Katrina Charity Relief Scams

Con artists will move fast to take money meant for Hurricane Katrina victims that need it the most.

Charities are increasing their fundraising efforts to try and meet the needs of people who's lives have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. At the same time, scam artists are devising phony charity schemes to trick people into donating their money to criminals. Everytime there's a major disaster scammers know that it's a perfect time to rip off consumers by conning them into giving money to their bogus charities. Mere days after the tsumani hit southeast Asia complaints about Tsunami-related fraud began to flood in. This isn't the first disaster to be exploited by scammers and it won't be the last so pay attention to who you donate money to every time.

Scam artists use names that sound like real charities to confuse you

One of the most common tactics of a fake charity is to use a legitimate sounding name or something that's very close to a real charity in the hopes that you might mistake them. Many people are fooled in this way. This should not deter you from giving money at a time of great need but it's wise to make sure that you know who you are dealing with so that the money doesn't go to fund some slimy criminals drug habit.

Unfortunately, scams like this that prey on good-hearted people continue to exist for one simple reason - they work.

Here are some useful tips for people who want to give to legitimate charitable causes without being victimized by scammers:

• Never respond to any unsolicited SPAM e-mails.
• Be leery of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from know senders.
• Never send money to phone solicitors representing charities that you have never heard of. If you want to make a donation to a cause such as relief for Katrina victims, make it through a well-known relief organization such as World Vision or the American Red Cross.
• Beware of charities with names similar to those to well-known charities. A good way to make sure that a charity is real is to look it up in the phone book or even on the internet. A legitimate charity will have tax status to match its non-profit business structure. When in doubt, investigate.
• Do not, under any circumstance, give your credit card information to unknown charities over the telephone or to door-to-door solicitors. If you call a well-known charity on your own it is okay to give out the information.
• If a charity wants to send a courier to pick up the donation you can bet that they are scammers. Please note that allowing this also presents a security risk to you at your residence.

Katrina "Inside Job" Scams

Posing as a charity is one way to bilk the public out of money intended to help hurricane victims but posing as a victim is another great way to defraud charities and government agencies tring to help Katrina victims get back on their feet. In one case 22 people at a Red Cross call center filed false claims and had family members pretend to be victims in order to collect aid funds. Call center agents take calls where Katrina victims are only required to give their name, address and date of birth because of the large numbers people needing to be processed. The call center agents were then supposed to confirm and approve the claim before issuing a number so that victims could receive payments.

This system was easy to exploit and before long call agents were creating fake accounts and making multiple trips to Western Union outlets which finally raised suspicions which led to this schemes undoing.

Red Cross contract workers accused of filing false claims

Related Hurricane Katrina Charity Scam Links