r/Austin • u/StrummerBass101 • 10h ago

Anyone else getting these text?

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Awfully suspicious right before the midterms lol. Seems like Republican chicanery. Got two today. Guess when you have nothing else to run on you have to lean into culture war bullshit.

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u/Pi_ofthe_Beholder 10h ago

TENT. They are legit.

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u/shmelse 9h ago

They are legit but there’s zero indication that they sent these tests. It’s fucking October; it’s midterms not a new school year. This is gross republicans trying to distract from the fact that Paxton is a ghoul and no one likes him.

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u/Worldly-Fondant-3791 10h ago

Tent? 

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u/p____p 10h ago edited 9h ago

Transgender Education Network of Texas

I looked up their website and IG. They do seem to be legit. EDIT: the organization, not the texts. 

However, it’s one more text spam campaign we could do without. 

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u/Worldly-Fondant-3791 9h ago

Ok what does legit mean? They are the ones paying for it? Or they actually send the texts? 

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u/p____p 9h ago

Oh there’s no evidence they’re actually the organization sending the texts. Looking down the thread, that seems to be the concern. (I wasn’t thinking into it that much.)

Yeah, IDK. Probably no way to verify who is doing that. Maybe OP or somebody should reach out to alert them. 

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u/StrummerBass101 9h ago

Already have. Will report back with my findings

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u/p____p 9h ago

I just saw another thread on this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1x598e3/odd_sms_messages_about_genderaffirming_care_and/

Looks like other people are reporting this too. 

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u/JohnGillnitz 9h ago

I believe the technical term in political science circles is "rat fucking." Just dirty tricks to stir up the pot. Someone sends out millions of texts of a legit trans organization and rubes out in the sticks lose their friggin' mind.

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u/StrummerBass101 7h ago edited 6h ago

It’s so weird how some folks can’t wrap their noggins around this concept.

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u/Leksi_The_Great 8h ago

I know people at TENT and I’d be VERY surprised if they were the ones sending these. I’ll ask them to be sure, but I’d be very surprised if it were them because I know they’re not stupid. For now, I’ll be investigating the true owner of the numbers.

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u/p____p 7h ago

OP said they were reaching out to them, as well as some people on another thread on r/texas. Yeah I do doubt it’s them.

The numbers are most likely spoofed like so many other robo texts. I wish somebody would put up legislation to stop that shit. It’s ramped up so bad right now for the midterms, even if it’s a cause I support, I just delete them.

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u/Leksi_The_Great 5h ago

I don’t think they’re spoofed. The 4 numbers I know of (the two shared here and the two I got texts from) are all originally from Ozona, Texas and are all owned by a company named Peerless Network—which has a history of facilitating the actions of sketchy actors (so much so that the FTC hit them with a cease and desist in 2023). And who owns them isn’t publicly available, as they were all recently purchased.

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u/Worldly-Fondant-3791 5h ago

Interesting info