Republicans have reached hundreds of thousands of homes in six states using telemarketing ‘robo-calls’ that reportedly deceive the listener into thinking they’re being bothered at home by a Democrat, but then turn out to be a negative campaign push from the Republican candidate. If the listener hangs up, they are repeatedly called back by the phone-bot until they’ve listened to the entire message.
Via AmericaBlog: “The messages start like they are going are from the Democratic candidate ‘I have a message from….’ but then turn in to a negative call. However, [listeners] are only hearing the first part of the message, thinking that it is the Democrat. If [listeners] hang up, they’re called back again, and again, and again. End result? The Democratic [listeners] are so ticked off at the Democrat harassing them that they don’t vote, or vote for the Republican – without realizing they’ve just been tricked.”
Since they appear to be losing on the issues, I guess phone fraud is the last resort. New Hampshire has already made the GOP stop making some of the calls.
There is something you can do if you receive one of these calls, according to Josh Marshall at TPM: “If you’ve gotten one of these calls, write down as much information about it as you can (time, phone number, etc.) and call the ‘metro desk’ of your local paper.”
The areas reporting these tactics now include Philadelphia, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Kansas.
