THE DAILY RED FLAG #038 — OCTOBER 22, 2026 One scam, one red flag, one rule.

THE SCAM With the midterms twelve days out, the FBI warned on October 15 that scammers are riding the election wave to steal cash and personal data. One script: a text or email claiming you're not registered to vote, with a link to what looks like your state's registration page. It's not the state's site — it's built to harvest the personal details you type in, the kind of information that later fuels identity theft or gets resold on fraud forums. Another script is bolder: a pitch promising a guaranteed return on your campaign donation, as if contributing to a candidate's "pool" pays out once they win. Alongside those, the same old plays in new costumes — fake donation pages and merch stores using candidates' names, images, logos, and slogans, taking payment for shirts that never ship and contributions that never reach the campaign.

THE RED FLAG It works because it borrows two things that are genuinely true right now. Nobody wants to show up on Election Day and discover they can't vote — the fake registration alert manufactures urgency around a real anxiety. And the final weeks before a vote bring a flood of legitimate campaign texts, so one more message asking for a donation barely stands out. The giveaway the FBI spelled out in plain language: "Campaign donations are not an investment and will not increase in value nor be returned." There is no legal way a campaign donation turns into a payout for the donor, win or lose. So any pitch that treats your donation like an investment — or any message that has you verify your identity through its own link — is the scam identifying itself.

THE RULE Never check your registration or donate through a link in an unsolicited message — not a text, not an email, not a survey. Check your status at vote.gov or your state election office's own .gov site, typed in yourself. If you want to donate, go to the candidate's official website on your own and give there — never through a message that reached out to you. Campaign contributions are gifts, not investments: anyone promising a financial return is running a scam, full stop. If something already slipped through, you can report election-related fraud at ic3.gov. With the midterms on November 3, expect the volume of these messages to peak over the next two weeks — treat every unsolicited election link as suspect until you've verified it the long way.

Read the full edition: https://erawaeb.com/digest/daily/038-the-voter-registration-text-that-s-a-trap/

The Daily Red Flag — Be Aware. One scam, one red flag, one rule. Every day.