Today’s Scam of the day is one that I have had to write about a number of times in the years that I have been writing Scamicide.com, but unfortunately, it is still necessary to warn people repeatedly about this type of scam. Natural disasters bring out the best in people who want to donate to charities to help the victims. Unfortunately natural disasters such as Hurricane Michael also bring out the worst in scammers who are quick to take advantage of the generosity of people by contacting them posing as charities, but instead of collecting funds to help the victims of the storms, these scam artists steal the money for themselves under false pretenses. Charities are not subject to the federal Do Not Call List so even if you are signed up for the federal Do Not Call List, legitimate charities are able to contact you. The problem is that whenever you are contacted on the phone, you can never be sure as to who is really calling you so you may be contacted either by a fake charity or a scammer posing as a legitimate charity. Using a technique called spoofing, the scammers can manipulate your Caller ID to make it appear that the call is coming from a legitimate charity when it is not. Similarly, when you are solicited for a charitable contribution by email or text message you cannot be sure as to whether the person contacting you is legitimate or not. The Better Business Bureau is warning people about an organization named Cajun Navy that is falsely soliciting donations on behalf of victims of Hurricane Michael, but is not using those donations to help the victims of the storm.
TIPS
Never provide credit card information over the phone to anyone whom you have not called or in response to an email or text message. Before you give to any charity, you may wish to check out the charity with http://www.charitynavigator.org where you can learn whether or not the charity itself is a scam. You can also see how much of the money that the charity collects actually goes toward its charitable purposes and how much it uses for fund raising and administrative costs.
Here is a link to the page on charitynavigator.org where it lists a number of charities that have been vetted by charitynavigator.org and are excellent choices if you wish to donate to help the victims of Hurricane Michael https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=6806
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