Over the past couple weeks I’ve gotten emails from both Senators and a House Rep from the State of Minnesota. All three emails have been concerning the Israel/Palestine conflict, and are worded as replies to a some message I sent them.
I’ve never set foot in the state, let alone lived there (I’m on the other side of the country). I’ve never sent messages to any of those members of Congress, and I’ve never signed any petition giving any group the right to contact Congress about this matter.
I suspect my name and email address might have been used in some sort of astroturfing campaign targeting Congress. Or these might be spam emails impersonating the members of Congress for some reason. I noticed the House rep and one of the Senators is up for re-election this year.
Has anyone else gotten emails like this?
I’ve tried to send messages back to these people but the forms on their websites require submitting an address in their state/district, so I’m not sure what to do. The From: addresses seem like they might have been faked, or they’re no-reply addresses, so I wasn’t sure about just replying to the emails.
I also thought about calling their offices but I wasn’t sure if this was something important enough to bother their staff about, and they’re two hours ahead of me so their offices are closed by the time I get off work anyway.
Consider that the majority of personal emails are compromised in some way.
I have an email that had been used over the years to rent cars, stay at Airbnbs, make an Instagram account, subscribe to various websites etc all over the US and I’m halfway across the world.
So it’s quite likely that your email is also being used randomly.I think there are sites where you can check if your email has been compromised, but I’m not sure which ones are scams.
but I wasn’t sure if this was something important enough to bother their staff about
If they’re getting hit by a campaign of forged emails – which I suspect you are right about – they probably do want to know about it.
And even if someone is forging their response emails, they’d probably like to know about it too.
The Zionism lobby is underhanded enough that I’d say it’s likely a certainty.
I debated even mentioning what the replies were about because I knew it would attract comments like this.
I don’t know the content of the messages that were sent fraudulently on my behalf. I just infer that they mentioned something about Israel or Palestine or Gaza because that’s what the replies talked about.
Regardless of your stance on the issue or who’s doing this, it should be very concerning that someone is apparently trying to influence Congress this way.
Nope. Sounds like someone used your address.
deleted by creator
They don’t read like phishing emails. They’re not asking for donations or information or giving a link to click on or anything. They’re the exact kind of reply you’d expect to get when messaging a Senator or Representative about an issue: a boilerplate response summarizing the issue, stating their position and thanking me for writing in.
I just never sent any message, nor did I give anyone permission to send one on my behalf.
What’s the scam? Baiting me into replying in order to reel me in? Checking if there’s a human on the other end? Trying to sway public opinion ahead of an election?
They’re not asking for donations
This is suspicious. Reach out to their office. Maybe it is a mistake maybe it was malicious.
