- never signed up for anything like this,
- never donated to or signed up for emails from the DNC, et al.,
- political texts like this come all the time, and
- I hesitate to reply “stop” because I don’t want them to know this is a live number (is my instinct here outdated/inapplicable?)
Hey there we’re the krazy kaucasians for Kamala…
Wait a second, let’s just go with White dudes for Harris
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.
that could be any of the 4 husbands on that show, to varying degrees. you’ll have to be more specific.
The white one
Honestly, having watched it at some point, I’m fairly sure they mean the one that isn’t an old dude with a young latina trophy wife and is straight.
All those husbands are oblivious to a lot of shit, but that one is the absolute most oblivious lol
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.
Lots MostPretty well all of these things are phishing attempts.Follow parent’s advice.
Never, ever, ever respond, even reverse-uno.
Otherwise, you’ve helped them.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.
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.
There’s no “Report Junk” on iOS Messages unless it’s an email address texting you.
Every message I have received on my iPhone from someone not in my contacts has this after that latest message:
Not true—I just successfully reported this text as junk. It tries to auto-detect spam, and coming from an email address is one of the signs of that, but not the only one.
Really? I wonder why. Though I’ve always assumed the one on my phone was from Verizon, not the app or the OS.
You must have seen the older phishing attempts with caller’s named “Potential Spam”
Not sure if that technique still works but you can still mark callers as junk/spam.
Got 9 in one day. If they include a name it’s never mineWhat the fuck… how can people in the US live with something like that? And how does this not massively hurt her chances?!
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.
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.
I’d think that as well, except anything targeted at my number uses the wrong name when they include names. Sometimes male, and sometimes female; which is interesting as I’ve kept the same number for more than a couple decades.
I’m not upset about being called ‘he’, but I would ask you to continue your use of ‘OP’ instead of it. While I’m not offended, the default assumption of someone being a guy only makes it harder for women’s voices to be heard.
I’ve never received a political text in my life and I spent a year and a half working in politics in DC.
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.
Is that actually official campaign stuff?
At least some of that looks like spam designed to get “donations” that they just keep. Saw plenty of that around COVID.
Use their numbers to sign up for stuff
Omg this is essentially me too. I just waited to lose my patience until this White Guys incident.
Donate to a political party.
No. Never. Not Ever.
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.
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)
I have never once received one of these messages. Doesn’t happen to everyone.
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Is the reason I dont ever see these because pixel hides these
Lately my Pixel cant even keep up with all of them and some are slipping through. Going into the spam folder is almost comical.
Yeah google messages has pretty good automatic spam detection, you can check the spam folder and see how many are in there.
Spam features will keep me in the Pixel lineup’s cold grasp for eternity. I could never deal with OP’s notification tray.
Respond to nothing. Block everything.
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
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.
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.
Yes! I set it to auto-screen any number that’s not in my contacts. It’s wonderful and I haven’t noticed any frustration from legitimate callers who go through the screening.
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?
On the one hand, thank you for being an accessibility buddy. On the other, shall we also transcribe the number and web address of my spammer, too?
Phone number appears to be (202) 894-8505, URL is https://whitedudes4harris.org/call9
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.Pretty sure they won’t keep messaging me after I blocked their number and reported spam
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).
It’s ALLLLLLWAYS new numbers and my long-curated block list already has hundreds of numbers.
In that case, you’re best off opting out and seeing if it works. If you get a text from the same group at a later date, then you can report them to the FTC. Please do not do this unless they do not honor your opt out request, as politically affiliated groups are legally allowed to market in this way so long as they provide a means to opt out of communication. Falsely reporting puts strain on the already incredibly underfunded system and prevents real scams from being caught and dealt with due to a lack of resources. I recommend you keep a list of groups you have opted out from that is easily searchable to track this. 4 years ago I got multiple of these texts per day. I have been opting out every time I receive one, and now I have not gotten one in over 2 years. Eventually you will run out of groups to opt out of, and will only be messaged by newly created groups, which will happen much more slowly than all of the groups constantly texting/calling.
Beyond that, there isn’t really much you can do. Your number is on a list, and people are buying that list. Although you could see if putting your number on the national do not call list would help (EDIT: though apparently political organizations are exempt from that on further reading). I have not done this personally, but I came across it while looking up how to report scam texts. Perhaps it could be beneficial to you (who knows?)
Why would my blocked numbers list reset?
New phone, new carrier, new sim card, wiping your phone to refresh it. If you haven’t specifically backed up your blocklist and imported it then it could reset.
I can see you have never owned an iPhone before.
Why am I supposed to assume you own an iPhone? I’m trying to list out all the potential cases in general for you and for other people. If you switch from Android to iOS or vice versa this would be the case. Seamless backup solutions aren’t exclusive to Apple either.
Mine reset when I switched phones a couple months ago, and I had to manually add them to my new phone. If I hadn’t noticed, then my blocked numbers list would be empty. Not saying that is a common issue, but it doesn’t hurt to opt out before blocking; just don’t click any links or say anything other than the opt out keyword.
