'It's never been a better time to vote for anyone else': Malcolm Turnbull hit by hoax text campaign

After it was revealed someone impersonating Eden-Monaro MP Peter Hendy bulk-texted voters an anti-Liberal message, it seems tricksters have co-opted several of the prime minister's favourite catchcries to implore people not to vote for him either.

The text message from "Malcolm" reads: "Hi there, don't vote for me, I'm out of touch. Be innovate & agile! It's never been a better time to vote for anyone else; let's make Australia great again!"

The text recalls the one supposedly sent by the Liberal member for the marginal seat of Eden-Monaro on Monday night, in which Dr Hendy made a bizarre concession to voters in the seat he's desperately trying to hang onto.

"I'm sorry I have let you down over the past 3 years, I understand if you don't vote for me again, actually I agree, I wouldn't vote for myself. Vote different!" the SMS reads.

Dr Hendy has denied sending it and said he's considering handing it over to the authorities.

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But Australian National University marketing expert Dr Andrew Hughes said it could be very hard to enforce any ruling on these kind of rogue campaign tactics and most authoritative bodies were loath to try.

"Are there laws for it? Supposedly yes but no one's ever done anything about it up until now because it's very, very hard to enforce," Dr Hughes said.

"The Australian Electoral Commission only really acts if you're telling people how to vote incorrectly. They're not going to do anything about it so no one's going to come after you really."

And because the hoaxers aren't telling people who to vote for, only who not to vote for, Dr Hughes said it's even more difficult to determine who's behind it.

"People will have their conspiracy theories. You could say it was done by Labor, or it was done by the Coalition to get people talking about Malcolm Turnbull. It could be someone in the campaign who's disgruntled and just wants to take their vengeance out on whoever it happens to be or it could be someone outside the major parties altogether."

There's one thing for certain though - because they are using a service that allows you to send a name instead of a number, they are attempting to hide their identity.

"They're not trying to draw attention to themselves so maybe there's some clues there that it could come from one of the major parties for that reason," Dr Hughes said.

"Normally there'd be someone saying 'Hey, vote for us instead'. Bad spelling, bad grammar throws people off the track a bit."

Adding weight to his theory is the timing of the text messages.

"The fact they seem to be targeting pre-poll voters as well perhaps gives a bit of a clue that this person isn't an amateur, they do have knowledge of campaigning," he said.

The final piece of the puzzle? The databases tapped into to distribute the hoax message.

"You can't just get access to that database quite easily, you need to have access to AEC information through the electoral roll but then you have to match it to people in certain areas like marginal seats, Eden-Monaro for example," Dr Hughes said.

And while some are resorting to these guerilla techniques on the election trail, others are sticking to more traditional tactics.

The ACT Greens have complained people are stealing their Christina Hobbs signs and using them as target practice, after a video surfaced online of people shooting arrows at her face.

While the Greens haven't yet found the culprits, they are planning on reporting them to the ACT's Territory and Municipal Services directorate.