Articles from America on Charity Scams:
Please note: the IRS or CRA (America) is equivalent to IRD in NZ.
How to Spot a Charity Scam Artist- link for article: USA
By Lahle Wolfe
Charities are not required by the IRS or state charity laws to collect this information and they do not need this information to process a donation or issue a tax receipt.
Unsolicited Mass Email Campaigns Are Dead Give Aways!
A more in-depth look at the different kinds of Charity Scams.
Please note: the IRS or CRA (America) is equivalent to IRD in NZ.
How to Spot a Charity Scam Artist- link for article: USA
By Lahle Wolfe
Many kind-hearted individuals and businesses make financial donations towards the end of the year. Unfortunately, online scam artists count on this and step up their efforts to steal valuable identifying information, load your computer with viruses, and swindle donors through Email solicitation campaigns.
How Email Charity Scam Artists Con Donors
Scam artists send out their mass email campaigns asking for charitable donations for a variety of causes. Online scam artists have gotten more sophisticated and are no longer simply asking you to mail them information or offering a hyperlink (usually to a virus or form to input identifying information.) Many scam artists are now taking the time to develop actual "charity" websites in an attempt to convince you that they are real.
How Email Charity Scam Artists Con Donors
Scam artists send out their mass email campaigns asking for charitable donations for a variety of causes. Online scam artists have gotten more sophisticated and are no longer simply asking you to mail them information or offering a hyperlink (usually to a virus or form to input identifying information.) Many scam artists are now taking the time to develop actual "charity" websites in an attempt to convince you that they are real.
Before you make an online donation to any charity you are unfamiliar with check them out.
Unfortunately, not all charities are listed in the online IRS database (which is about two years behind in listing charities it has approved for tax exemption status.) If you cannot find the charity online, call the IRS or your state's tax board.
Unfortunately, not all charities are listed in the online IRS database (which is about two years behind in listing charities it has approved for tax exemption status.) If you cannot find the charity online, call the IRS or your state's tax board.
Typically, only multi-million dollar charities are listing in registries like GuideStar. Even the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which is now starting to list charities, is misleading, because to get your charity listed with the BBB, you only have to pay a (steep) registration fee.
But you can still spot a scam artist by being alert to the following dead giveaways that a charity is a scam.
Charities That Ask for Too Much Information Are Scams
Any charity that asks for too much information, including your date of birth, social security number or driver's license information is a scam. Charities That Ask for Too Much Information Are Scams
Charities are not required by the IRS or state charity laws to collect this information and they do not need this information to process a donation or issue a tax receipt.
Unsolicited Mass Email Campaigns Are Dead Give Aways!
Charities are bound by CAN SPAM Laws - they are not allowed to contact you through purchased mass email lists, and they cannot use web robots to collect Email addresses from public Internet sources.
What You Need
Avoid Donating to Irresponsible or Bogus Charities
In fact, unless you have previously donated to a particular charity, I would be highly suspicious of any charity that contacted you via Email out of the blue.
Discard any Email that is sent to "Undisclosed Recipients." It is almost certainly a scam.
Charities Do Not Send Attachments in Solicitations Legitimate
Legitimate charities are smart about their solicitations. They know people are unlikely to open emails with attachments and they do not send them.
Do not open any charity Email with an attachment. And, before you click on any hyperlink in a solicitation Email be sure you are not clicking on a virus link.
Charities Do Not Send Attachments in Solicitations Legitimate
Legitimate charities are smart about their solicitations. They know people are unlikely to open emails with attachments and they do not send them.
Do not open any charity Email with an attachment. And, before you click on any hyperlink in a solicitation Email be sure you are not clicking on a virus link.
If you are not sure how to do this, read How to Spot Fake Hyperlinks in Emails.
Fake Charity Website Dead Giveaways
Check out the charity's website before you visit it or click on Email hyperlinks. The fastest and easiest way is to check out the website's domain registration information.
To see when a website went live, visit www.Whois.sc and enter in the domain name. Whois.sc will tell you when the website went live, where its servers are located, etc. You do not have to create an account, and basic information about websites is free.
Scammers almost always purchase domain names for one year. They expect to get caught and shut down and discard the domain. Whois.sc allows you to look at when the domain registration expires.
If it will expire in less than one year, they might be a scam artist.
It is nice to give to others, and to help out those in need. When you choose a charity or cause to donate your money to, you need to make sure that you are giving a legitimate organization that will use your money for the purpose that you intended. It is your money that you are giving, so you should be sure that the charity or cause support your beliefs and your purposes when you give.
Here's How:
- First, you need to determine which charity or cause that you want to give to. For example if you want to donate a gift or money for children over the holidays you should have several different options available in your area to choose from. If you are choosing to help fight cancer or another cause you may different organizations to choose from as well.
- Second, you need to make sure that the organization you are giving to is legitimate. An easy way to do this is make sure it is a national organization with a large track record. You can check with your state to see if they are registered as a nonprofit. Many nonprofits also post where the contributions go on their websites. If you donate to a large organization such as the Red Cross you may be able to choose to support a specific need or cause.
