Extortion emails threaten recipients with “vote Trump or else”

Emails being sent to voters in the US states of Florida and Alaska are telling recipients to vote for President Donald Trump “or else” in a case of election interference.

The emails, that have been spotted in several different formats, purport to come from The Proud Boys, a white supremacy group within the United States.

The email even tells recipients to change their party affiliation to Republican. An example of one such email reads –

Subject: Vote for Trump or else!
We are in possession of all your information (email, address, telephone… everything). “You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you.

However it is unlikely that the emails did actually originate from The Proud Boys. While the sender’s email address is the officialproudboys.com domain, this is information that can easily be spoofed. It’s unlikely that a group within the United States would put their own name to such a blatant case of election interference. The Proud Boys have denied involvement.

Cyber-security experts suspect this is an attempt at election interference originating from entities outside of the United States looking to help incumbent Trump retain the presidency, and have used a domestic far-right group as a stooge.

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However worried email recipients should know that US presidential election votes in the United States are anonymous, and the assertion in these emails that the sender will know who a particular person voted for is highly improbable.

Various police departments have made statements concerning the emails, including the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office in Florida who said in a statement –

We here at the Sheriff’s Office and the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections are aware of an email that is circulating, purported to be from the Proud Boys. The email appears to be a scam and we will be initiating an investigation into the source of the email along with assistance from our partners on the federal level.