Everywhere you turn, there’s another online scam. The fraudsters always pivot where the attention is and now that’s politics and elections. 

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Beware of phony donation campaigns

Billions of dollars are pouring into the 2024 House, Senate, and presidential elections. I bet you’ve received a call or 10 from folks asking you to pull out your wallet. The pleas come in text form, too, plus there are videos, social media posts and DMs.

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Here are a few dos and don’ts for keeping your money safe.

Social media pro tip: TikTok banned political fundraising in 2022. Anything you see there asking you to donate is likely a scam — or someone skirting the rules and you don’t want to be involved with that, either.

False info is spreading faster than ever

ONE LIE SECURITY EXPERTS USE ALL THE TIME AND YOU SHOULD, TOO

It’s not just your wallet you need to worry about. Fake news travels fast online — I’ve seen everything from "The election is canceled" to "Non-citizens get to vote this year."

In some cases, foreign countries are behind it with massive misinformation campaigns. Meta says the Kremlin is the No. 1 source of AI-created misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election. 

The most common trick on Facebook? Imaginary "journalists" who write bogus news stories. If it’s an outlet you’ve never heard of, look elsewhere to corroborate the story.

In other cases, fake info spreads because someone took a joke as fact. Take the mock electoral maps flooding social media. The trend is to take a blank map, color it mostly blue or red, and slap a clever line about how either Democrats or Republicans could win the Electoral College. They’re not real; don’t share like they are.

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Learn to spot AI images and videos

Election fakes are particularly tricky to spot because there’s so much public footage of politicians speaking. The more training data, the better the copies.

But you can still use these guidelines to verify if it’s AI or not:

My best advice: Slow down. When a video gets an emotional reaction out of us, we’re quick to believe it and quick to share. That’s what scammers bank on. Watch it a few times and do your research before you make up your mind.

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