FBI再次警告美国公众注意选举季节常见的诈骗。随着11月的中期选举临近，FBI表示，诈骗者常利用知名候选人的姓名、形象和口号实施各种欺诈。这些诈骗通常与捐款和商品销售有关，但也可能旨在窃取个人数据用于后续诈骗。当然，近年来，随着人工智能和深度伪造技术的兴起，诈骗者的手段变得更具说服力，这些技术还能更精准地模仿候选人及其他官员的形象。
The FBI is once again warning US citizens to be on the lookout for the scams that are so often rife around election season. With November’s midterms fast approaching, the FBI said scammers are known to use the names, imagery, and slogans of high-profile candidates for a range of frauds. These are often related to making donations and selling merchandise, but can also be geared toward stealing personal data for use in follow-on scams. And of course, more recently, fraudsters’ efforts can be all the more convincing given the rise in AI use and deepfake technology, which can also be used to more accurately imitate the likenesses of candidates and other officials.
竞选投资池计划是FBI希望公众在未来几周警惕的四大诈骗之一。此类诈骗涉及骗子诱导受害者向竞选池投入资金，表面上承诺在候选人获胜后向所有捐款者分配收益。更常见的是，此类集资诈骗基于对股票及其他增值资产的集体投资。FBI未透露这些竞选池的具体投资激励机制，或受害者据称如何通过捐款增加其份额，但表示真正的竞选捐款不会随时间增值。
Campaign investment pool schemes are among the four big frauds the FBI wants the public to watch out for over the next few weeks. These involve scammers convincing their marks to pay into a campaign pool, which ostensibly pays out to all of those who donated after the candidate wins. More commonly, these types of pooled investment scams are based on collective investments into stocks and other appreciating assets. The FBI did not provide details about these campaign pools’ investment incentives or how victims are supposedly able to increase their stake by donating to the cause, but did say that no genuine campaign donations appreciate over time.
另一种常见的捐款类诈骗是诱导受害者资助一个虚假的政治行动委员会（PAC），该组织声称收集支持者的资金并承诺将其交给他们支持的政党或候选人。然而，诈骗者并未将资金转交特定政治竞选，而是将所有款项据为己有。诈骗者还常声称销售与政治竞选相关的商品——但这些订单最终不予交付。这类未交付诈骗属于网络诈骗的前五大类型，根据互联网犯罪投诉中心（IC3）最新年度报告所示。
Another common donation-based scam to be wary of is the one that convinces victims to fund a fake political action committee (PAC), one that collects supporters’ cash and promises to hand it to their favored party or candidate. Instead of forwarding money to a specific political campaign, however, the scammers pocket it all for themselves. Fraudsters are also known for claiming to sell merchandise related to political campaigns – orders that ultimately go unfulfilled. These constitute non-delivery scams, which rank in the top five genres of internet cons, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center’s (IC3) most recent annual report.
同一份报告将网络钓鱼列为该清单的首位，而经典网络攻击也出现在FBI关于中期选举相关诈骗的清单中。诈骗者会制造紧迫感，通过短信声称受害者尚未登记投票，并要求他们点击链接进入一个网页，在那里输入个人信息以完成登记过程——当然，这最终会导致身份盗窃。虽然FBI的警告中未提及此细节，但鉴于最近导致登记申请大量积压的计算机问题，得州居民应特别警惕此类通信尝试。
The same report put phishing at the number one spot in that same list, and the classic cyberattack features on the FBI’s list of midterm-related scams, too. Creating a sense of urgency, scammers will text victims claiming they have not yet registered to vote, and asking them to follow a link to a webpage where they can enter their details and complete the process, which of course leads to identity theft. While the FBI doesn’t include this detail in its advisory, Texans should be especially wary of these communication attempts given the recent computer issues that led to a massive backlog in registration applications.
截至9月22日，约60万份申请因网站缺陷未能记录选民的投票意愿，因而未收到得州州务卿（SOS）办公室的登记表，因而陷入停滞状态，这一说法来自选民登记组织上周提交的诉讼[PDF]。然而，SOS办公室发言人艾丽西亚·皮尔斯（Alicia Pierce）向《今日美国》表示，积压仅在几万份左右，且截至本周已全部清除。
As of September 22, 226, around 600,000 applications were allegedly in limbo after a website flaw failed to record voters’ intentions to vote, and therefore did not receive registration forms from the Texas Secretary of State (SOS), according to a lawsuit [PDF] filed by voter registration organizations last week. However, spokesperson for the SOS’ office Alicia Pierce told USA Today that the backlog was only in the tens of thousands and that as of this week it was all-clear.
尽管如此，诈骗者仍可能利用公众对积压情况的关注，在设计网络钓鱼诱饵时加以利用。联邦当局建议公众警惕此类通信，并通过政府选举委员会网站核实所有政治组织，如政治行动委员会（PACs）。虽然一些诈骗性PACs可能在该网站上以注册身份出现，但通常可以通过其在咨询、筹款及其他行政费用上的高额支出来识别可疑者。
Scammers may nevertheless continue to capitalize on the public awareness of the backlog when devising the lures for their phishing campaigns. The feds advised the public to be wary of these kinds of communications, and verify all political organizations, such as PACs, via the government’s election commission website. Although some scam PACs can appear on the website as registered, you can usually discern the suspicious ones when they report high expenses for matters such as consulting, fundraising, and other admin costs.
FBI的警告紧随X（前身为Twitter）的独立行动之后：该平台于周三晚上警告称，源自伊朗、俄罗斯和中国的影响力行动正在针对美国选民，并在政治光谱各方放大内容。作为回应，该社交媒体平台删除了超过13,000个与外国干涉尝试相关联的账户。®
The FBI's advisory follows separate action taken by X, which on Wednesday evening warned that influence campaigns originating from Iran, Russia, and China were targeting US voters, amplifying content across the political spectrum. The social media platform responded by nuking more than 13,000 accounts linked to the foreign interference attempts. ®