When Muhammad received for the first time a text message that offered him up to ten million dollars in exchange for information about attempts to interfere in the American elections, he thought this was a "type of electronic attack."

But when the software developer based in Tehran entered his account on Twitter, he realized that he was one of an unknown number of Iranians who had received messages without introductions promoting the efforts announced recently by the US State Department to thwart attempts to interfere in the American presidential elections.

Russian media said that citizens received similar messages on Thursday. State Department spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook joking that the reports would flood the US State Department's website.

It was not clear who sent the text messages that started to appear on the Internet after their recipients posted them as social media images.

Muhammad - who asked to be mentioned only his first name - said he was among those who found these "mysterious and perplexing" messages.

And the letters written in Farsi say, "The United States pays up to ten million dollars for any information about foreign interference in the American elections." Attached to the message is a link to the page of the so-called US "Rewards for Justice" program on the Internet that displays sums of money in exchange for information about what may constitute threats to national security.

The threat of penetration
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that his country is currently offering up to ten million dollars of information that leads to identify or locate any person who is acting under the guidance or leadership of a foreign government to interfere in presidential elections through specific "criminal" activities via the Internet .

The State Department had no comment yet on the text messages that had reached Iranians, and the National Security Council at the White House did not respond to a question about those text messages.

Nariman Gharib of the London-based Cirtva Internet Security Group said he was aware of the messages when a number of recipients from inside Iran contacted him personally on a telegram early Thursday.

He said he was immediately concerned, noting that these messages pose a security threat to those inside Iran.

"The moment you receive something like this kind of message from a government, we will assume it is the United States, and it will draw the attention of the authorities in Iran," he said.

US Rewards
The State Department offers up to $ 10 million in rewards for information on cybercriminals looking to interfere in the 2020 elections under the guidance of foreign governments.

The Rewards for Justice program, run by the Diplomatic Security Service, announced millions of dollars in rewards this week, hoping to pinpoint infiltrators before trying to topple the 2020 elections.

The advertisement says, "Rewards for justice, known as RFJ," provide up to $ 10 million to obtain information that leads to the identification or location of any person who interferes in an election, whether he or she is acting at the direction of a foreign government or under Control, in any federal, government, or local elections in the United States. "

"If you have any information about malicious cyber operations targeting the US election or its infrastructure, please contact us at the guidelines below," the publication added.

The program published the advertisement in eight different languages ​​on its website, which are: Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Korean, Russian and Spanish. The hint lines include a phone number and a QR code that can be scanned.

The multi-million dollar reward program comes at a time when cyber security professionals are warning about the integrity of the upcoming elections.

It is reported that there are already US fears of foreign interference in this year's elections scheduled for next November. Last February, intelligence officials said Russia was already meddling in the 2020 campaign to support President Trump's re-election. In the same month, they also said that Russia interfered with the Democratic primary to help Bernie Sanders.