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Fundraising Emails - Fake? (1 Viewer)

Joe Bryant

Joe Bryant

Guide
Staff member
I regularly receive emails from Biden / Harris / Trump and others that feel like they're not real. They all have a similar format with a formulaic copy and wind up with asking for a donation. And they almost always have the cheesy, "We'll match 400% of your donation if it's sent in the next 3 hours" stuff like an infomercial. 

The ones from Trump feel like the ones from Biden.

I never give money to either of course but wondering if others get them and if they're fake?

Latest one today:

Folks,

In a second I’m going to ask you to pitch in $25 to Joe Biden’s final end-of-quarter goal of the election. But first, give me a moment to explain.

Make no mistake, as much as this election is about removing an unfit president, it’s equally about restoring decency and empathy to a position that absolutely requires it.

Joe Biden knows what it’s like to make some of the toughest decisions in the world while still leading with kindness and a respect for humanity. I know, because I saw him do it myself.

I have the utmost faith in what Joe and Kamala will be able to accomplish, but they can’t win this fight alone. Now is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for to restore empathy and decency to our highest office and build a better, brighter future for our kids and generations to come.

But look, I know that the last stretch of the campaign is the hardest, and you have to give it everything you’ve got at the tail end to bring home the victory. That’s why I’m asking you to help Joe and Kamala raise $2,137,500 from North Carolina by their end-of-quarter deadline on Wednesday.

So, I’m personally asking you to help Joe and Kamala raise $2,137,500 in North Carolina between now and their public fundraising deadline at 11:59 pm September 30th. We cannot afford to fall short here. Can I count on you to chip in $25 to their campaign today?

If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

$25 ➞

$50 ➞

$100 ➞

$250 ➞

$500 ➞

Other ➞

For eight years, Joe stood by my side at the White House. I’m so proud of what we accomplished together during that time.

Because Joe is the kind of person you want in charge when times are tough. He’s experienced pain and loss. He has empathy for those who are going through a hard time. And through it all, he is a unifier -- bringing together folks from all sides to find real solutions.

I know I’d feel a lot better right now if Joe were sitting in the Oval Office.

We can make that our reality. But we all have to work hard now to make it happen. There are only 38 days left until Election Day, and we have to make every single one of them count. From experience, I know how important these fundraising deadlines are, and I don’t want to see Joe fall short.

So, can I count on you to make a contribution today? Chip in what you can and let’s send Joe and Kamala to the White House to turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality:

https://go.joebiden.com/Obama-End-of-Quarter

Thank you,
Barack Obama
Click to expand...

 
ActBlue is real.  

All these political emails get filtered out of my Gmail and I never read them.  I do get a kick out the ones saying they'll match xxx% or put you in a super fan club where you can buy a members only jacket for another $xxx.  It works though.  Lot of gullible people out there.

 
beef said:
ActBlue is real.  

All these political emails get filtered out of my Gmail and I never read them.  I do get a kick out the ones saying they'll match xxx% or put you in a super fan club where you can buy a members only jacket for another $xxx.  It works though.  Lot of gullible people out there.
Click to expand...
Thanks Beef. So those are real?

I'd think it would be pretty dangerous to impersonate President Obama so that had me wondering. But they are so cheesy.

AND the Trump emails are almost identical. They look like the same marketing firm did both.

It's always a lead with fear thing. Then a plea for how I can help stop the bad thing. And then how they'll multiple match what I give. So odd. 

 
No, that’s how they’re written. Many candidates will also send out “surveys” like “Do you support the ACA?” or “Are Democrats Very Socialist or 100% Socialist” and ask you to pick an answer. Most of the time, if not all of the time, the links go to the same place, even have the same URL, so they aren’t actually collecting responses. They just want a donation and are adding you to their newsletter or something. When they say there is a match that’s often true, though.

 
Joe Bryant said:
Thanks Beef. So those are real?

I'd think it would be pretty dangerous to impersonate President Obama so that had me wondering. But they are so cheesy.

AND the Trump emails are almost identical. They look like the same marketing firm did both.

It's always a lead with fear thing. Then a plea for how I can help stop the bad thing. And then how they'll multiple match what I give. So odd. 
Click to expand...
To this, I write fundraising emails for a couple of local candidates. For the really local race, sometimes I’ll sign them with my own name. Most of the time, though, I’ll write it “from” someone else and just get them to ok it.

 
I just know ActBlue is a legit fundraising software.  But I'm not sure I would click the link in the email, if there is one.  I only donated to Pete and l always went right to his website which then connected me to ActBlue.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
McBokonon said:
To this, I write fundraising emails for a couple of local candidates. For the really local race, sometimes I’ll sign them with my own name. Most of the time, though, I’ll write it “from” someone else and just get them to ok it.
Click to expand...
Sure. I meant a fake scam type thing. Not a write and you approve thing.

Do you have any idea how effective these emails are for the national candidates?

 
beef said:
I just know ActBlue is a legit fundraising software.  But I'm not sure I would click the link in the email, if there is one.  
Click to expand...
Yeah, I haven't clicked on anything for that reason.

I get probably at least one a day. 

