undefined | Better HN

0 pointsno_op1y ago0 comments

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.)

0 comments

chias1y 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.

JohnFen1y ago

The law specifically exempts such texts from being covered, sadly.

nilamo1y ago

Proof laws don't work.

2 more replies

iamthepieman1y 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"

ChuckMcM1y ago

My wife had someone do sign up for a bank account with my wife's gmail address. She told the bank they got it wrong, and they went away for a bit and then they re-signed up AGAIN. So she told the bank to close the account. It didn't re-occur after that.

A number of elderly folks have had this issue as well. I'm really at a loss on how to fix it, some times there are bad actors but generally it seems folks are clueless and the signup flow doesn't adequately account for this.

Spooky231y ago

I have a common-ish first initial, last name Gmail account. The number of people who think they have my address is staggering. Hundreds over the years.

In one case, the manager of a large factory was forwarding me an email with remote access credentials and VPN software every month.

nraynaud1y ago

I had that happen, but I couldn’t fix it because I couldn’t prove I was a customer, since I wasn’t.

giancarlostoro1y 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.

bigstrat20031y 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.

1 more reply

Scoundreller1y 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.

toast01y 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.

skrtskrt1y 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

Suppafly1y 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.

meowster1y 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.

chiefalchemist1y 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.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse