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.
Consider that the majority of personal emails are compromised in some way.
I have an email that had been used over the years to rent cars, stay at Airbnbs, make an Instagram account, subscribe to various websites etc all over the US and I’m halfway across the world.
So it’s quite likely that your email is also being used randomly.
I think there are sites where you can check if your email has been compromised, but I’m not sure which ones are scams.
Have I Been Pwnd is one I use for this, as far as I know it’s legit.
Troy Hunt is a good person
I’m not surprised by that part at all.
It’s that it seems to involve members of Congress and an issue which is likely to be important in the coming election, which seems like more than a simple scam.
I’m also asking if anyone else has had a similar experience so I can get an idea of the scale of this. I’m also trying to figure out if it’s specifically Minnesota or if members of Congress from other states have also been targeted.
It also turns out that I also got a couple of Senator Smith’s email newsletters, probably because I was automatically added to her mailing list, so now I’m fairly certain the message from her office was genuine.
For what it’s worth, I did try to reply to the email but it was bounced back so it was definitely a no-reply address. I’m tempted to call her office tomorrow.
I would.
I also tried replying to Senator Klobuchar’s email, which didn’t bounce so hopefully her staff will see it and get back to me.
My personal emails certainly aren’t being used without my knowledge. That would require a pretty extensive cover up and a 2FA workaround
They can be used without access.
Plenty of forms let you insert any email without requiring proof that you own it.
This means you can send your complaint/comment/concern without any issues.
Same with physical addresses.
That’s not giving anyone access to your email.
None of that says access, it only says use.
Compromised email can be as simple as it being tieed to a name so it appears valid. It’s not access.