Blackburn campaign sends questionable fundraising emails with phishing

If you got an email with the subject "CORRECTION REQUIRED" or "Notice of Rescindment," you may have thought you had some billing issue or that someone was phishing for your personal information. But it may have actually come from Marsha Blackburn.

The Blackburn Tennessee Victory Fund -- the joint fundraising PAC bankrolling Blackburn's gubernatorial campaign -- has been sending a series of alarmist emails to potential donors with those foreboding subjects and others, and bodies of the email that warn of "permanent" status changes to the recipient's "Voter Profile" and other vague threats if they don't donate to her campaign. Those donation buttons read "fix here," "update status," and other calls to action, rather than clearly asking for contributions.

One such email reads "we regret to inform you that your status as a supporter of VOTER ID has been temporarily rescinded due to inactivity," with a prompt to update status and warns that it must be done by midnight or "this decision will be updated from temporary to permanent."

Lower, the email warns "**Please know that no extensions will be granted for this**."

Another threatens "permanent damage to your file" if the recipient doesn't "fix" their "MAGA loyalty file" by midnight.

Asked the emails, the Blackburn campaign confirmed their authenticity, but did not answer questions their content.

Abigail Sigler, Blackburn's campaign manager, provided the following statement, noting that unlike primary opponent Congressman John Rose and independent opponent Dave Hatley, Blackburn is not self-funding.

"A candidate spent over $13 million of his own money trying to buy the Republican nomination, and now a convicted felon has said he would spend 'every last dime' to buy the Governor's Office," Sigler wrote Thursday. "On the other hand, Senator Blackburn is a grassroots candidate who is running to defeat a radical socialist and ensure socialism never gets a foothold in Tennessee."

Hatley attacked Blackburn for the practice in an ad last week , showing screenshots of the emails and suggesting they could be impacting seniors.

"Somebody's grandmother is getting four of these a day," Hatley says in the ad, lamenting that Blackburn has "$9 million for a Senate seat that isn't on the ballot."

Of course, other candidates send arguably spammy fundraising messages, including Blackburn's Democratic opponent Jerri Green, whose frequent text blasts usually lead with more personal and sometimes provocative hooks like "I woke up this morning still thinking last night" or "we can't do this anymore," but stop shy of suggesting account lapses or asking for updated information.

In the Senate, Blackburn has supported multiple pieces of legislation to prevent phishing schemes, which often use the same messaging tactics to skim personal information, particularly when targeting seniors.

The Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance said Thursday that the emails were not within its jurisdiction.