The upcoming midterm elections in November offer a fertile environment for scammers to exploit, with schemes that include impersonating political candidates.
Scammers could use names, logos, slogans, and images of political candidates to elicit campaign contributions, steal personal information, and engage in other deceptive practices such as merchandise sales with no product delivery, the FBI warned in an Oct. 15 public service announcement.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in fraudulent schemes, with scammers deploying AI tools to generate highly realistic voices, images, and written messages for impersonation attempts.
Besides candidates, the fraudsters imitate government entities and trusted contacts of the target.
“The realism makes these schemes harder for victims to detect and increases the likelihood of financial loss or exposure of PII (Personally Identifiable Information),” the FBI said.
In an earlier example of a political scam, the Department of Justice has recently charged two North Macedonians with using the name of President Donald Trump to defraud American citizens.
The individuals are alleged to have created a fictitious financial instrument called “Trump Bucks,” marketing it as being affiliated with Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken from victims.
“This fraud targets many senior citizens, taking advantage of their support for the president,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in the statement.
The FBI alert asked the public to be wary of political donations.
Citizens may believe they are donating to a legitimate political action committee, but end up transferring funds to scammers.
In addition, scammers are using voter registration schemes, where potential victims are urged to click on links in text messages and emails, which take them to fake voter registration pages.
The personal information will later be used or sold to malicious actors.
The FBI issued another alert on Oct. 15, warning voters about election crimes, which threaten the integrity of the electoral process and undermine public confidence in democracy.
Some federal election crimes include giving incorrect information at the time of registering to vote, tampering with ballots, federal employees engaging in political fundraising, voting more than once, and voting by noncitizens.
Law enforcement has made numerous arrests recently regarding illegal voting.
Four people from Philadelphia were charged with voting illegally in the 2024 elections despite being noncitizens, the DOJ said in an Oct. 5 statement.
The defendants face up to a year in prison, fines, or both if convicted.
According to Title 18 of the U.S. Code Section 611, it is unlawful for an immigrant to vote in an election held to select candidates for certain posts, such as the president or a member of the Senate.
On Oct. 12, the DOJ announced voting violation charges against 16 individuals, including 14 people who cast votes despite being noncitizens.
The FBI asked victims, or those who encounter election-related scams, to report it to their local FBI field office.
Details considered helpful by the FBI include the name of the person or company that made contact; identifying information such as phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and websites; financial transaction info like the payment methods promoted in the scheme; and any other details about the interaction.
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