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Robocalls attempting to discourage voter turnout with "stay safe and stay home" recording.

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Wraith

Wraith

Member
Jun 28, 2018
8,892
The "robotic tone" and "test call" reference are clearly meant to give the impression that this call is official in some capacity, warning about health or public safety threats. But that's obviously false, and none of the calls list who or what organization is behind them. It's a transparent effort to scare people away from voting in person on Election Day. I'm sure it will work on some people. All we can do is let people know that it's a fake, that it's trying to stop them from voting.

Will add more as info comes in, but:




Missouri:


Nebraska:


Minnesota:

News Articles:
Suspicious robocall campaign warning people to 'stay home' spooks voters nationwide (WaPo)
An unidentified robocaller has placed an estimated 10 million calls in the past several weeks warning people to "stay safe and stay home," spooking some Americans who said they saw it as an attempt to scare them away from the polls on Election Day.

The barrage of calls all feature the same short, recorded message: A computerized female voice says the message is a "test call" before twice encouraging people to remain inside. The robocalls, which have come from a slew of fake or unknown numbers, began over the summer and intensified in October, and now appear to have affected nearly every Zip code in the United States.

The reach and timing of the calls recently caught the attention of YouMail, a tech company that offers a robocall-blocking app for smartphones, as well as some of the country's top telecom carriers, which determined from an investigation that the calls may be foreign in origin and sophisticated in their tactics. Data from YouMail shows that the calls have reached 280 of the country's 317 area codes since the campaign began in the summer.
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When Zach McMullen received a call Monday telling him it was "time to stay home," he assumed the warning was related to the coronavirus. His co-workers at an Atlanta bakery had received the same message, and they initially figured it was the city government enforcing its public health guidelines.

But the "robotic voice" gave McMullen pause, as did the second call — and then the third, and the fourth — delivering the same monotone message on the same day.

"I think they mean stay home and don't vote," the 37-year-old concluded.
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www.buzzfeednews.com

Voters In Battleground States Are Getting Robocalls Discouraging Them From Going To The Polls

“It definitely hit on the anxieties my family has had about the election.”
www.buzzfeednews.com www.buzzfeednews.com
www.independent.co.uk

Mysterious robocall warns Americans to 'stay inside'

A mysterious and foreboding robocaller has been reportedly warning Americans to "stay safe and stay home" over the last several weeks.
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
www.cnn.com

Nebraska election official wants voters to disregard "stay safe and stay home" robocall

Donald Trump and Joe Biden each need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Follow here for the latest updates on voting and election results.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
www.businessinsider.com

The FBI is investigating dubious robocalls that told voters in several states to 'stay safe and stay home' on Election Day

A senior cybersecurity official told reporters that the robocalls and texts were a "voter intimidation" and "voter suppression" tactic.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
www.thedailybeast.com

Shady Robocalls Try to Get Voters to Stay Home

Officials in key battleground states are investigating the calls, and the FBI has been notified.
www.thedailybeast.com
 
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Dan Thunder

Dan Thunder

Member
Nov 2, 2017
14,060
putin-telephone.jpg

"stay home and stay safe."
 
Squirrel Killer

Squirrel Killer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,128
Disgusting, hope they are able to catch the perpetrators. I hate how lax the FCC is on robocalls and would vote for nearly anyone who pledged to clamp down on this shit (both commercial and fraudulent political robocalls.)
 
cbajd5

cbajd5

Member
Oct 25, 2017
513
Oh, I got one of those calls last Friday although I didn't answer it and the voice mail it left is messed up. (It had long stretches of silence, the first reading of the message cutoff before the end, it had ringing in the middle of it a few times with very short snippets of other messages, and the entire voicemail is like 3 minutes long.)
 
Heart of Poumn

Heart of Poumn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,355
They could have at least put a little more effort into it. I can't imagine anyone receiving that and it having more impact than just being slightly confused.
 
dallow_bg

dallow_bg

Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,629
texas
I've gotten these calls for months now. Long before early voting started.
Specifically the creepy sounding "Stay safe and stay home" one.
 
RBH

RBH

Official ERA expert on Third Party Football
Member
Nov 2, 2017
32,924
Been getting these calls over the past few days, like 4 or 5 per day
 
SpoonyBob

SpoonyBob

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,492
Arkansas
Is there any way this fuckery could finally be the impetus needed to have phone companies do something about robocalls?
 
Skittzo

Skittzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,037
I don't even answer phone calls from any number I don't recognize anymore. Spam and robocalls have gotten so out of control, I get at least 5 spam calls a day.
 
smug chocobo

smug chocobo

Member
Aug 30, 2018
151
It's fucking wild that some random entity with a little know-how can send a call to everybody in America and there isn't shit anyone can do about it.
 
Wingfan19

Wingfan19

Layout Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
9,753
Bothell WA
I got 4 of these calls in the same day last week. I'm in Washington state. It was very weird. Just thought it was some fake spam call for COVID reasons. Always called from a different number with the same area code and first 3 digits of my own phone number.
 
Nephtes

Nephtes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,550
Are these going out only to people registered of one party or everyone?

I mean the common saying has been from the talking heads in the media that Democrats vote early and Republicans vote on Election Day... so if this is going down now, wouldn't it be an attempt to suppress GOP turnout?
 

reKon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,739
I actually got three calls today, but nothing to do with this... they were all calls all from CA (I'm in IL).

They left two voice mails stating that there has been suspicious activity detected on my iCloud account and I should give them a call...

Look, if you're going to run a phishing scam, don't do it on literally the worse day possible in the past 4 years where I'm my likely to ignore you.
 
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