RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – With political campaigns increasingly relying on social media to obtain donations, scammers are tapping into that lucrative market and creating all manner of fraudulent ways to steal your political donations.

Politics and fundraising go hand in hand.

Money is the lifeblood of campaigns, and we are inundated with ads and requests for political donations everywhere, including social media, but beware—scammers are creating fake candidate websites.

“They’re just stealing people’s money and stealing their information,” said Yoav Keran, the CEO of BrandShield. “The donations will not go directly to the campaigns.”

BrandShield tracks and eliminates fake websites and Keran said it’s seen “hundreds and hundreds” of fake social media accounts impersonating Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

“We found on, for example, on TikTok about 750 fake accounts of Donald Trump,” said Keran. “I mean, these are big numbers.”

TikTok actually banned political contribution requests back in 2022.

Keran said although that’s true, “People can use those accounts to kind of direct you to something off that platform.”

It’s not just fake social media accounts that scammers use to steal your political donations.

“If someone approaches you directly through any type of instant messaging, whether through Messenger or WhatsApp or text message and sends your link for a donation site, be very careful because in most cases, these are scams,” said Keran.

Artificial intelligence creating deep fakes is also an emerging problem.

Keran says those deep fakes are working their way into the political arena.

“Down the road we’re going to see more deep fake videos being created,” said Keran. “You might go on a on a webpage and think this is totally legit.”

“Right now, we’re talking about donations, but this is also there’s a big risk here of fake information, fake news,” said Keran.

Although Biden and Trump are the big targets of political donation scams, criminals are also targeting candidates for other offices too.

If you donate never give cash, always use a credit card because the credit card company can protect you if there’s something wrong with the donation process.

The best way to safeguard your political donations is to independently verify a candidate’s website by calling their office and getting the proper URL for their donation website.