The national charity regulator is urging everyone to be generous but cautious before they donate to charity over this festive season.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost to fake charity scams so far this year.
Acting Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commissioner Deborah Jenkins says it's more important than ever to be careful.
"It's more important than ever to do a quick check of our charity register before donating this festive season. Definitely don't click on links in text and emails. You know, people are tugging at the heartstrings. Instead, go to the charities website and donate there. What we say is Be cautious, but generous this Christmas. Lots of people have lost lots of money to fake scams, and charity scams. We don't want you to get caught out this Christmas. We actually want that money to go to the very deserving charities across Australia. So as I said, Be cautious, but be generous this Christmas."
The AFP is currently participating in the international EMMA 8 campaign to raise awareness on what's called "money muling".
"And that campaign is a global effort, a global initiative to raise awareness about money muling. What money muling is, is criminal groups when they are committing frauds and scams, they often need Australian bank accounts in order to move money that they've stolen from the victims out of the Australian jurisdiction. And so in order to do that, use money mules. They're people that they convince to open Australian bank accounts to do those money transfers on behalf of criminal groups. We see a range of scam activity associated with money muling so people can be tricked into opening accounts as part of a romance scam. So someone that you've got a romantic interest in, or someone that you think is a friend or someone that you're dating."
Mr Goldsmid says people who have been affected by scams should not be embarrassed to come forward.
