# Little dirty tricks **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 19, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710 "2020-07-19T00:38:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/1 "2020-07-19T00:38:23Z")
I have been getting increasingly annoyed at seeing MAGA Survey ads on CNN and Yahoo. So, I decided to click on one to see what it was about, and low and behold - it’s an information and money-donation conduit. I put in a fake email address and mailing address - and it was accepted. So, now whenever I see one, I put in another fake address. Maybe, if everyone did this, we could swamp their database with fake data. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/2 "2020-07-19T01:15:55Z")
Sounds like an ad with the word ‘survey’ in the name. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/3 "2020-07-19T01:31:27Z")
Hey, I’m game. I’ll look into it. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/4 "2020-07-19T06:25:01Z")
I’ve been doing that for a while now. And I fill out the snail mail donation forms like like I’m enclosing a big check, but I don’t enclose a check. I gave them this phone number that we never use, but it came with my cable package and I never disabled it, so I see incoming calls on my TV. And whenever I see a call from the RNC, I know it’s working, ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/5 "2020-07-19T07:14:29Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > And I fill out the snail mail donation forms like like I’m enclosing a big check, but I don’t enclose a check. My father used to do this to the Republicans, and he’d include his real phone number. When they’d call to ask about the check, he’d yell at them for “losing” it and tell them that because they were so incompetent, he’d never send them another damned cent. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/6 "2020-07-19T08:34:05Z")
My thoughts exactly. I don’t even know who it is that runs these surveys **beowolf** is trying to sabotage. Nevertheless I think efforts to do so are folly. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/7 "2020-07-19T10:31:06Z")
All you are doing is contributing to global warming by making it take longer for the computers to run their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/8 "2020-07-19T13:44:26Z")
I don’t know If it’s true, but I read somewhere that putting things in a shopping cart in an online store takes them out of inventory, so i went and temporarily seized every MAGA hat I could. Apparently, they have a lot of MAGA hats. Petty? Yup. Effective? Probably not. But I felt like an anti-MAGA Antifa splinter cell for a brief moment. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/9 "2020-07-19T13:47:18Z")
That is AWESOME. I hope he also complained about the fee the bank charges to stop payment. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/10 "2020-07-19T16:54:02Z")
“Surveys” full of loaded questions that are actually just intended to rile up the audience followed by an appeal for money are as old as humanity. Even preachers use the same tactic in the lead up to passing the collection plate. Which do you favor? a) Mom & apple pie. b) Infidel hordes stomping on kittens like [insert opponent name here] wants. … for about 10 questions then Won’t you send in $X\* to help us fight [insert opponent name here]? etc. Gets the rubes every time. I’m a D, but I’ve certainly received no end of similar push pieces from D candidates over the years. None so far this cycle I must say. * * * \* The X is carefully calibrated to what they already know about your SES and donation history. Modern advertising science in the service of politics may be a civilization-ending development. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-dirty-tricks/915710/11 "2020-07-19T17:31:12Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That is AWESOME. I hope he also complained about the fee the bank charges to stop payment. He could claim that the bank already paid it out, and sow suspicion that there’s an embezzler in the office.