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Stupidity

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Mar 1st 2002 12:59am





Political Spam

from the that-can't-help dept

I'm on a mailing list where people have been complaining that they've been receiving spam from one of California's candidates for governor. It seems confirmed that he did send out spam. What's weird is that it's really spam. No one requested the email, and it was sent out by multiple "no name" email accounts through an open relay in Korea. Most people I know who received it don't even live in California. I'm surprised that in this day and age a political candidate could be so stupid to send out spam like this. Anyway, no matter what, he's about to lose in the primary, so hopefully he'll go away. Can people sue him under California's anti-spam law? Update: The Wired article talking about this. Update: Unfortunately, this appears to be becoming more common. I just received some spam from some woman running for state assembly. I called her campaign headquarters and left a message, but I doubt I will hear back.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Political Spam

    identicon
    Brian Weaver, Mar 1st, 2002 @ 4:50am

    "I'm surprised that in this day and age a political candidate could be so stupid." Uh.. the writer of this hasn't been around many politicians or city or state government offices lately. I think "stupid" is the operational condition for most, not all, but most bureaucrats. With excutive secretaries, and advisors, who needs to think? Even then, there is no guarantee.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Are you sure it's from the candidate?

    identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, Mar 1st, 2002 @ 6:21am

    If I was running for office in a state with a large number of 'tech' people, and I wanted to make my opponent look bad, what better way to do so than to fake a SPAM mailing from him?
    Since it's sent from a no-name source via open-relays in Korea, there isn't a way to prove it's from the candidate himself, is there?
    Just something to think about before you vote for the other guy...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Are you sure it's from the candidate?

    identicon
    Brian Mooney, Mar 1st, 2002 @ 7:49am

    I tend to agree... I believe this was not in fact sent out by the canidate... but by someone from the other side. Just step back and look at it from the viewpoint of "who will benefit most from this." I think it is clear that he would have had little to gain in such a mass mailing, but the potential benefits for the opponent would be grand in terms of negative publicity. Incidentally, I was lucky enough here in Louisiana to get 3 copies of this in my inbox... perhaps someone mistook LA for L.A. :)

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Are you sure it's from the candidate?

    icon
    Mike (profile), Mar 1st, 2002 @ 8:35am

    The report says that people on his staff confirmed that he sent it. Otherwise, I would agree that an opponent would probably have sent it.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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