Ahead of Election Day (it’s less than a week away, y’all), there’s been no shortage of major events happening on both national and international scales. So far, it’s encompassed everything from The Washington Post landing in controversy due to its refusal to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time since 1988, to ballot boxes burning in Oregon and Washington, to former president Donald Trump’s “aggrieved” rally at Madison Square Garden, to a slew of additional stories so lengthy that we’d be here until next Tuesday trying to recap it all. (Heck, even Wikipedia's highly condensed timeline takes ages to scroll through.)
The long-story-short of it, readers?
The cavalcade of news keeps screaming ahead, and unfortunately there are technology-related matters worsening this already-chaotic state of affairs.
From obscene AI-generated images (often featuring — and fueled by — loads of misinformation) to unnervingly realistic deepfake videos portraying both candidates lobbing statements they never actually made, what’s circulating online is what we’d consider to be the non-hyperbolic definition of “wild.”
Well according to Transaction Network Services (News - Alert) (TNS), there’s unfortunately more to unpack.
TNS is a well-trusted source for robocall data. Its team analyzes more than 1.5 billion daily call events across hundreds of carrier networks in order to uncover the latest scams and like trends. Having tracked robocall activity during U.S. election seasons since 2018, TNS (News - Alert) is adept at detailing the extent to which voters in battleground states (and other states with competitive state and local races, of their own) have been virulently targeted by political scams and an aggressive flow of disinformation.
And this week, TNS released its Q3 Robocall Investigation Report.
“TNS’ Q3 Robocall Investigation Report highlights bad actors’ attempts to steal Americans’ personal information and impact election outcomes with potential disinformation through political robocalls,” explained Denny Randolph, President of TNS Communications Market. “These unwanted political robocalls pose great risks to the American public, which is why all stakeholders - network operators, regulators and policymakers, and solutions providers - must focus on protecting Americans and restoring trust in the voice channel.”
Below, you’ll find a shortlist of dangers be on an ultra-wary lookout for, courtesy of TNS’ data drawn from real-life traps being laid:
- Fake voting registration sites are being used for data collection scams. Scammers lure victims to fraudulent website links disguised as voter registration websites, where Americans are prompted to enter sensitive info. TNS even detected several instances of “robocalls-to-action” made in an attempt to direct voters to illegitimate registration sites.
- “Legions” of political robocalls have spiked, specifically around major political developments. TNS data shows a significant jump in political robocall volume during critical 2024 election cycle events, including the initial presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in late June, both the first Trump assassination attempt and the Republican National Convention in July, and the Democratic National Convention in August. Robocall centers are growing increasingly organized, particularly with robotext campaigns and “synthetic” voices trying to funnel voters into scam territory. (Read more about this from the FCC (News - Alert) here.)
- Top political scams are getting “smarter.” Bad actors’ deployments of various voice and text scams during election season are creating confusion and trick voters into providing their personally identifiable information (PII). The top scams TNS observed include fake voter registration, suspect fundraising donation requests, and misleading claims that people can vote over the phone. These types of scams have gotten even “smarter” via AI-written scripts that allow such threat actors to sound even more convincing, which is why ensuring the source you’re engaging is legitimate — over the phone, online, etcetera — is a true imperative this year.
- Malicious robocall data is being bolstered by actual voter sentiment. TNS’ latest robocall data is supported by voter sentiment captured in the company’s recently commissioned survey: 71% of respondents believe voters in battleground states are more likely to be targeted by AI deepfake robocall attempts than those in non-battleground states. Additionally, 60% of U.S. adults feel that robocalls and robotexts are “being used to undermine confidence in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
In times like these, it’s so crucial to remember that (
as The Associated Press worded it), “The U.S. election system is secure, but human nature is a vulnerability.” National security officials are all hands on deck when it comes to preparing for next week, but many voters are indeed vulnerable to a variety of scammy tactics. We encourage readers to not provide election-focused info on a whim (lest potential scams take effect), and to continue staying apprised of important updates through readily verifiable, reputable sources.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
