Charity Scams

Many genuine charities are supporting such families and people are very active in lending their helping hand to them. We are here to create an alarm against charity scams by briefing you about the trending of the fake charity seekers.

Charity scams are deceptive schemes that prey on the goodwill and generosity of individuals and organizations seeking to support charitable causes. These scams often involve fraudulent or misleading representations of charitable organizations, misappropriation of funds, or false claims about the impact of donations. Here are some common characteristics of charity scams:

1. Misleading Appeals: Scammers use emotional pleas, heart-wrenching stories, or images to manipulate potential donors into giving.

2. Impersonation of Legitimate Charities: They may use names, logos, and branding similar to well-known and reputable charitable organizations to deceive donors.

3. False Representations: Charity scams often include false or exaggerated information about the charity's mission, accomplishments, or the percentage of donations that go towards the cause.

4. High-Pressure Tactics: Victims may receive aggressive solicitations, pressuring them to make donations quickly or in large amounts.

5. Lack of Transparency: Scammers often provide limited or vague information about the organization's finances, leadership, or programs.

6. Unverified Contact Information: The contact information provided by the scammer may be inaccurate or non-existent, making it difficult for donors to verify the legitimacy of the charity.

7. Fictitious Charities: Some scams involve entirely fake charities that do not conduct any genuine charitable work.

This is the most common type of scams, where the cheaters request you to offer donations to provide the disaster victims with the required medical assistance, foods, clothes and other basic needs. But the truth is that your money will not even go near the sufferers, they simply divert your much needed donation away from the needy and use it for their own purpose. In the name of raising funds for natural calamities such as floods, cyclones and earthquakes, they are making huge sum of money through the internet, which is their main and easy source to pull money from the innocents.

Medical help scams are very prevalent nowadays; the unscrupulous scammers play on your emotions by claiming money to help poor children who are ill. They create their own website, which resembles that of real charities and demand money saying that a poor kid has sought their help to get an open heart surgery or kidney transplantation that costs a lump sum amount. They are wise enough not to accept to receive money through direct meetings as it might risk their plan, so they often opt for phone conversation , email chatting and online transfers to execute their trick.

Many get easily victimized in this scam that deals with seeking help for families of military veterans who have been shot dead in war or rescue missions from terrorists. Many genuine charities are supporting such families and people are very active in lending their helping hand to them but scammers have not left this area too. The sham artists eat up your donation with no concern or regard, leaving the family stranded for which they have collected money.

If any charitable organization approaches you for donation or help, check the charity's name, address and other credentials well before sending them money. Paying a direct visit to the organization will protect you from getting scammed. Never accept the request of charity that seeks only upfront payments through wire transfers, money orders, international funds transfers, electronic currency or preloaded cards as it is hard to recover money sent this way. If you doubt the website and policies of the charity, or if the members of the organization put you under pressure to pay money, then with no further delay approach the police. Be wise and help the legitimate charities that value your money and generosity, instead of giving your money to the bogus scammers, who have involved in charity scams, without checking their authenticity properly.

Several scam operations were popping up when hurricanes were wandering through the lands of America and the tsunami disaster that swept across the Indian Ocean, striking coastal regions of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Burma and Malaysia. Be cautious of the fake donations during a disaster. Sadly, but low life scammers twist disasters into their own capital building opportunities. Setting up a fake charity is quite easy.

• Don't give payment information to anyone who contacts you by Phone or via Email..
• Check the name of the company carefully! Charity scams use alike to original names to create confusion to obtain your donations. For instance: National Cancer Society (it's a fake one -SCAM) instead of American Cancer Society (it's real one).
• Stay away from all the charities that use a "pitch" filled with a major amount of touching words or images.

• Else ask the charity to send you the printed material through mail. If the material does not hold particulars on accurately how the money is used and the percent of donations which really reach to the given cause, do not contribute. If the information's are not given and you still would like to know more details, then call them. Legitimate charities hold up secrecy and never hesitate to show who they are, what they do and how do they do it.
• Don't offer in to pressure or firm sell strategy and if the aid organization representative pressures you to give money without delay or as soon as possible, get even more doubtful.
• Be cautious if the "charity" accepts an online payment processor like paypal and a PO Box as their single payment option. All charities should hold up the wire transfer also as a PO BOX is unnamed and know that how easy it is to open up a fake paypal account. Trustworthy charities must have a street address and a phone number.
• If you received a charity request by email then please check the email address with our Email Scam Checker Tool. It's free to access for all the users.

Before contributing to charities or organizations please use these following resources to help you on your way. Even a single dollar sounds too much if it goes into the scammer's wallet. If you are the victim of "Charity Scam" then you can complaint about scam here "Report Scam" or you can contact the law enforcement officials at the local and state level ( i.e. your local and state police departments). Else file a complaint with the transporter USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.