SAN ANTONIO \u2014 First came the floodwaters. Then came the deepfakes.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of photos and videos claiming to show the devastation in the Hill Country \u2014 along with celebrities rushing to help \u2014 began circulating online after last month\u2019s deadly floods. None of them were real.<\/p>\n
And the people posting them weren\u2019t looking to help. They were after donations.<\/p>\n
One viral image showed NFL legend Tom Brady rescuing a dog swept away in the floods. Another depicted Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes handing out supplies. Other fabricated photos showed celebrities singing at victims\u2019 funerals.<\/p>\n
The images were emotional, and the captions were convincing, but experts say they were manufactured to manipulate viewers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever you see is not always true,\u201d said Seok Kang, director of digital initiatives in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts at The University of Texas at San Antonio.<\/p>\n
The News 4 I-Team discovered dozens of Facebook pages filled with AI-generated photos that mixed fake celebrity images with real flood scenes. Many of the pages had tens of thousands of followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have a high attention to this issue, natural disasters in Texas,\u201d Kang said. \u201cThey target that, and then they really make people fall for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of the posts is to drive donations to fraudulent links. When the I-Team attempted to click on the links, our computers flagged them as unsafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to make a profit off of people by redirecting their good intentions to fake donation campaigns,\u201d said Christopher Schwartz, research scientist at the Department of Cybersecurity at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “A lot of the stuff preys on your very human initial reactions, your desire to be a good person. You know you don’t want to have people suffering.”<\/p>\n
The tactic is not new. <\/p>\n
During Hurricane Helene, an AI-generated image of storm victims went viral and was even shared by members of Congress. Some deleted their posts after learning it was fake. Others defended it as \u201cemblematic of the trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n
The I-Team traced several of the flood relief pages back to what appeared to be Houston business addresses. But Facebook\u2019s page transparency features revealed that many were actually being run from Vietnam and other countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey use foreign servers, so it is really hard to trace, and then they provide that kind of donation link,\u201d Kang said.<\/p>\n
Experts say the scammers often use what\u2019s called a \u201ctruth sandwich\u201d \u2014 a real photo, followed by a fake image, then another real photo. Sometimes even real pictures of victims were altered to make the scam appear more authentic.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re trying to exploit your brain\u2019s sort of intuitive sense of reality,\u201d Schwartz explained.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why experts urge donors to pause and verify before giving.<\/p>\n
Right now, many AI images can still be spotted by glitches such as distorted limbs, misspelled words, and airbrushed features. But the technology is improving quickly.<\/p>\n
Kang and Schwartz both stressed the importance of education.<\/p>\n
Before donating, experts say to make sure the fundraiser is verified, double-check the website URL, and use transparency tools on social media to see who is really running a page.<\/p>\n
The I-Team reached out to Meta who said you can report pages and content that doesn’t seem quite right to its Help Center<\/a>. The platform also removed some of the pages we brought to their attention because they violated Meta’s integrity policies.<\/p>\n Verified Donation Options for Hill Country Flood Relief<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country \u2013 Kerr County Flood Relief Fund<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A longstanding 501(c)(3) based in Kerrville, this fund distributes money directly to vetted local organizations aiding rescue, relief, and long-term rebuilding in communities like Kerrville, Center Point, Ingram, Hunt, and Comfort.<\/p>\n 2. Kerrville Area Rebuilding and Recovery Fund<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Set up by the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce, this fund supports local businesses with repairs, signage, utility bills, and other recovery needs.<\/p>\n 3. Texas Search and Rescue (TEXSAR)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Deploying rescue teams across Kerr County, with funding accepted online to support their operations.<\/p>\n