Charity Scams : 5 tips to keep you safe.

It is well known that scammers are trying to take an advantage of your customers’ kindness and generosity. In the past years, we have seen an increase in these scams due to the pandemic, and now the Ukraine crisis is being used to trick people, who believe they are donating money to help.

Charity scams are also very difficult to spot for banks, as their customers are mostly not even aware they have been scammed. It is therefore critical to create more awareness around it and to recognize the key indicators before donating.

What is a charity scam?

It is a type of fraud in which scammers use false identities to get money from people. The scammer will pretend to be a charity or an organization that is raising money for a good cause and ask for donations.

The scammer will then get the victim to send them money, often by making up stories about how they need the funds urgently. For example, they might claim that they are helping children in Ukraine and need the money to buy food and medicines.

Charity fraud schemes exploit people’s generosity and the lack of oversight in order to fool donors into providing financial support to fake charities.

Scam charity sites are often the result of a high-profile disaster. They mainly appear shortly after the event, and don't deliver on their promises to help.

There are many ways in which scammers can pose as charities. These scams could come to your customers as an email, social media posts, crowdfunding platforms, cold calls or anything else.

This is why it is important to be cautious and to always make some research before handing over money.

5 things to look for before donating.

With the amounts of scams we find online at the moment, it is advised not to emotionally click on a donate button and to first do some research :

1. Warning signs!

Let’s start with a non-exhaustive list of warning signs that should get you or your customers suspicious.

• Unsolicited Contact by Email, Phone call, Social Media Message, or even at your door.
• Time pressure to donate
• A thank-you for a donation you don’t recall making.
• Misspelled Organization Name / Website address
• Vague claims on how the funds will be used

2. Check Watchdog groups

The best place to start doing your research is by checking a few watchdog groups’ lists such as :

1. Charity Watch
2. Charity Navigator
3. Zewo.ch
4. Guidestar.org
5. Wise Giving Alliance

Those websites will give you a confidence score based on accountability/transparency, for the charity you plan to donate to.

3. Google is your friend

The next logical step is to verify what Google has to say about the charity you are about to donate to. Try to use the following Google request :

• “CHARITY_name” + “scam”
• “CHARITY_name” + “fraud”
• “Fake” + “CHARITY_name”
• “Complaints” + “CHARITY_name”

The results of those queries should show quite easily if others have complaint in the past about the charity.

4. Shady payment methods

Scammers will most likely use shady payment methods that are more difficult to trace.

It is therefore important whenever possible to stay away from :

• Gift Cards donation
• Cash Payments
• Crypto Payments
• Wire Transfers

Instead stick to national money transfers and to credit cards, which will provide you with more security and traceability.

5 : Stay away from links and access the charity by yourself.

Scammers are now also often copycatting official and trustworthy charities. This means that besides the payment beneficiary everything will look legitimate. From the design, the logos, to the name of the charity it is almost impossible for the general public to differentiate the legitimate from the fake ones.

In order to be safe it is advised to access the official website trough a Google search, or even better through one of the watchdog groups mentioned above.

Extra Tip : Be especially careful with personal requests :

With the Ukraine crisis and the special situation with banks, we see an increase in direct and personal requests. This makes it very difficult to check where the money is going to, especially with crypto transfers. Consequently it is not possible to verify the legitimacy of that request.

Example below :

Conclusion

In times of crisis, it is of the utmost importance to share part of our wealth to help people in need.

But in order to really help , and not fill the pockets of fraudsters instead, do not hesitate to do a bit more research online. If there is not much information available, it is advised to pick another charity to make sure the money goes to the ones who genuinely need it.

Keep a kind heart, and don’t allow scammers to keep you from donating!

If you have some tips you personally use to donate, do not hesitate to share them in the comments.

Banks : How you can protect yourselves from scams in general?

Of course, increasing the customer’s awareness about fraud and scams (and especially on charity scams) is vital in order to reduce the financial impact of fraud both for banks and their customers.

But with the use of AI Fraud detection systems , banks now have the ability to be alerted on suspicious transactions and to be provided with all the necessary information to guide their customers to block fraudulent payments before they leave the bank account.

Who is NetGuardians ?

NetGuardians is an award-winning Swiss FinTech helping financial institutions in over 30 countries to fight fraud. More than 80 banks, worldwide rely on NetGuardians’ smarter artificial-intelligence solution to prevent fraudulent payments and all sorts of scams in real time. Do not hesitate to contact me directly if you want to know more ... Always happy to help.

Author : Julien Lacombe

Sources :?*[Business vector created by pikisuperstar - www.freepik.com](https://www.freepik.com/vectors/business)*

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