- Third, you need to make sure that you are donating through a legitimate channel. For example, people have gone door to door collecting donations, and claiming that they belong to an organization when they do not. Usually you are best to contact your local chapter of the organization or the national organization and donate directly to them.
- Fourth, if you donate on the Internet be sure that you use a secure connection. You also need to make sure that the site is legitimate and not a site that was put up by someone other than the organization that you are trying to donate to. Be especially careful if you are linking to the site through an email that you received.
Tips:
- Giving money is a great way to help others. It can help you to feel empowered and to take control of your finances as you take time to donate on a regular basis. Many financial advisors recommend giving money on a regular basis.
- You should determine how much you can give and stick to your budget. You may choose to divide it between several different organizations or causes or you may choose to give to just one. The help that you give will be appreciated. You can also claim the donation as a tax deduction.
- Take advantage of the opportunities to donate through your work. Many companies will offer an incentive if you will contribute to United Way or another organization through your work. If you are comfortable giving to United Way it is easy to have the money automatically deducted from your paycheck each month.
- If you do not have the money to give, consider donating your time to a cause that you feel is important. Many people in their twenties spend time mentoring children and teenagers through Big Brothers and Big Sisters or other similar organizations. You can also give smaller donations of goods to your local food pantry to help when you have a little extra money.
- Money
- Time
Avoid Donating to Irresponsible or Bogus Charities
There are many times in our lives when we decide to donate to charities that need our money to do their good work. We may feel moved to donate to a charity that does research in a certain health area we are interested in. When someone we loved or respected dies, their family may ask for donations in lieu of flowers. Tragedies often trigger creation of new charities, as when a young person dies a tragic death.
Sometimes we want to donate simply because we are asked to. And, of course, the end of the year, during the holiday season, we consider our gifting at the same time we plan for completing the tax year.
There are three important planning steps to determining the right charities to donate to:
- Develop your giving goals.
- Make sure a charity is bona fide; that is, that it exists to truly help the organization or individual it is meant to help.
- Research the strength of a charity's fiscal responsibility and its track record for using donated money to address the goals that are of interest to you.
Here is information to help you with these steps:
1. How can you choose which charities to donate to?
The best way is to set some giving goals - from the type of charity to the scope of its reach. For example, do you want to donate to help research treatment options for a certain disease? or perhaps you want to help pay for medical care for a child who has a rare disease? Here is how to determine what kinds of charities you want to support.
2. Confirm the authenticity of the charity.
There are tens of thousands of charities that ask you for money, but not all of them are real charities, meaning, some are only set up to take your money, and not to truly help your cause. This is particularly true when a tragedy has taken place, such as those scammers who claimed they represented families who lost a child at Sandy Hook, or which claimed they were assisting people who lost their homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
If a charity is new to you, or if you have received some sort of solicitation by phone or email, do not simply assume that it is safe to donate - or even to link to the charity from an email link or a FaceBook page or other social media. You might be giving money to someone who doesn't deserve it, and even worse, if it's online, you may pick up a computer virus, too.
Therefore, it's important to confirm that you are donating to a bona fide charity, one that is authentic and will use your money well.
In some cases you can know whether a charity is "real" by confirming its IRS or CRA status. But don't ask the charity, and don't simply accept a statement on its website since we know that not all websites have credible information.
Instead check with either of these resources to confirm a charity's authenticity:
- The Better Business Bureau will help you search for a rating on a specific charity. You won't be able to search for a group of charities with one focus, but you can find out how individual, even local, charities are rated or whether the BBB accredits them.
- The National Association of State Charity Officials provides links to the person or office in each state that can help you determine authenticity.
3. How well does the charity address your goals?
There are two important aspects of how well a charity is run that will be of interest to us as donors.
First, take a look at its fiscal responsibility. You want to know how well run a charity is; whether they waste their money, or have fulfilled their promises.
The second is to be sure they focus on the aspects you think are important. We all have different reasons for donating, whether we're donating to health-related charities or the local high school band. When it comes to health-related charities, it's important to learn enough about them to be sure they work toward the same goals as you have.
For example, both my grandmother and my mother died of Alzheimer's disease, so I know I probably have some genetic tendency toward developing Alzheimer's myself. My goal, then, is for my donations to go toward research to find a cure, or at least a highly effective treatment.
But in doing my research for the best Alzheimer's focused charitable organization to donate to, I learned that they don't all do what they say they plan to do. In one case, I realized how much money and effort was going toward paying other organizations to fund raise for them. Others say they are focused on research, but in some cases I learned that less than 20% of their donations actually go toward research! Would you think twice about donating to a charity that said one thing but showed a track record of something else? I certainly did.
Here are two websites that can help you check both fiscal responsibility and a charity's real spending vs the focus it claims:
Here are two websites that can help you check both fiscal responsibility and a charity's real spending vs the focus it claims:
- Charity Navigator allows you to search by the name of an organization or by the disease or condition you hope to support. It allows for some very deep research into the financials, efficiency, cost of administration and more. It also provides a list of all 4-star rated health-related charities (4-stars are its highest ranking.)
- GuideStar collects information about non-profit organizations and makes it available to the public through its website. Included is a charity evaluator, among many other offerings.
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