"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 text reads.

It was a bizarre concession from the incumbent Liberal member, whose currently defending his seat from Labor's Mike Kelly.

Only, Peter Hendy didn't send it.

The first he heard of the message was when reports of it began to surface overnight.

And while it's not clear who is behind the faux message - Mike Kelly strenuously denies it came from his camp - it's not the first time a bit of skulduggery has been deployed on the campaign trail.

Voters keying katygallagher.com into their search bar may also be surprised to see the screen redirect to ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja's website (for the record, you'll find ACT Labor Senator Katy Gallagher's website at: katygallagher.net).

Senator Seselja's office also pointed out ACT Labor had co-opted zedseselja.com (his actual website is zedseselja.com.au).

ACT Labor secretary Matt Byrne said their "Seselja Liberals" website was set up during the 2012 ACT election campaign "to give Canberrans the facts about the Liberal party led by Zed Seselja and the regressive policies that they were taking to the election".

"It's only right that when Canberrans were looking for the facts about what Mr Seselja stood for as the alternative Chief Minister they should be able to find that out in a simple and convenient way," Mr Byrne said.

Despite this, it can be revealed the domain name was renewed in February this year.

University of Canberra's senior lecturer in political science Dr Michael de Percy said guerrilla tactics weren't that uncommon on the election trail but tended to backfire.

"I don't know that these are formal tactics of the party, they tend to be tactics adopted by branches and branch managers that they'll use within their electorate," Dr de Percy said.

"It's not uncommon when these tactics overstep the mark for the party to then distance themselves from it and take disciplinary action towards the members. Having said that I don't believe they're necessarily discouraged from such things, as long as they don't overstep that mark."

Dr Michael de Percy said while it's difficult to measure the effectiveness of rogue campaign tactics in swaying voters, the average Australian voter was quite savvy.

He said most would not be impressed by the cheeky strategies.

"I daresay too that most of the senior politicians would not be fans of these sorts of techniques," he said.

"There's a great deal of analysis in the media and elsewhere and I really think they need to focus on these rather than guerrilla tactics."

Meanwhile Dr Hendy said is considering taking his "identity theft" to authorities.

"While I'm out in the electorate meeting voters someone is running a dirty tricks campaign and I call on them to cease immediately," Dr Hendy said.

"Instead of mud-slinging, this election should be fought on policy and on who has the better plan to deliver political stability and jobs, growth, and a secure future for families across Eden-Monaro."

Mike Kelly agreed: "We run an honourable campaign. We don't insult voters by making robocalls, I've made over 4700 personal calls, and we would never tolerate that in our campaign."

I don't think this was sent by Peter Hendy somehow. #edenmonaro pic.twitter.com/jfA8eThn9K— Nathan Thompson (@NT983) June 13, 2016