Political fundraising texts reach the wrong phone despite opt-outs
Original title: My Journey to the Center of America’s Political Spam Text Hell
The author counted 1,735 texts since March 2022; many tracking codes point to Sterling Data Company.
A WIRED writer in New York received Democratic fundraising texts meant for a California relative who has made small donations. Opt-out replies, including 49 STOP messages since 2021, did not end the messages. Links usually redirected to ActBlue and often carried tracking codes referencing Sterling Data Company, a firm that uses AI to find likely Democratic donors. The relative’s FEC-recorded gifts this year totaled $51 across six donations.
Unconfirmed: Tracking-code references to Sterling are the author’s reading of link parameters, not a confirmed data sale.
- This year the phone received 725 fundraising texts, including 21 on October 14.
- Since March 2022, 1,735 texts arrived from 812 different numbers.
- The DSCC sent 60 texts this year; the relative gave it $5 once in 2020.
- Nearly half of this year’s texts had codes that appeared to reference Sterling.
- Forbes reported in 2022 that Sterling held a database of roughly 30 million donors.
Impact: Unwanted political texts sent to a misidentified phone number
From the original article
6 min read at wired.comI’ve gotten nearly 2,000 campaign fundraising texts that were meant for someone else. I tried to find out why—and uncovered a labyrinth of politicians, data brokers, and shady tactics.
By Dhruv Mehrotra, Sam O'Keeffe · wired.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.