The fake charity request that peaks every November — and how to check before you give
Every fall, as families plan their end-of-year giving, scammers run their own seasonal campaign. Fake charities, spoofed donation pages, and now AI-generated phone calls arrive right when generosity is highest — and when the impulse to verify is lowest.
Charitable giving in the United States rises sharply during October, November, and December. People respond to end-of-year tax appeals, holiday fundraising drives, and natural disaster campaigns that happen to coincide with the season. Scammers know exactly when this window opens, and they time their campaigns to match.
Fake charity fraud follows a well-worn playbook: impersonate a real or plausible-sounding organization, make the appeal feel urgent, and collect payment by gift card, wire transfer, or a link to a convincing but fake donation page. The FBI's 2025 Elder Fraud Report documented more than $7.75 billion in losses to Americans over 60 — charity fraud and imposter scams are among the confirmed and growing categories. Older adults, who tend to give generously and respond to personal appeals, are a primary target every fall.
How the scam arrives
Fake charity requests reach people in several forms. The common threads are urgency and an unusual payment method:
- A text message with a link. A short appeal for a disaster relief fund, a local family in crisis, or a holiday campaign. The link leads to a donation page that looks legitimate but sends the money to a scammer.
- An email with a familiar logo. The name, branding, and story can look indistinguishable from a charity you've supported before. The payment destination is the only thing that changed.
- A phone call from someone who sounds like they know you. A volunteer coordinator, a church fundraising contact, or — with AI voice technology — someone who sounds like a pastor or community leader you recognize. The ask is urgent: match a gift before tonight, or help cover an emergency this week.
In every case the pressure is time-based. "The matching gift deadline is midnight." "The family needs help by Thursday." "We're just $500 short of our goal." Real charities welcome thoughtful giving; that pressure to act immediately, before you look anything up, is the tell.
A new warning from the FBI: AI-cloned voices in donation calls
In October 2026, the FBI issued a formal warning that criminals are using artificial intelligence to clone real voices — of political candidates, charity leaders, and community figures — and deploying those cloned voices in robocalls and text campaigns to solicit donations. The same tools and techniques are directly transferable to fake church appeals and charity calls.
The technology requires only a few seconds of audio. A clip from a church video, a social media post, or a public recording is enough to produce a voice that sounds convincingly like the real person. The caller sounds right, the cause feels familiar, and the urgency does the rest.
This does not require any special knowledge to fall for. A cloned voice is designed to sound exactly like someone you trust. The defense is not better listening — it is a simple protocol that any family can follow before any money moves.
What to do before you give
- Hang up the phone and call back on a number you found yourself. If you received an appeal by phone, end the call. Then look up the organization's main number independently — in a directory, on a search engine, or in a printed bulletin — and call that number. Anyone who objects to a callback is telling you what they are.
- Look up the charity before you give to it. Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org) and GuideStar are free tools that list registered nonprofits with financial records, leadership names, and IRS determination letters. If the organization does not appear in either database, do not give to it.
- Go directly to the official website — not the link in the message. If a text or email linked you to a donation page, close it. Search for the organization's name in a browser and navigate to its real website. A legitimate charity will never object to this.
- Never pay by gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency in response to a charity appeal. These are irreversible payment methods that no legitimate organization requires. A scammer who insists on one of these has identified themselves.
- Verify with a family member before you give. If a call or message felt urgent and moved you to act quickly, mention it to an adult child or trusted friend first. Scams depend on isolation and speed. A one-minute conversation disrupts both.
- Report what you received to the FTC. If you received a suspicious charity call, text, or email, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Your report helps warn others facing the same campaign.
Related reading
- Protecting an older parent from email and phone scams — the conversation to have and the settings to change, this week.
- The Scam Library: charity impersonation and 55 other scams — every major con written out in full, with real examples and the tell that exposes each one.
- Scam Spotter — eight messages, some real and some fake. See how many your family can correctly identify before a real one arrives.
We watch the donation request before you act on it.
A fake charity appeal often arrives by email — a spoofed logo, a plausible cause, a payment link. Family Sentinel reads every message for these patterns and alerts your family in minutes, before money changes hands — read-only by design, with a real Security Architect behind every serious alert. Every warning we send even carries your family's own verification phrase, so a scammer can never fake a message from us.
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