Interesting voting registration text message scam(?) going around

[thewayne]

It's kind of hard to say exactly what this is. The text message says “We have you in our records as not registered to vote,” the unbidden SMS advised. “Check your registration status & register in 2 minutes.”, except if you type in the domain name directly, you get a domain control panel login, not a live web site. And they're rather indiscriminate about whom they're blasting these to, including a 15 y/o Canadian boy who apparently has an American cell phone.

To register to vote or to update your voter registration, visit vote.gov and select your state or region.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/08/when-get-out-the-vote-efforts-look-like-phishing/

Comments

[murakozi]

That's pretty odd. My first thought was that it was just some way to harvest PII to be used maliciously. Apparently, it's just a really poorly designed campaign, according to the article.

Even so, I would've reported it as spam if it came in on my phone.

[thewayne]

Very poorly-designed campaign indeed.  It curiously coincided with my wife asking me if I'd double-checked that my voter registration was current, so I signed on to my county site and confirmed that I was.

[elayna]

I got one of those and assumed it was some sort of malware, trojan, whatever, and deleted it. Anyone texting out of the blue with a link to a site looks skanky. Then I went to the California Secretary of State's site and checked my registration there.

[thewayne]

That's the way to do it!

[moonhare]

We have already checked our status and requested mail-in ballots from the State, and received confirmation :o) I’d have seen that SMS as spam.

[disneydream06]

I haven't gotten one of these and thankfully I wouldn't fall for it. :o
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

Unfortunately, that's the consequences of an awful lot of legitimate communications starting to mimic the look and feel of phishing and spam communication. Perhaps this trend is something we can properly blame upon the adoption and continued use of LLMs in modes that they should not be used in.