The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned of two fake videos circulating online aimed at casting doubt on the US presidential election, the latest in a series of warnings by senior officials.

BBC Verify found evidence linking the videos to a much larger Russia-based operation that has produced hundreds of election frauds in recent months.

In a post on X on Saturday, the FBI said two videos spread rumors about ballot fraud and Doug Emhoff, the husband of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Fake videos claiming to belong to the FBI and featuring the bureau’s logo did not receive many views from real people on X.

“These videos are not real, they are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false.” The FBI statement said:.

“Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI operations undermine our democratic process and aim to undermine confidence in the electoral system.”

The content of the clips released by the FBI exactly matches the videos, which are part of more than 300 videos found by BBC Verify since the beginning of this year as part of an investigation by online research company Logically.

The videos use compelling graphics and text to resemble content from more than 50 news organizations, including the BBC, France 24 and Fox News, as well as U.S. government agencies.

The videos have been posted online almost daily for months, most recently focusing on the US election; It included clips promoting false claims about Harris and messages about unrest and “civil war.”

Finland-based online analytics company CheckFirst, which independently investigated the network behind the videos, traced the videos to a Russian marketing agency and a Russian IP address.

“We can link the operation to Russia thanks to some assets that we know are produced by a Russian company,” said CheckFirst CEO Guillaume Kuster.

“The other source of evidence is a data set we have access to which proves that one of the machines used (by the group) to send emails was located in Russia.”

Additionally, videos produced by the operation were widely disseminated on Russian-language Telegram channels.

CheckFirst found that the style, messages and themes of the videos were consistent with other Kremlin-linked operations, an assessment supported by BBC Verify research.

However, it is unclear who carried out the operation and whether it was financed by the Russian government.

The Russian embassy in Washington said in a statement that allegations that the country interfered in the elections were “baseless”.

“All insinuations about ‘Russian intrigues’ are malicious slurs invented for use in domestic political struggles in the United States.”

According to X’s metrics, the clips have been viewed tens of thousands of times, but are posted by accounts with small numbers of followers and receive few comments; This is an indication that the number of views is being increased by fake “bot” accounts.

The FBI declined to comment on the operation, but the FBI, along with other agencies, has issued two other warnings about Russia-linked influence networks in recent days.

On Friday, three US agencies, including the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, He stated that the viral video, which “incorrectly portrays individuals claiming to be Haitian”, was made by “Russian influence actors”..

Last week, intelligence agencies said a video purporting to show a poll worker in Pennsylvania destroying mail-in ballots marked for Donald Trump was “produced and amplified” by Russians.