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[US] Has anyone else gotten emails out of the blue from random members of Congress that sound like replies to something you sent in? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 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.