The FBI warned the public that scammers could use the 2026 US midterm election for fraud. Its alert, posted by the Internet Crime Complaint Center, says the schemes target people across the country and have hit state and local elections before. Scammers copy candidates' names, images, logos and slogans, the FBI said. They ask for donations, sell goods that never arrive, or steal personal data. The FBI also said they use AI tools to make realistic voices, images and messages that pose as candidates, campaigns, government bodies and trusted contacts. Help Net Security reported the warning on 16 October, three weeks before the vote.
The FBI described four schemes. One promises a guaranteed payout from a pool tied to a candidate. Another poses as a political action committee (PAC, a group that raises campaign money) and keeps the funds. A third sells political merchandise and never ships it. A fourth sends texts or emails claiming the person is not registered to vote, with a link to a fake registration page that steals personal data. The sources give no victim counts, no loss figures and no named campaigns. They do not say how many cases involve cloned voices.
Max Gannon of Cofense said AI has removed the clumsy mistakes that once exposed such scams. He advised staff to check a message through the FEC website or vote.gov, never through the link sent. Teams that run email security or staff training face the same problem: a message that looks trusted but is not.