How to Avoid Charity Scams: Ensure Your Donations Count

After a natural disaster, it’s natural to feel sympathy for the people affected. Some people volunteer to travel to help clean up and rebuild after a hurricane, tornado, flood, or other disaster. For most of us, though, the best way we can help is by donating money to those doing the work. But there are some people in the world who see natural disasters as an opportunity to get rich. They take advantage of your concern with charity scams . These scam artists only care about getting your money. They target both kind-hearted people looking to donate and people affected by earthquakes, tsunamis, and other disasters. Organizations like the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are calling attention to charity scams. There’s good reason to pay attention! If you want to help in the wake of a natural disaster, what should you do? Is there a way to make sure your money is going to victims and not into the pockets of some scammer? Obviously, the answer is yes, or we wouldn’t be writing this article! These tips will help you avoid giving your donation dollars to charity scams. Never give to a charity you’ve never heard of until after you verify it. Many charity scams masquerade as genuine charities, and they can look very genuine. If you hear about a charity you want to donate to but aren’t sure if it’s a real organization or a charity scam, you can verify it. There are many websites out there that investigate charities to determine the genuine from the scam. The more popular ones include: Some states also require legitimate charities to be registered. Checking a state-level charity registry is also a smart move. Check with the National Association of State Charity Officials for information on your state registry. If you get the green light on those sites, you can donate without fear. Scammers aren’t afraid to pretend to be existing charities, either. Some charity scams set up fake websites that look like real organizations. A scammer pretending to be the Red Cross might have a website that looks almost identical to the real Red Cross website. The only difference is that any money you donate goes to the scammer instead. Most legitimate charity websites end in “.org” and not “.com”. Always be suspicious of any link that was emailed or texted to you. If in doubt, follow a link from one of the verification sites above to make sure you end up on the organization’s real website. Unless it’s a girl in a Girl Scout uniform with a wagon full of cookies, avoid giving directly to someone knocking on your door. They may be collecting donations for a legitimate charity, but there isn’t an easy way to tell immediately. Scammers will count on you not verifying to convince you to donate to their charity scam. In our internet-connected world, you don’t have to donate to door-to-door collectors. You can always find the charity website later and donate security online. If you’ve never heard of an organization, verify their legitimacy using one of the sites above before donating. Whatever you do, never give out your personal information – not even your name – to someone soliciting door-to-door. There are good-hearted people who flock to areas devastated by hurricanes, earthquakes, and all kinds of disasters out of a genuine desire to help. But many “storm chasers” show up simply to take advantage of those who have already suffered loss. These are charity scams, but in reverse. The con artists show up and offer immediate help. Some even provide “special offers.” They will either take payment and never perform the job, or use shoddy materials to make it look like a job was done. By the time anyone realizes the construction didn’t really fix anything, the “workers” – and the money – are long gone. If you are affected by a disaster, try not to let the impact of your loss lead you to make a hasty decision. Charity scams can make a terrible loss even worse. If you can, get several construction estimates. At the very least, ask for the contractor license number and proof of insurance. Anyone who hesitates to provide this information isn’t worth working with. Normally, the only kind of solicitation you should get by email or phone call is from a charity you have donated to in the past. Charities are aware of who has previously donated, so it’s common to reach out to past donors to try and collect more donations. However, just because one charity you support calls you doesn’t mean others should as well. Many con artists are hoping you don’t know that unknown charities shouldn’t be calling you. They hope to catch a generous person off-guard and convince them to “donate” to their charity scams. If you receive an email, phone call, text, mailer, or any other communication from an unknown organization, remember our first tip: Verify, verify, verify! Sometimes you have the option to give to a cause or organization via text message. You may have heard of this, or even done it yourself. Charities, phone companies, and donation processors work together to allow people to give simply by texting the amount they want to donate to a mobile giving number. Giving via text can be safe. However, it’s not automatically safer or risk-free. Now more than ever, scammers are using texts to try to part you from your money. They’re not above charity scams to convince you you’re giving to hurricane relief, earthquake rebuilding, or another worthy cause when you’re really sending money to a scammer’s pocket. Just like any other method of giving, the same advice applies. Before you donate via text, make sure you’re donating to a legitimate organization. Also beware of unknown or unfamiliar numbers texting you and asking you to donate. Even if they claim to be a familiar and trusted charity, charity scams are not above pretending to be someone else. If you aren’t sure if a number is legitimate, you can check the charity’s website to find their real donate by text number. Or if you really want to play it safe, stick to donating on the charity’s website. These tips will help you protect yourself and keep your generous donations away from charity scams. But there are many more resources out there. Not sure where to start? In this article, a leader and an analyst at Charity Navigator talk about charity scams and how to evaluate a charity . And in this article, the executive director of CharityWatch talks about how they evaluate charities and how to make wise giving decisions . If you want to help after a natural disaster but aren’t sure which organizations to trust – or are overwhelmed by the idea of verifying all the charities asking for your money – the Red Cross is always a good option. You can donate through them to general disaster relief or to help rebuild after specific hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, or other disasters. They are a trustworthy organization and are rated well on all four charity verification sites.