There are an awful lot of great charities out there who could use any kind of donation that you can give. But just like anything else in life, while there are plenty of good ones, there are also a whole lot of bad ones out there, as well. The bad ones want nothing more than to take your money, and use it for their own nefarious purposes that have nothing to do with the ostensible good things that they will pretend to be involved in. Fortunately, there are a few different ways that you can guard yourself against all of the scam artists and hustlers who want to take your money and run. While giving to a legitmate charity is definitely a good thing, giving to a scammer is just feeding the flames that eat away at the good will that all charities strive to build for themselves and their causes.
A scam organization is going to follow a few general rules almost all of the time. First off, they are going to be vague about what they do. After all, the more explaining they do, the more likely they will be to draw questions that could be difficult to answer. If they claim to be affiliated with an actual charity, that is fraud, and a great way to circumvent them is to simply send your donation to the main address of the charity in question- which you can easily find on its website. A scam artist would hate this.
Another thing a scammer is unlikely to do is give you time to consider how much you want to give. They want everything to happen right now- before you have a chance to think about any potential inconsistencies with their story. Still another thing that you might notice if you carefully check out a fake charity’s website (if they even have one to begin with) is that their tax identification number will be mysteriously absent.