The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning to the public about scammers perpetrating four types of fraud schemes before the US general election.
These schemes include:
- Campaign Investment Pool Scheme: Fraudsters lure victims to invest in a pool to fund the candidate’s campaign and promise a return on their campaign attribution dollars
- Scam Political Action Committees: Scammers contact victims claiming to be affiliated with a legitimate Political Action Committee (PAC) or candidate’s campaign committee.
- Merchandise Online Purchase Scam: Crooks harvest victims’ interest in the 2024 election by enticing them to purchase fake merchandise with the logo of a political candidate.
- Scam Voter Registration: Scammers send text messages or emails stating that the victims are not registered to vote in their state and encouraging them to click a link.
Attackers are targeting victims across the US using candidates’ names, images, logos, and slogans to fraudulently solicit campaign contributions, sell merchandise (which is never sent to the purchaser), or steal victims’ personal information that can be used for other fraud.
The FBI reminds citizens that donations to political campaigns do not act as investments. They will not increase in value and will not be returned.
“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, the FBI recommends.
“Research a company online before making any purchase by looking up customer reviews and BBB.org complaints,” the FBI’s alert reads.
The FBI encourages reporting fraudulent or suspicious activities to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.ic3.gov as quickly as possible. Read the full story.
Rajesh Dhawan is a technology professional who loves to write about Cyber-security events and stories, Cloud computing and Microsoft technologies. He loves to break complex problems into manageable chunks of meaningful information.