By the time the final ballots are counted in this year’s midterm elections, voters across the United States will have been inundated with an estimated 60 billion political text messages. Statistically speaking, a single individual will have read roughly 170 of these messages by the time they step away from the ballot box. Meanwhile, political candidates and their associated super PACs will have poured more than $11 billion into their respective campaigns, flooding the airwaves, digital platforms, and mailboxes with an unprecedented volume of political messaging.
Yet, as campaign spending reaches historic heights and digital engagement saturates everyday life, cybersecurity and fraud prevention experts are warning that the public needs to pay attention to far more than just the race outcomes. The relentless flurry of political calls, texts, and advertisements has inadvertently created a brilliant, highly effective cover for malicious actors and bad actors looking to exploit distracted citizens.
According to Ron Kerbs, the chief executive officer of AI fraud prevention firm Kidas, the sheer volume of legitimate political outreach makes fraudulent communications significantly more difficult to spot. When a person’s phone is constantly buzzing with campaign volunteers asking for donations, pollsters asking for opinions, and candidates making final pitches, a fraudulent call or message stops standing out as unusual.
"A fraudulent call doesn’t necessarily stand out when you’re receiving legitimate political outreach at the same time," Kerbs warned, highlighting the deceptive environment that characterizes modern election seasons.
As a result, security professionals are advising Americans to remain on high alert and play defense against potential threats. Simple precautions, such as letting unknown phone calls roll straight to voicemail, rigorously verifying calls and texts from individuals claiming to be candidates or campaign affiliates, and taking a careful moment to pause and think things through before handing over money or sensitive personal data, have become critical defenses in the modern political landscape.
Scammers Can Use Elections to Steal Money
Unfortunately, traditional protective measures offer little comfort against election-themed fraud. Being listed on the official national Do Not Call registry will not stop a citizen from being targeted or fooled by an election scam. By design, most political communications are entirely exempt from the official Do Not Call registry, which serves as the primary national opt-out database for general telemarketing communications.
While political campaigns are still legally required to navigate federal restrictions governing automated and prerecorded calls—including text messages and phone calls made without obtaining prior consent—the broad legal exceptions create deep, widespread confusion for voters. For the average citizen trying to determine whether a caller is a genuine campaign volunteer, an independent pollster, or an opportunistic criminal, drawing the line can feel nearly impossible.
The threat matrix varies depending on the medium, presenting distinct challenges across both text messages and voice calls. Text message scams remain a persistent and widespread concern for voters navigating the election cycle. A public service announcement issued by the FBI specifically warns about midterm-related scams that leverage stolen names, campaign images, official logos, and candidate slogans. These fraudulent operations are designed to trick well-meaning citizens into making illegal campaign contributions, purchasing campaign merchandise that is never actually delivered, or handing over personally identifiable information that can be used for identity theft.
Voters are routinely reminded of the age-old cybersecurity advice never to click on suspicious links sent via text message, even if the sending number appears legitimate or familiar. However, modern election phone calls may pose an even greater and more insidious challenge for many Americans, driven largely by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.
"When someone hears a familiar voice, particularly a candidate or public official they recognize, they may be more inclined to trust what they’re hearing," Kerbs explained. "With AI, scammers can now recreate those voices convincingly, making it much harder for the average person to recognize when a call is fake."
According to fraud experts, bad actors have easy access to a wealth of publicly available audio and video data concerning political candidates. This public domain material can be effortlessly fed into AI models to train or generate remarkably realistic voice clones. Scammers can then combine these synthetic voices with caller ID spoofing techniques, manipulating the display on the victim’s phone so that the incoming call appears to originate directly from a legitimate campaign headquarters or a recognized political organization.
Crucially, the threat of voice clones and deepfake audio targeting political figures is far from a theoretical concern confined to science fiction. During the 2024 election cycle, AI-generated robocalls explicitly impersonating then-President Joe Biden were deployed to voters in New Hampshire. These deceptive calls urged recipients to skip the state’s primary election entirely, aiming to disrupt the democratic process.
The fallout from those specific incidents triggered a major federal crackdown on predatory junk calls. Most notably, the Federal Communications Commission expanded the scope of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to effectively ban unsolicited AI-generated robocalls nationwide, classifying them as illegal under federal telecommunication laws.
Election scammers typically approach voters with a variety of distinct motivations, ranging from financial theft to direct election interference. Organizations like the National Association of Secretaries of State outline multiple ways bad actors exploit the election season, utilizing everything from fake polling inquiries to bogus voter registration updates to trap unsuspecting targets.
Amid this chaos, certain behavioral red flags can signal to a vigilant voter that the person on the other end of the line is not driven by a genuine sense of civic participation. Urgency is universally cited by scam experts as the single biggest warning sign. If a caller claims that a voter’s registration is about to expire, or insists that a mail-in ballot needs to be verified immediately under threat of disqualification, Kerbs advises ending the conversation immediately.
Furthermore, legitimate election officials and campaign representatives will never ask for money, Social Security numbers, account verification codes, or other sensitive personal information over the phone. Additional warning signs include requests for banking details or demands for payment via alternative methods such as prepaid gift cards, cryptocurrency wires, or other unusual financial transactions.
Voters should maintain deep skepticism toward anyone claiming they can update a voter registration status over the phone in exchange for sensitive information or a processing fee. The reality is that registering to vote is entirely free, and citizens should always utilize official state and local election resources to check their registration status or make necessary updates.
"One of the most important things to understand is that a scam call may not have an obvious red flag at first," Kerbs warned. "A call can sound completely legitimate and still be fraudulent, so voters shouldn’t rely solely on whether something sounds suspicious."
Whether bad actors are motivated by a geopolitical desire to tamper with election outcomes—as observed in the New Hampshire robocall incident—or are simply looking for a straightforward way to steal personal data and cash, the risks to the public remain high.
How to Protect Yourself from Election Scams
As technology evolves, the tactics employed by fraudsters continue to adapt, necessitating a shift in how citizens approach everyday communications.
"It’s no longer enough to identify a suspicious phone number," Kerbs warned. "You also need to consider what’s happening during the call, including whether the voice is artificially generated and whether the conversation shows signs of fraudulent activity."
Security advocates emphasize that the most critical rule of thumb is to avoid providing sensitive information over the phone entirely. This includes seemingly minor details, such as a driver’s license number, which scammers often request under the guise of verifying an identity or confirming a political donation.
Fraudsters are adept at piecing together fragmented data. Even seemingly harmless details can prove exceptionally useful to bad actors when combined with information they have already scraped or purchased elsewhere. Citizens are reminded that they are under no obligation to answer every question asked by someone claiming to represent a political campaign or an official election office, and exercising caution remains the strongest defense against modern electoral fraud.
