this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
49 points (94.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26916 readers
1770 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] tal@lemmy.today 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org -2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The Zionism lobby is underhanded enough that I’d say it’s likely a certainty.

[–] Technus@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 months ago

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.