Charity Fraud-Tips to stay safe!
Charity fraud is one of those frauds which has a lesser number of victims. But even though the numbers are less, the amount of money lost to such fraud is quite at equilibrium with other types of scams and frauds. The majority of victims falling prey to charity fraud are seniors and people who are kind-hearted. People who want to help disaster victims or people belonging to underdeveloped nations, easy targets for charity fraudsters.
There are some guidelines mentioned below which can provide the much needed safety from charity fraud:
1.Donations will be asked mostly via the email route with phony details regarding the organization, department and officer-in-charge of the charity.
2.Emails from unknown sources and with suspicious subject lines should be deleted at once and under no circumstances should the links provided in such email be clicked.
3.Scammers are now equipped with the latest technology. Spam emails may have viruses which get downloaded automatically if a link is accessed. Such viruses are normally found in attachments-in the case of charity fraud it may be in the form of photographs.
4.If you do feel the need to make a donation, do not do it on the internet using your credit card, instead the local authorities to make a direct payment.
5.Even if you are not asked for any monetary donation, scammers may just ask you to vote or take a survey. The hidden aspect behind such an action is to steal your personal information for identity theft.
6.Charity fraudsters may also ask you to forward email or messages in order to make other people aware of the ’situation’. The authorities strictly suggest that anyone and everyone should refrain from doing so as this will make you a part of the scam and you may be considered as party to fraud.
Giving away donations for a purpose is a noble cause, but we should also make sure that the help reaches the right hands instead of landing into the pockets of scammers and fraudsters.
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