They have an iPhone, so they are going to be fine.
I thought this was the best course of action, too. It was not. New numbers, seemingly infinite, keep spamming me. They are political, seemingly real Democrat-linked entities (but I’m skeptical because this spam is obviously a brain-dead idea). After replying “STOP”, they definitely slowed.
Blocking numbers is only useful against actual consumer numbers where there’s a real person with a SIM card on the other end.
Bulk calls/texts use number pools, and those pools don’t tend to be reused after a campaign; they’re just rented out to someone else.
So does replying “stop” apply to the number that texted you, or to the whole company?
Depends. Usually it applies to the campaign. Sometimes it applies to the company. Sometimes it just gets you flagged as a responsive human.
For things that look legit, for example seasonal political campaigns, and include in message something like “reply STOP to quit”, replying “STOP” does usually end it quickly. Recommended.
Should be one of the first things any anti-spam app/feature should be doing. Wish it was automated into OS spam defenses, then the “responsive human” worry would be eliminated.
In Australia laws like what you describe exist, but political parties are exempt. I doubt that we’re the only country where that is the case.
While I would have to find the US law and examine it more closely to tell if that is true here, these groups are not actually representatives of political parties. They are groups of self-proclaimed political advocates that try to raise money to host events that raise awareness of their causes for local voters. But they would not qualify for an exemption due to association with a political party, as they are not officially connected to or endorsed by a party.
Political Communications to land lines are generally exempt from do not call. Cellular communications require prior consent, but the “consent” could be as flimsy as being registered with a certain party. You must be able to opt-out from the communication, and that’s why they have the “reply stop” verbiage. If they don’t honor your request, you should report it. Failing to actually make an effort to stop the communication (as is strangely being suggested) should be the only reason you would continue to receive them.
The direct affiliation with a party or campaign is not a requirement.
Here is the relevant information from the FCC https://www.fcc.gov/rules-political-campaign-calls-and-texts
Yes, I believe all of that is in line with what I have stated. Just to clarify, my interpretation of the previous comment was that political parties were exempt from the requirement to provide an opt out in Australia for political parties (by my interpretation, just the official parties and not unrelated political organizations), and they implied they believed it to be the case in many other countries. I have not recently reviewed the relevant laws, so I was not 100% certain if that implication would prove true in the United States (though was pretty confident that was not the case by my previous experiences with messages from officially endorsed organizations), but I went on to explain how these are not officially endorsed by political parties anyway, so if such an exemption did exist, it should not apply to this particular message.
Thank you for the clarification!
Yeah, I was adding clarification, not disagreeing!
Yeah, no.
That’s covered by political activity in the same laws. The list of exemptions here is pretty broad and goes well beyond actual officially registered political parties.
Here’s the list for the Australian Privacy Laws: https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/for-your-information-australian-privacy-law-and-practice-alrc-report-108/41-political-exemption/exemption-for-registered-political-parties-political-acts-and-practices/
And here’s the restrictions around spam: https://www.acma.gov.au/political-calls-emails-and-text-messages
Interesting to note, though another user pointed out that this does not work the same way in the United States (political organizations still have to provide a means to opt out).
“White dudes for Harris”
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
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.
It’s not like you can even use Do Not Call features on this anyway, political stuff is exempt (though if it’s fraudulent that’s still bitter tampering/intimidation etc.).
Every 4 years.
First_time_?.jpeg
Remarkably, yeah. I always get a little political text spam, but since early ’24 it’s been harassment.
Seems more like…Harrissment
welcome to the election season in the United States.
White dudes for Harris? This name seems a parody
I hate how everyone seems dead set on separating everyone by the color of their skin. Jesus Christ, y’all mind if I just exist as a human instead of what color I am?
Whatever happened to UNITY?
Oh that’s right, Occupy Wall St. happened.
They are a real group. They’re part of a coalition with the White Women for Harris, who raised between $2-$8 million for Kamala Harris. Pantsuit Nation is rising up and New Balance Kingdom is going to match their work.
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.
It’s still spam and I’ll report it and block the number every time.
Not a lot of carbon, SMS messages are very energy/resource efficient. The more direct alternative would be flyers and mail letters, which create more carbon mainly due to paper use and also cause pollution.
Agreed there is always a more, and really want all paper spam to stop immediately. Disagree on the impact of mass-messaging at a nation scale.
Every SMS will wake a phone and keep it active for 10-20 seconds, if background processes firing don’t keep it awake longer. This robs every texted phone of battery wear and flash wear, as well as using energy that will have to be recharged. (Arguably, pointless app updates to manipulate review systems are an even bigger energy drain here. Or how carriers put cheaper plans on weaker bands, causing the modem to have to yell louder.)
The messages are in the control channel through the cell network, and the network must schedule them inside the management traffic. Probably less of a power hit here, but still a hit. There’s power running the machines sending the messages, and the microscopic hit from always on network hardware along the whole path. Individually, it’s all noise. Collectively, it’s going to be quantifiable power use.
