7 ms·

The US has a 'Do Not Call' registry for unsolicited phone calls, but technically doesn't need one for texts because it's illegal to send marketing texts without

by no_op 2y ago

The US has a 'Do Not Call' registry for unsolicited phone calls, but technically doesn't need one for texts because it's illegal to send marketing texts without prior consent in the first place. Thing is, 'consent' often just means failing to notice a checkbox during a signup flow or something, so people end up getting junk anyway. Even more annoyingly, politicians wrote in an exception for themselves. In combination with the way campaign finance works in the US, this means that if you've ever give your number to any political campaign, it will be passed around forever and you'll have multiple politicians begging you for money for months leading up to every election. Each individual campaign/organization seems to respect 'STOP,' but once your number is on an e.g. 'Has ever donated to a Democratic candidate' list, there's seemingly no way to get it off for good. Thanks, Obama. (I gave him $50 in 2008.)

meowster 2y ago
What's worse is if someone accidentally uses your phone number when they sign up for something, then you're on the list and never able to get off of it.
chias 2y ago
> technically doesn't need one for texts because it's illegal to send marketing texts It is unfortunately seemingly not illegal to send me political beg-texts multiple times per day, though.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  The law specifically exempts such texts from being covered, sadly.
  - nilamo 2y ago
    Proof laws don't work.
    - bigstrat2003 2y ago
      Well... proof that we can't trust politicians to pass laws that are good for us but bad for them, at any rate.
    - JohnFen 2y ago
      No, it's proof that lawmakers are willing to put exemptions into the law when it benefits them. That's bad, but it doesn't mean laws don't work. If anything, it indicates the opposite. If laws didn't work, then lawmakers wouldn't have to bother to put exemptions in them.
iamthepieman 2y ago
Even worse if someone else signs up somehow using your contact info. I got signed up (via email thankfully) for a political party in another country and no amount of "mark as spam", unsubscribe or replying would get me off the list. Eventually I just had to create a filter that dumps those messages in the trash. It must be something with non-U.S. English speaking countries because I get numerous semi-spam messages in email and text for services in Australia and the U.K. casinos with account numbers or PINs, two step notifications for national car registries, banking, contractors asking about work or sending invoices. Maybe it's just English speaking countries have a lot of people named "iamthepieman"
- Scoundreller 2y ago
  Some times I get genuine ones (like a hotel reservation) for someone somewhere that’s also confused about their name. I’d be happy to help but half the time it’s from a No-Reply email address and that shuts the door on as much effort as I’m willing to supply.
- giancarlostoro 2y ago
  Is the email in question something along the lines of firstnamelastname at gmail? I'm guessing your email address is a really common name that someone else keeps forgetting how their email actually deviates, or someone typos writing theirs.
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
    Another possible scenario is that Gmail is getting wires crossed. I have had the account firstname.lastname@gmail.com for 20 years now. About 5 years ago, some dude in Australia (who coincidentally has the same rare last name as me) started using firstnamelastname@gmail.com. Based on the emails I've seen I believe that Gmail let him do this for a while, but eventually started delivering his emails into my inbox. I don't know if there was a technical change in Gmail for how they handled these addresses or what, but it's very odd.
    - dfxm12 2y ago
toast0 2y ago
> this means that if you've ever give your number to any political campaign This is campaign finance reform in action. Giving money is not worth it, because you'll be hassled. Gets the peoples' money out of politics. QED.
- skrtskrt 2y ago
  I still get 5-10 texts a day from trumpy candidates because someone used my number like 5 years ago when they were spamming signups for trump rallies so the rally would be empty
Suppafly 2y ago
>this means that if you've ever give your number to any political campaign, it will be passed around forever and you'll have multiple politicians begging you for money for months leading up to every election They really should learn to not do that, my carrier routes most of those to spam already and the few that it doesn't, I mark as spam, so presumably they'll start getting routed to spam for other people with the same carrier.
chiefalchemist 2y ago
If only we had the mobile numbers of numerous politicians. We could make a small donation to their opposing party and add a phone number from that last.

by no_op 2y ago

meowster 2y ago

What's worse is if someone accidentally uses your phone number when they sign up for something, then you're on the list and never able to get off of it.

chias 2y ago

> technically doesn't need one for texts because it's illegal to send marketing texts It is unfortunately seemingly not illegal to send me political beg-texts multiple times per day, though.

JohnFen 2y ago
The law specifically exempts such texts from being covered, sadly.
- nilamo 2y ago
  Proof laws don't work.
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
    Well... proof that we can't trust politicians to pass laws that are good for us but bad for them, at any rate.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    No, it's proof that lawmakers are willing to put exemptions into the law when it benefits them. That's bad, but it doesn't mean laws don't work. If anything, it indicates the opposite. If laws didn't work, then lawmakers wouldn't have to bother to put exemptions in them.

iamthepieman 2y ago

Even worse if someone else signs up somehow using your contact info. I got signed up (via email thankfully) for a political party in another country and no amount of "mark as spam", unsubscribe or replying would get me off the list. Eventually I just had to create a filter that dumps those messages in the trash. It must be something with non-U.S. English speaking countries because I get numerous semi-spam messages in email and text for services in Australia and the U.K. casinos with account numbers or PINs, two step notifications for national car registries, banking, contractors asking about work or sending invoices. Maybe it's just English speaking countries have a lot of people named "iamthepieman"

Scoundreller 2y ago
Some times I get genuine ones (like a hotel reservation) for someone somewhere that’s also confused about their name. I’d be happy to help but half the time it’s from a No-Reply email address and that shuts the door on as much effort as I’m willing to supply.
giancarlostoro 2y ago
Is the email in question something along the lines of firstnamelastname at gmail? I'm guessing your email address is a really common name that someone else keeps forgetting how their email actually deviates, or someone typos writing theirs.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  Another possible scenario is that Gmail is getting wires crossed. I have had the account firstname.lastname@gmail.com for 20 years now. About 5 years ago, some dude in Australia (who coincidentally has the same rare last name as me) started using firstnamelastname@gmail.com. Based on the emails I've seen I believe that Gmail let him do this for a while, but eventually started delivering his emails into my inbox. I don't know if there was a technical change in Gmail for how they handled these addresses or what, but it's very odd.
  - dfxm12 2y ago

toast0 2y ago

> this means that if you've ever give your number to any political campaign This is campaign finance reform in action. Giving money is not worth it, because you'll be hassled. Gets the peoples' money out of politics. QED.

skrtskrt 2y ago
I still get 5-10 texts a day from trumpy candidates because someone used my number like 5 years ago when they were spamming signups for trump rallies so the rally would be empty

Suppafly 2y ago

>this means that if you've ever give your number to any political campaign, it will be passed around forever and you'll have multiple politicians begging you for money for months leading up to every election They really should learn to not do that, my carrier routes most of those to spam already and the few that it doesn't, I mark as spam, so presumably they'll start getting routed to spam for other people with the same carrier.

chiefalchemist 2y ago

If only we had the mobile numbers of numerous politicians. We could make a small donation to their opposing party and add a phone number from that last.