As if the disasters we’ve seen in 2024 and already in 2025 are not heart-breaking enough, scammers are playing on the goodness of people who genuinely want to help for their own personal gain.
Scammers are pretending to represent reputable charities via phone, text, email, social media and sometimes even in person.
Here are some Charity Scams to watch out for:
- Contractor Scams
- Insurance-Related Scams
- Real-Estate scams
- FEMA Relief Fraud
- Animal Welfare Scams
- Firefighter, Policy, Veteran & Military
- Health Related
- Celebrity imposter scams
Regardless of the type of charity scam, watch out for these Red Flags:
- High Pressure to donate immediately
- Usually invoke a sense of urgency
- Use wire transfer, gift cards, or cash to donate
- Unexpected emails, convincing emails or those with an attachment requesting your donation
- Social media posts and messages requesting your donation
- Request your sensitive information like credit card # or bank details
- Evasive of answering questions about how donations are used and refusing to provide financial reports or other information about their charity
How to protect yourself against these scams:
- Do not trust your Caller ID – Scammers can make a call look like it’s coming from a local number or even a number you know.
- Donate to well-established and reputable charities
- Donate directly on the organizations official website making sure it begins with “https”
- Do not send payments to unknown individuals or organizations.
- Do not scan QR codes from unknown sources.
- Check for spelling errors in emails and in website name
- Do not respond to requests received via text, emails, links or even phone calls.
- Utilize resources to verify the legitimacy of charities