Scammers are always taking advantage of what is going on in the news to use it as a hook for scams and the war in Iran is no exception. A number of Iran war scams have begun to proliferate and as with many scams, they use emotional appeals to lure people into being scammed.
Scammers are contacting people by phone, text messages, emails and through social media posing as charities and seeking donations to help injured American soldiers, Iranian civilians or refugees. Often the emotional pleas for donations are accompanied by shocking photographs or videos created by AI In many instances the scammers request payments by cryptocurrencies, gift cards or wired funds.
TIPS
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 by phone. The problem is that whenever you get a phone call, 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, social media or text message you cannot be sure as to whether the person contacting you is legitimate or not.
Before giving to any charity you should confirm that is legitimate by using the free site http://www.charitynavigator.org which will tell you if a charity is legitimate or not and how to contribute to the charity.
Asking for payments by cryptocurrencies, gift cards or wired funds is a red flag for many scams as these types of payments are, in most instances, impossible to reverse and easy to conceal who is actually receiving them.
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