The holiday season is about to begin and solicitations by charities will be increasing.   You will most likely be contacted by  numerous people soliciting charitable contributions on behalf of organizations purporting to support the brave men and women who make up our police and fire departments.  Unfortunately, many of those solicitations will be from scammers merely looking to steal money under false pretenses.
TIPS
Phony charities often have names that sound legitimate and it is difficult to know merely from a solicitation whether or not the charity is a fake.  Prior to giving to any charity, I suggest you first look into whether indeed the charity is legitimate or not and the best way I know to do that is to go to http://www.charitynavigator.org where not only can you find out whether the charity is a scam, but also whether or not your donation will be tax deductible,  how much of your donation goes toward the charitable purposes of a legitimate charity and how much goes toward salaries, administrative costs and fund raising.