Daily campaign texts annoy Hidalgo County voters, experts warn of scam links
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Weslaco, TX (KRGV) — Hidalgo County voters say they get political campaign text messages every day, and experts say some of them could be a scam.
"We've been getting a lot of text messages, like once a day easily," Weslaco resident Tony Davila said, adding that he avoids clicking links because he believes many are false.
Weslaco resident Ruben Rodriguez said he usually ignores the messages.
“[I get them] at least four or five a day. I just delete them,” Rodriguez said.
The Hidalgo County Democratic Party says people usually get one of two kinds of messages, a longer paragraph or a shorter one with a link.
"Any text messages that are really short and just give a link, those I would be suspicious of,” Hidalgo County Democratic Party Precinct Chair Stacy Solis said. “Most candidates and organizations, if they're going to spend the money, time, and effort to send you a text message, it is going to be a little bit lengthy. They are going to want to give you a lot of information.”
Solis says replying "STOP" or deleting a message will not help because campaigns use multiple phone numbers. She says campaigns get phone numbers from voter registration information.
"Many candidates or organizations have multiple phone numbers that they use,” Solis said. “So if you notice it's never coming from the same phone number, that's what makes it really difficult to completely stop those text messages.”
Despite the number of text messages, voters like Rodriguez say they may serve as a reminder to go vote.
"I know it's election season and it's an important election; we got to go out there and vote, and so I think this is a good reminder for people," Rodriguez said.
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