Local candidate says his phone was hacked day before election
By Kirsten Glavin
@kirstenglavin
CRANSTON, RI – In the final hours before the election, Steven Frias would love to be working on his campaign, but instead the candidate for a State Representative seat in Cranston has been answering more than 100 random phone calls from people across the state of Rhode Island.
"People were just getting these missed calls and were calling me back. It was going on for hours!” said Frias.
According to Frias, the callers asked who he was, and apologized for missing his phone call. All were calls, he said, he never made.
"Calls are being made using my number so please ignore those calls. They’re not from me, someone else is doing it,” he told ABC6 News.
The republican candidate filed a police report Monday after realizing someone was illegally using his phone number to call people, the day before his contentious race. Because of the timing, it made it impossible for him to change his number.
The candidate took to twitter to warn people, posting:
“My cell number was illegally spoofed today. Calls are being made using my number as caller ID. I have filed a complaint with Cranston PD.”
Frias also changed his voicemail in the hopes of clearing up any confusion.
He told ABC6 News he could not say for sure who’s behind it but because he’s involved in a contentious race against the speaker of the house, he is pointing fingers at his opponent, Nick Mattiello.
"If it’s political, it would probably be my opponent. But my opponent’s campaign would never own up to doing something like this."
ABC6 did reach out to Nick Mattiello’s campaign spokesperson, who said they did not know about the hack and were not responsible.
