Summary:
Yesterday, the FBI issued an advisory warning about scammers exploiting the 2024 US General election to scam individuals across the United States. The agency has identified four different schemes employed by these fraudsters:

• Campaign Investment Pool Scheme: Victims are encouraged to invest in a campaign fund with promised returns after the candidate wins and are urged to recruit others to boost their payouts.
• Scam Political Action Committees: Scammers pose as representatives of legitimate PACs, tricking victims into making fake contributions that the scammers keep.
• Merchandise Online Purchase Scam: Victims are enticed to purchase merchandise with the logo of a political candidate from a fraudulent company that does not deliver the products, exploiting their interest in the election.
• Scam Voter Registration: Victims receive messages claiming they're not registered to vote, leading to a fake registration page aimed at stealing personal information for identity theft.

Security Officer Comments:
Cybercriminals are very opportunistic, taking advantage of specific periods or events to target victims. For example, during major holidays like Christmas, actors have set up fake online stores advertising huge discounts to solicitate funds and steal credit card details. As of recently, natural disasters like hurricane Milton and Helene have been exploited, where actors have impersonated FEMA assistance providers to steal personal information and funds.

According to the FBI, scammers in the past have also targeted local and state elections in a similar manner, where the names, images, and logos of candidates have been fraudulently used to sell fake merchandise and steal PII data that can be used for other malicious operations such as identity theft. With millions of individuals following the General US election, this has become a prime opportunity for scammers to launch election-related schemes to scam people out of their money or personal data.

Suggested Corrections:

• Be cautious when receiving any unsolicited calls, texts, emails, or surveys. Do not provide your personal information to persons you do not know. Do not click on unknown links.
• Donations to a political campaign will not act as an investment; they will not increase in value then be returned to you.
• Check the registration status of a Political Action or Party Committee on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website. Additional due diligence may be necessary because some scam PACs are known to be registered with the FEC.
• Research a company online before making any purchase by looking up customer reviews and BBB.org complaints.
• Check your voter registration status at www.vote.gov.

Link(s):
https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA241029