Fraudulent messages take over as Trump and Biden campaigns for US election gain pace

Fraudulent messages are drawing attention as political campaigns in US presidential race ramp up data collection and voter targeting using their own technology to circumvent restrictions imposed by social media platforms following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

"Your early vote has not been recorded," says one of the many fraud text messages -- with a link for more information.

Other messages tell voters they are not registered, or offer unverified information about a political opponent.

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Facebook barred apps that scraped data on users and their contacts after revelations about the now-defunct British consulting group. But in response, President Donald Trump's campaign and some activist groups are using their own methods.

A team led by Samuel Woolley, a University of Texas professor who leads propaganda research at the school's Center for Media Engagement, examined messages such as the above-referenced ones.

It found that the Trump mobile app, and to a lesser extent those of Democrat Joe Biden and other political activist groups, scoop up data to create profiles to craft personalised, targetted messages by SMS, email or social media.

Some apps collect data not only on the user, but his or her contacts, and track location and other activities such as shopping or church attendance.

Campaigns can combine that with third-party information from data brokers or public records to finetune messages to specific individuals or groups.

Dozens of unsolicited texts, many with pro-Trump messages, surprise common people.

One of the many reads: "Looting. Rioting. Burning Cities. These are the realities of a Biden America."

Many message recipients have never downloaded a political app or signed up for notifications, according to researchers.

Some messages are effectively campaign ads, but without the disclosure required by social media platforms and other media.

The FBI has hence launched a "protected voices" project investigating potential criminal violations in such messages.

"Intentionally deceiving qualified voters to prevent them from voting is voter suppression -- and it is a federal crime," the FBI said in a September statement.

This brings attention to "microtargeting" -- delivering narrowly focused messages to specific individuals or groups. This also raised concerns in the 2016 elections.

Panagopoulos noted that campaigns have "massive amounts of information" on voters which they can gather themselves or purchase, making it easy to spread misinformation or dissuade people form voting.