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Avoiding Internet Charity Scams

Each year charities bring in millions of dollars from kindhearted individuals who would like to help those who are less fortunate. Unfortunately these charities are also the target of unscrupulous scammers who would like to take advantage of the kindhearted donors as well as the people who need the donations.

The abuse of charities and the disasters they try to bring relief for is not a new event. As a matter of fact, con artists have been going door to door soliciting funds for fake charities for many years. Sometimes these con artists have even pretended to work for a real charity to get individuals to donate money, which of course they kept for themselves.

One of the most recent charity scams to hit the Internet was when hurricane Katrina rate have it on the United States coast. Scammers who watch the news closely went to work before Katrina even hit land to create web sites which would collect money from individuals who thought the money would go to the Katrina victims. These web sites were a perfect match with real web sites which are well-known such as the American Red Cross. Dozens of fake charity site sprang up all over the Web to take advantage of this disaster. Many people thought that they were actually on a legitimate web site for the Katrina disaster and made donations which they thought were going to help the victims of the hurricane. Of course the hurricane Katrina victims would never see a painting from these Internet Charity scams.

If you would like to donate to a charity online but would not like to be scammed, there are a couple of things you can do to ensure that you are not a victim your self.

One of the first things you should do is always be suspicious of an e-mail asking you for money, no matter what organization the email claims to originate from. Many people answered e-mails that they thought were from the American Red Cross and made donations only to find that their money was simply given to scammers. The American Red Cross will never send an e-mail to anyone asking for a donation, so if you ever receive one claiming to be from the Red Cross you know it is a fake and you should report it to the Red Cross.

Another danger of answering an unsolicited e-mail is that some of them ask for personal information which if given can leave you open to identity theft. You should also note that if you answer one of these e-mails you run a very strong chance of getting more of these illegal solicitations because the individuals who sent you the original email will sell your personal information to others.

You should also be wary of any charitable organization of which you have never heard of. All legitimate charitable organizations are required by law to be registered with the Internal Revenue Service. These organizations must also keep records and account for all of the money which they have brought in and where the money was spent. If you are suspicious about an organization simply check with the IRS to see if they are registered.

If you happen to find yourself scammed by an Internet Charity scam, then you should immediately contact your local FBI office and lodge a complaint. By doing this it may be possible to stop others from being taken and to get the fraudulent charity shutdown.