Political Hack Gets Local Republicans, Democrats
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The Los Angeles Republican's Coalition apparently had their email list hacked on Monday, spamming as many as 1,500 subscribers. The one-line message unintentionally originated from the Congressional email address of a field representative for Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). It read:
"I've started to get spam through the address. Please, unsubscribe."
The broadcast wasn't well received by the list's owner, because it suggested that the GOP organization was sending out junk mail to list members. According the Jeffers M. Dodge, President Pro Tem of the Los Angeles Republican Coalition, the email "undermines the trust that we've built."
The problem actually started days earlier. Over the weekend, several people received spam for penny stocks that appeared to be from clearly fictitious email addresses to friends@larepublicans.com. Spam filters on email clients like Gmail protected many recipients. Congressional staffer Edgar A. Saenz wasn't so lucky. When he got to the office on Monday, had about half a dozen of the unwanted messages. Saenz, who said he received regular emails from the list despite never signing up, wanted to opt-out immediately. He figured that if he replied directly he might get more spam. To be safe, he created a new message and sent it directly to Dodge.
That's when things got interesting.
Saenz's message was somehow sent to all of the organization's subscribers. In the next 24 hours, his office was bombarded by confused emails, many thinking he was trying to unsubscribe from the recipient's own lists. He even got a response from the office of Republican pundit Sean Hannity and a phone call from a doctor in Indianapolis.
Dodge stated that he has managed this particular email list for five years and never had a problem before. He also said that people who manage the server are investigating and he has alerted the District Attorney. He notified subscribers that their emails were safe and whoever sent the message "just hacked the code to use the list, not take possession of it."
Flickr photo by themesb.