Is Your Disaster Relief Donation a Scam?
It’s unfortunate, but after natural disasters there is always an uptick in scams that affect disaster victims as well as individuals attempting to be generous and help out.
Taxpayers need to be vigilant in these times to spot increasingly sophisticated scams.
There are many ways these scams are carried out including telephone calls, social media posts, websites, email, and even in-person encounters.
Here are a few common tactics of scammers:
Impersonating charities via social media profiles and posts to obtain “donations”.
Starting private GoFundMe accounts for bogus victims and pocketing the donations.
Creating websites with names and designs similar to legitimate charities to trick people into sending money or providing financial information.
Posing as an IRS employee who is there to help a disaster victim file casualty loss claims and tax refunds in order to steal personal information.
Solicit donations by starting organizations that sound legitimate but are not, such as “Friends of Hurricane _____ Victims” then keeping the money.
How to Make Sure Your Donation is Safe
Do your research. There are several ways to verify whether an organization is legitimate and general rules of thumb when making a donation.
Visit the IRS website (IRS.gov) and use their Tax Exempt Organization Search that helps users find or verify qualified charities. Donations to these charities may be tax-deductible.
Always make your contributions by check or credit card so that you can have a record of the tax-deducible donation. Never send or give cash – especially if it’s an organization you’ve never heard of or feel leery about.
Don’t give out personal financial information such as Social Security numbers or credit card and bank account numbers and passwords to anyone who solicits a contribution.
When visiting a nonprofit’s website to make a contribution, make sure there is a padlock icon to the far left of the website’s URL. This is a security certificate that means the site keeps all financial information secure. Any website without this padlock icon in the URL bar should not be used for donations or purchases.
Tax Assistance for Disaster Victims
Disaster victims should directly call the IRS toll-free disaster assistance telephone number (866-562-5227). Phone assistors will answer questions about tax relief or disaster-related tax issues. Additional details on available relief can be found on the disaster relief page on IRS.gov.