'It's incredibly annoying': Madisonians 'vote no' on political spam texts

MADISON, Wis.- We're used to seeing political ads on TV and online surge during election season, but this year many are getting unsolicited texts from campaigns. But how can you protect yourself from the scammers taking advantage of the campaign season?

Out on State Street Tuesday, many told News 3 Now they've gotten barraged with unsolicited texts lately asking for money, votes, or to take surveys.

"It's annoying," Ron Smith said of the slew of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. messages he got a few weeks ago.

"I hate them," Ryan Conners said.

"Yeah, it's incredibly annoying," Hannah Bennett said, after having her phone blow up the minute she stepped off the plane from a trip to Ecuador earlier in July.

"I would say for the last three weeks, I've been getting about seven every day," Bennett said. "It just all directs to, 'give us money.' And I'm sorry I don't have extra money to give to politicians."

Even the experts aren't spared. "On Monday, it was amazing," Steve Noll, Marketing Professor at MATC said. "I got three separate emails, all of them asking for political donations from both sides."

Many people on State St. Wednesday and on social media wondered the same thing as Liz Witzel and Somer Halot: "how did I get on this list?"

"My husband and I are on split party somehow, so neither of us signed up for either party but we get them regularly," Witzel said.

Noll said lots of people don't realize they give their phone numbers when setting up social media accounts or apps. "They never read the small print that says by click, by downloading this app, you consent to give us your photo, your contact information."

And what about numbers on the Do Not Call list? "Those do not call lists are for legitimate businesses," Noll said.

Campaigns get loopholes in FCC rules, which say that political text messages sent to phones using an autodialer "require the called party's prior express consent." Messages sent manually do not.

"You can get around anti-spamming or do not call because it's in, it usually comes down to, 'is this in the public interest'," Noll said.

Sometimes whoever sent the message doesn't even get the recipient right.

Ryan Conners took out his phone and starting reading some of the recent political messages: "'There's something we haven't told you yet. Karen, this is Donald Trump Junior,' 'Will you help me get a yard sign in every lawn across America, Karen?'"

"I don't know why I'm Karen!" he said exasperated. No one in his family has that name.

The mistaken identity goes beyond names, like one example from Bennett: "'Hardly anyone completed our Kamala Harris report card. Can you represent Wisconsin in response?' And then it's like, ‘go to retireddemocrats.org’ -- I'm not retired.”

According to Noll, in those situations it's better not to engage much with the sender to avoid giving them more access to your information, because scammers are abound right now.

Noll said recent unprecedented events like the assassination attempt on Former President Donald Trump, the Republican National Convention and President Joe Biden dropping out are when scammers target consumers the most.

"All three of these events in such a close time period have resulted in a lot of people's emotions being engaged," he said. "We see this flurry of scamming any time there's something that you could, jump on to these people's emotions."

So what should you do? When you get a text Noll said to ask yourself: " Does it identify the organization? What is the messaging? What is the ask? Do they want me to sign up to their to volunteer? Do they just want money?."

"If an organization is sending out texting for fundraising, they're going to have a website. And if they don't, they're not that’s a sign." -- A sign to try texting STOP, or blocking the number and deleting the message.

"I type STOP, and if it's legit, you'll immediately get the: 'you've been opted out of this mailing list'," he said. "Any campaign that's legitimate and real should be respecting opt in communications."

Noll said to be cautious of surveys."They're harvesting email addresses and they're also harvesting sucker lists because people are like, they're bored or they have nothing else to do."

With all of those precautions, it makes one wonder if the unsolicited texts actually do their job. "You’re not really sending a message you’re just spamming people," Ron Smith said.

"It's counterproductive," Bennett said. "I don't like being proselytized to about anything, and to me that's what it feels like."

Perhaps it's time for the campaigns to limit their screentime -- or at least get our names right.

"I'm not Karen, please, please stop thinking I'm Karen," Conners pleaded.

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