guest who complained about a mouse in the room. The inn keeper sent a cat to deal with the mouse. The guest then complained about the cat, so the inn keeper sends a dog....and so on.....until finally an elephant appears. And what is dispatched to deal with the elephant? The mouse - of course.

Technology - and the exploitation of technology - has created this problem. It is not surprising that technology is slow to solve the problem, all the while asking for money from the consumer to 'try' and prevent the problem. To be fair, at the same time, consumers have grabbed what little good comes from technology but I don't think anyone accurately could see the resulting bad that has come from more technology.
 

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You can always block/"move to spam" any phone numbers (or messages) that you receive and do not want to hear from again. While there are many sources for these incoming messages, you won't be subject to a repeat. I don't answer ANY phone numbers I don't recognize (thank goodness I'm not expecting an emergency call from a hospital, etc)...99% of my unidentified numbers do not leave a message and probably 1/2 of those that do leave a message are "for my information only". I absolutely prefer text messages and a swipe with my thumb to the left deletes anything I don't want to read....I can literally delete 10 uninteresting text messages in under 10 seconds. Sometimes we just have to be annoyed about something.....but lets put this on a list of the least of our first world problems.
 

bbodb1

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I've never received a cold (or hot) text from a political source but then I'm not registered or affiliated with any political party
is there some kind election going on?
We are into primary season in Arkansas and many of the cold texts I've been getting are from the various Democratic candidates for President. In the past, there have been some state and local level issues on the ballot and the supporters or non supporters of those ballot measures turned to the cold text approach on a very few instances.

As you mentioned Brett, I am not affiliated or registered with any political party either.

At the very least, I wish there were some requirement for texting (and calls) to be verified (or verifiable) by the various cell and land line communication carriers. As I recall, one way number spoofing occurs today is due to the fact that spammers (and their like) can still find old PBX systems in use and can hack them for the purpose of sending calls or texts from that number. You would think the cell and landline carriers could find a way to quickly check a text or call's originating number and compare it to what will be displayed on the caller id. It may not solve the problem entirely, but it certainly could not hurt.
 

bbodb1

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You can always block/"move to spam" any phone numbers (or messages) that you receive and do not want to hear from again. While there are many sources for these incoming messages, you won't be subject to a repeat. I don't answer ANY phone numbers I don't recognize (thank goodness I'm not expecting an emergency call from a hospital, etc)...99% of my unidentified numbers do not leave a message and probably 1/2 of those that do leave a message are "for my information only". I absolutely prefer text messages and a swipe with my thumb to the left deletes anything I don't want to read....I can literally delete 10 uninteresting text messages in under 10 seconds. Sometimes we just have to be annoyed about something.....but lets put this on a list of the least of our first world problems.

Now to be fair, I did not put this up there on the importance meter with the Coronavirus....and this is the Lounge (where we ponder many things and anything).....
 

bbodb1

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I recently started getting texts from one political candidate targeted with my step daughter’s name.

When she applied for college we used my phone as contact. That is the only place it could have originated from.

I know school volunteers had access to the number as a volunteer called me, assuming they were calling her, when she was accepted to see if she had any questions.

And this scenario really illustrates the weakness with our current system - in no way, shape of form should private contact information given to a college ever be used for any purpose other than the college contacting the designated person for issue relating to the student.

Add yet, colleges have turned to their contact lists are sources to mined for additional contributions (i.e. mo money). Years ago, we did not put telephones in our homes so that telemarketers and spammers could contact us. Yet somehow, it one day become okay to do exactly that. That genie needs to be put back in the bottle.
 

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When I lived in California, we used to get calls from all sorts of politicians leaving us voicemails, from our district, city council, house, senate and presidential candidates. We also received some calls from folks working for these candidates. We no longer have a land line after we moved and those nuisance calls and voicemails went away. Recently I start getting calls and text messages from one particular female Presidential primary candidate which is puzzling and very annoying. The only thing that I can think of is that they figured out that I am a woman and it is from a woman candidate, or maybe a woman candidate whom I supported many years ago passed on my name to her campaign. My guess is that there is no law prohibiting sending potential supporters' names to other politicians.
 
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Panina

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And this scenario really illustrates the weakness with our current system - in no way, shape of form should private contact information given to a college ever be used for any purpose other than the college contacting the designated person for issue relating to the student.

Add yet, colleges have turned to their contact lists are sources to mined for additional contributions (i.e. mo money). Years ago, we did not put telephones in our homes so that telemarketers and spammers could contact us. Yet somehow, it one day become okay to do exactly that. That genie needs to be put back in the bottle.
I am not sure the college actually sold the list as if they did I think I would be getting texts from many candidates. I think it was a student that was a volunteer at the school, supported this candidate and had access to these numbers giving them to the campaign.
 

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Yes, the data mining needs to be restricted.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Here in Washington, in the middle of an election for approval of a transit bond measures, one of our local transit agencies (which would receive a huge funding boost from the measure) gave to the pro vote campaign committee the private contact information for people who buy transit passes from the agency. So now everybody who had signed for on-line pass purchases and renewals started getting bombed with political materials on email accounts intended to be private and personal.

I've recently started to get occasional texts from the Bros. Been baffling to me how I got on their list. The only possibility I've been able to come up with is that about six months ago I signed a change.org petition, so now I'm on the change.org mailing lists. And using kind of search algorithm, someone has linked the mail address I used with change.org to my cell phone.

****

The above is not intended as any political content. Just illustrating how partisans of all stripes might be drawing connections (valid and erroneous) to cell phones.
 
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SteelerGal

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Honestly I rather have spam text than spam mailers. I now get weekly mailers from every candidate because we are now a Purple County.
 

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Years ago I called ATT (my cell phone company) and had them block text messaging on my phone. Every now and then it creates a problem when some legitimate company I am dealing with wants to send me a text message but overall I am happy I did it...

George
 

bbodb1

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Years ago I called ATT (my cell phone company) and had them block text messaging on my phone. Every now and then it creates a problem when some legitimate company I am dealing with wants to send me a text message but overall I am happy I did it...

George

@bogey21 - George, you sir, are wise beyond your years!
 

bbodb1

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Honestly I rather have spam text than spam mailers. I now get weekly mailers from every candidate because we are now a Purple County.

I agree those mailers are annoying as well. I wish one could effectively opt out of receiving them AND any candidate who sent a mailer to a household that had opted out would be subject to a significant fine.
 

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I send a return text saying that I do not like my privacy being invaded and receipt of the text has convinced me to Vote for their opponent. This ususally gets me a quick apology and a promise to remove me from their list.
 

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I have not had much of problem with junk texts. However my mother who lives in a nursing home, gets quite a few of these. I visit her 2-3 times a week, and every-time there are one or two junk texts for me to delete. Most of them are just spam, offering her debt solutions, offers to fix her problems in bed.. But now that its election season she is getting a number from politicians as well.
 

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I send a return text saying that I do not like my privacy being invaded and receipt of the text has convinced me to Vote for their opponent. This ususally gets me a quick apology and a promise to remove me from their list.

I received a couple last week. I responded to the second but was much more succinct than you were. I also blocked the number.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

x3 skier

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I get the occasional political text, usually to someone with a different name. I reply to the tone of “Who the h*** is Ralph?” or whatever the name they used. Seems to end the conversation. I’m registered independent.
Cheers
 
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