Scammers Poised to Get Haiti Relief Helpers
What a surprise. People love to take advantage of disasters to make money. While this isn’t anything like having a BS charity like Wycleff Jean has, scammers are working other ways to try and make some quick cash off the Haiti situation.
According to Fox News:
Charitable Americans eager to help the nation of Haiti recover from Tuesday’s devastating earthquake are being warned to be on the lookout for online scammers.
A number of “text to donate” services have been set up for people to make donations directly from their cell phones. But consumer advocates are warning that, as more are created, some may be phonies. It is hard to tell the difference unlike a tangible product such as natural weight loss products.
According to the Internet Storm Center, both of these “text to” options are legitimate services: “Both short codes in use right now, 501501 and 90999, are tracing back to registered twitter accounts and I consider them authentic at this point,” says the Center’s Johannes B. Ullrich — however, some charity watchdogs have raised doubts about the ability of Jean’s foundation to respond quickly to such an immediate and massive crisis, as well as about some of the foundation’s accounting practices.
Other text-to-donate services may arise, and not all of them will be trustworthy.
“Reports of Haitian ‘text to donate’ scams rising. Only give to orgs you recognize, have researched yourself or are referred by trusted source,” noted All Headline News in a post to Twitter.
The Better Business Bureau has already posted advice on its site for those hoping to donate to a legitimate charity. Art Taylor, president and CEO of the BBB’s Wise Giving Alliance, agrees that scammers tend to spring up in the wake of catastrophe.
“Whenever there is a major natural disaster, be it home or abroad, there are two things you can count on. The first is the generosity of Americans to donate time and money to help victims, and the second is the appearance of poorly run and in some cases fraudulent charities,” Taylor warns.
