The FBI's Philadelphia field office is warning the public about charity fraud schemes that typically surge during the holiday season, targeting generous donors with fake charitable causes.

These schemes – in which scammers create fraudulent organizations to pocket donations for personal gain – typically operate through email, text messages, phone calls and social media platforms.

To avoid cyber scams, the FBI advises donors to give only to established, trusted charities, be wary of organizations with names similar to legitimate nonprofits, and look out for unfamiliar groups claiming to help victims of recent disasters.

The bureau also recommends using checks or credit cards for charitable giving, as organizations that request donations via cash, gift card, virtual currency, or wire transfer are likely fraudulent. Clicking email links or attachments from unknown senders is also a bad idea, so donors should manually type relevant web addresses. Most legitimate charities use .org domains rather than .com, officials noted.

Suspected charity fraud can be reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.