The other one today was from Trump with a very similar format. Saying the country desperately wants to confirm his new Supreme Court Justice. It was a pretty good bit of marketing to turn that into "we need you to donate money" but they did. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
Sure. I meant a fake scam type thing. Not a write and you approve thing.

Do you have any idea how effective these emails are for the national candidates?
Click to expand...
I don’t have hard numbers on that, no. I can go into our software and see open rates and link clicks and ultimately donation rates for my candidates, though. Low percentage but you don’t need a high percentage at that scale to make it effective. And it goes without saying that if they didn’t work, they wouldn’t keep doing it.

 
McBokonon said:
I don’t have hard numbers on that, no. I can go into our software and see open rates and link clicks and ultimately donation rates for my candidates, though. Low percentage but you don’t need a high percentage at that scale to make it effective. And it goes without saying that if they didn’t work, they wouldn’t keep doing it.
Click to expand...
What is a typical open rate percentage for a typical email like that?

 
Joe Bryant said:
I'd think it would be pretty dangerous to impersonate President Obama so that had me wondering. But they are so cheesy.

AND the Trump emails are almost identical. They look like the same marketing firm did both.
Click to expand...
I'm sure the emails were created by different marketing firms, but the people in those firms studied the same marketing techniques. They're proven to work.

As for "impersonating" Obama -- they almost certainly had his permission to do this.

 
This is the one from Trump today:

FILL THAT SEAT! FILL THAT SEAT! FILL THAT SEAT!

Friend,

One thing is clear: the People want to FILL THAT SEAT!

We have a great Country, and we’re going to keep it that way, but I cannot do it alone, Friend. I need your help. 
 

This is SO important I’ve activated an 800%-MATCH for the NEXT HOUR.
 

My team is handing me an updated donor list soon. I’ll be looking for your name.
 

Please contribute ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY to fight for your Nation and your gift will be 800%-MATCHED. >>
 

DONOR FILE
800%-MATCH: ACTIVATED
DEADLINE: 1 HOUR

CONTRIBUTE $42 = $378

CONTRIBUTE $250 = $2250

CONTRIBUTE $100 = $900

CONTRIBUTE $50 = $450
 

CONTRIBUTE $42 = $378

CONTRIBUTE ANY AMOUNT

There have been 29 times that there has been an open Supreme Court seat during an Election year or before an inauguration, and every single time, a sitting President has made a nomination. This is our moment, Friend.
 
The return to American Greatness starts right here and right now. You’ve never let me down before and I know you won’t start now.

Contribute ANY AMOUNT RIGHT NOW for an 800%-MATCH.

Thank you,


Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
Click to expand...

 
@Joe Bryant I got a the "WI" version of that same email 30 minutes ago in my Spam folder of a secondary Gmail account I use for email signups but don't want to use my primary Gmail for.  The email account it was sent to is not registered for ActBlue either. 

 
beef said:
@Joe Bryant I got a the "WI" version of that same email 30 minutes ago in my Spam folder of a secondary Gmail account I use for email signups but don't want to use my primary Gmail for.  The email account it was sent to is not registered for ActBlue either. 
Click to expand...
Interesting. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
I would say that's fantastic. 
Click to expand...
Sometimes lower, sometimes higher. No idea what the national or Senate people get. The folks on our email list were more likely to have made a point to get on the list, actively signing up for it. When you make a donation through ActBlue or another platform, you’ll start getting more emails from more national candidates you didn’t proactively sign up for, so my guess (but not knowledge) is that those open rates are much lower.

 
Joe Bryant said:
I regularly receive emails from Biden / Harris / Trump and others that feel like they're not real. They all have a similar format with a formulaic copy and wind up with asking for a donation. And they almost always have the cheesy, "We'll match 400% of your donation if it's sent in the next 3 hours" stuff like an infomercial. 

The ones from Trump feel like the ones from Biden.

I never give money to either of course but wondering if others get them and if they're fake?

Latest one today:
Click to expand...
How much did you send in?

 
FWIW the only time I’ve ever donated was $15 /week to Bernie for about 6 months 2015-16. I’ve received tons of solicitations from ActBlue and Republicans ever since. If I unsubscribe/opt out it goes away for a few months and then start up again.

 
Joe Bryant said:
I too wonder about this. I'm pretty sure I didn't opt in to either side's list on this. I wonder how they're handling the anti spam rules. 
Click to expand...
Political stuff is usually exempt on free speech grounds, or because it’s non-commercial, so you have to opt out. Similarly, canvassing isn’t technically “soliciting” if it’s political.

 
I keep getting ones from Salem Surround asking me to donate to Trump and I am a Canadian in Canada! I'm probably on some mailing list somewhere for something else but it is weird to get them.

 
I've gotten a few unsolicited texts reminding me to vote for certain candidates. If I had to choose, I'd rather get spammed by email.

 
The matching part seems sensible enough. These are donations to PACs, not to campaigns. So if a rich person wants to donate $10 million to some PAC, they could either phrase it as "Here's $10 million. Now you should try to go raise some more money completely separately. Good luck." Or they could phrase it as "Try to raise some money. I'll match 500% of the first $2 million."

It costs the same either way, but the second one seems likely to attract more donations.

 
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