How to distinguish real philanthropists from scammers

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These tips will help to identify unscrupulous volunteers, pseudo-charitable foundations and just street scammers who profit from the desire of people to do good.

There are things we are not used to learning. It is believed that these skills will come by themselves. For example, we are not taught to run properly so as not to injure our joints. And we are also not taught how to help so that it can really be useful.

It is believed that the field of charity is emotional and reason is simply not applicable there. We are not being told how to distinguish those who really need help from scammers who speculate on sympathy. And they don't talk about which forms of assistance are really useful and which ones are only harmful.

How to authenticate an online call for help

1. Take your time

Calls for help are often asked to do so immediately. Sometimes this is a sign of a person's desperate desire to help their loved one. However, scammers often resort to this formulation. Their goal is to play on emotions, leaving the user no time to think.

By helping instantly, you can not only support dishonest people. You run the risk of hurting someone who really needs help. Very often, fundraising goes to those methods of treatment that, for example, the child's family chose on their own, but in fact, such methods are contraindicated for the baby.

2. Pay attention to typical plots

"A very large amount is required for the treatment of a seriously ill child, it is urgently needed, and treatment is needed abroad, because it is there that doctors are magicians, while Russian doctors shrug their shoulders." This is the most typical fake storyline that indicates the likelihood of fraud.

3. Check the information

As a rule, users first transfer money and only then start to be interested in details. There is a desire to attract as much attention to the problem as possible, and people start calling the media and charitable foundations. Then it may turn out that requests for help came from a hacked account.

Proceed in reverse order: start with questions.

4. Ask questions to the author of the ad

For example, why is this amount needed? Why did you choose this particular clinic and who prescribed this treatment? Have you applied to charitable foundations? What did they answer? Why were the funds turned down?

It is important to know that honest charitable organizations do not just refuse, they try to explain everything, recommend contacting other organizations, tell how you can get treatment from the state.

Typically, if the problem is real, you will be happy to get detailed answers.

5. Don't make excuses if you are attacked

If there are scammers in front of you, then their tactic is to attack you in the comments, cursing you for greed and indifference. Don't fall for provocations.

If there is an urgent need to help a sick child, donate money to a charitable foundation. There are a lot of such stories, while the stories about those in need are not just real: the need for this or that type of help is confirmed by an expert council of physicians who specialize in the treatment of this particular disease. The foundation will channel your funds where they will truly save lives.

How to check a charitable foundation online

Go to his page on the Internet. Look out for signs that indicate fraud:

• The fund's website has a dubious address, a transliteration curve is used.
• He rarely publishes news, does not cooperate with the media, he has no partners.
• The fund forgets about reporting and does not publish messages about how and on what the money was spent.
• The site removes comments and bans those who ask questions.
• Bank details are not specified - only e-wallets or personal accounts.
• The minimum donation is impressive. For example, you are offered to donate at least 1,000 rubles.
• To read the announcement for help, you need to send an SMS or go through verification.

If phone numbers are listed on the organization's website, call (preferably from a landline phone) and talk. Ask where you can read the reports of the fund, what funds and for what purposes were allocated. Ask who the foundation is helping now, offer yourself as a volunteer.

Representatives of real charitable foundations will be happy to answer your questions and offer various options for help.

Fraudsters will play around and avoid specifics, they will say that they do not have time to talk.

It is important to understand that along with the development of charity, fraudsters also develop. Now you can already see the sites of fraudulent funds, where everything is "perfect". Therefore, it is worth helping trusted organizations.

Street charity is more often than not a hoax

Rarely, but it happens that a real person who is in trouble comes out to collect donations. Basically, scammers collect money from passers-by.

They are organized, dressed in "uniforms" and have sealed glass boxes with them. On the boxes - a photo of the child, the diagnosis and details for the transfer of funds. Scammers may even have a copy of that child's medical history with them. However, all of the above does not indicate that these are volunteers of a real charitable foundation.

The organization can actually be registered and even direct part of the funds for the treatment of patients - 5-10 percent. The rest of the money is spent on maintaining the business scheme, that is, on earning the fraudsters themselves.

How to verify volunteers for authenticity

1. You will meet a real volunteer at special events that take place on a large scale: charity concerts, festivals, fairs. Fraudsters do not need hype, they prefer street anonymity.

2. Real benefactors always open the donation boxes in the presence of observers, recount and add them to the ballot. The money is deposited into the organization's bank account, this information is reflected in public statements.

Harmful and helpful ways to help

Unfortunately, donations are not always useful and really solve someone's problems. Sometimes good deeds are wasted. Most often this happens due to a lack of information. How to help correctly?

No

1. Never repost a call for help if you do not know the victims personally, even if the post was published by colleagues or friends.

2. Do not help on a “made and forget” basis when there are doubts about the integrity of the fundraiser (for example, on the street).

3. Do not take New Year's gifts to orphanages. At the end of December each year, we see the same picture: boarding schools are littered with sponsorship sacks with expensive and not very expensive toys and sweets (which, by the way, is harmful). They do not solve any problems, they only cause discord and form a donor type of thinking in children, which is difficult to overcome later. But most importantly, the child remains lonely, without a close adult who could help him become independent, master the basic skills of life in a family and in society.

Yes

1. Connect small but stable auto payments, when at least 10 rubles are automatically debited from the card in favor of a charitable foundation. So you will support those who are in trouble, in a financially disastrous time (for example, right after the New Year or the May holidays, in the summer) and help charitable foundations plan their work.

2. Help critically ill adults.

Every third Russian is ready to help children. Adults - less than 1%.

Sometimes an adult is an 18-year-old seriously ill patient, yesterday's child. Or is it a man who supported the whole family, including elderly parents, survived a stroke and needs rehabilitation. Until we help him, the whole family will suffer.

Even if we turn off emotions and turn on the mind, we will understand that, while recovering, an adult continues to pay taxes, feed his children and elderly parents. And he can even take a stray animal from a shelter.

3. Help with deeds. For example, try yourself in volunteering, find a way to help you. Perhaps you will enjoy selling souvenirs at a charity fair, conducting workshops for children in the hospital, visiting nursing homes and delighting lonely old people with communication.

4. Try to donate participation in charity instead of corporate gifts (mugs, notebooks, pens, calendars). Companies spend huge sums of budget on holiday gifts. Instead, give your partners and employees the opportunity to do a good deed. For example, make a donation on their behalf to a verified charity.