An unidentified robocall, made to over 10 million people across the United States, has sent some Americans into frenzy. People suspect that this call was made to scare them away from the polls on Election Day, reported the Washington Post. 

The barrage of calls all feature the same short, recorded message: A computerised female voice says the message is a “test call” before twice encouraging people to remain inside. The robocalls, which have come from a slew of fake or unknown numbers, began over the summer and intensified in October, and now appear to have affected nearly every Zip code in the country.

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It caught the attention of YouMail, a tech company that offers software to block such calls. Data from YouMail shows that the calls have reached 280 of the country’s 317 area codes since the campaign began in the summer.

“If you wanted to cause havoc in America for the elections, one way to do it is clearly robocalling, this whole thing is exposing [that] it can be very difficult to react quickly to a large calling volume campaign,” the Washington Post quoted Alex Quilici, YouMail’s chief executive. 

Most people who initially got the call were under the impression that it was related to coronavirus and that it was from the city official enforcing the health guidelines. But the calls kept coming.

“I think they mean stay home and don’t vote,” said one of the several people quoted by the Washington Post.