The storm has passed, and the asks have begun. Every major weather emergency brings the same two things: real charities working, and fake ones collecting. The real ones need your help. The fake ones are counting on you not to look too closely before you give. Here is how to tell them apart in about five minutes.
This week the Federal Trade Commission put out a consumer alert timed exactly to this moment: “When donating, support those in need, not a scammer.” It names the occasions - hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes - and the playbook. Scammers create fake charities that look official. They impersonate well-known organizations, hoping the familiar name draws your donation. Either way, your money goes to the scammer, not the people in need.
The good news is that the defense is fast, free, and takes less time than the average hold on the donation hotline. Let me show you the shapes the scam takes, the two tells that give it away, and the five-minute check that keeps your kindness pointed at the people who actually need it.
The four shapes of the fake ask
Fake charities are not one thing. They are four things, and they rotate depending on the news.
The look-alike name. The email or the website is one letter off from a real organization. The Red Cross becomes “The Red Cros.” Feeding America becomes “Feeding America Relief Fund.” At a glance, in a news feed, it looks right. The fraudsters buy domain names that are typos of the real ones, so the link itself looks trustworthy. The tell is the exactness: real organizations have one official name and one official website, and they are not improvising new ones this week.
The urgent ask in your inbox or text. “Text this number to donate now.” “Click here to help families displaced by the flooding.” The message may even name a real charity - but the number in the text is not the charity’s number, and the link goes to a page that is not the charity’s page. The FTC’s advice is blunt: if someone asks you to donate by text, check the charity’s website first and confirm you have the right number. The real charity publishes its number on its own site. The one in the message is whoever paid for the message.
The fundraiser that takes a cut. Not every fake charity pretends to be a charity. Some run “fundraisers” that claim a large share of what you give goes to “processing,” “administration,” or a “platform fee.” You give $50, and the fine print says $45 of it covers costs. This one does not always break the law - it just breaks your intent. The question to ask is the one the FTC asks: how much of your donation actually goes to the people the charity says it helps?
The recovery echo. This is the cruelest scam, and this series has already met its cousin. A few weeks after you donate, someone calls and says they can get your donation back - for a fee. The money is gone, the fee is real, and the caller is the same kind of person who runs the “we can get your money back” second scam. Nobody can recover a donation for you in exchange for an upfront fee. That offer is the next scam wearing the first one’s costume.
The two tells
Every shape above shares two tells. Learn these and you can skip the rest of the checklist for most requests.
Tell one: how they ask you to pay. If a “charity” says you can only pay by cash, gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency - it is a scam. The FTC says this outright, and it is the same payment layer this series keeps returning to: gift cards, wires, apps, and crypto are how scammers collect, because they cannot be reversed and they cannot be traced to a name. The gold bar scam ran on the same principle - move the money in a form that has no undo button. Real charities accept credit cards and checks, and they will happily wait for them. A legitimate organization has no reason to demand a payment method that leaves no trail. The demand IS the tell.
Tell two: how hard they push. Real charities do not demand tonight. They have been around for years, and they will still be there tomorrow. The fake ones need you to act before you think, so the ask comes with a timer: “matching gift ends at midnight,” “only 48 hours to help,” “the relief team leaves tonight.” Pressure is not proof of urgency. It is proof of a script. Anything that cannot wait for you to check is not something you should give to.
The five-minute check
Here is the whole routine, in the order that matters. It takes about five minutes the first time, less after that, and it works for every ask - big or small, email or text, friend’s post or cold call.
One: search the cause, not the link. Type “hurricane relief [organization name]” into a search engine. Do not click the link in the message. If the organization is real, its own website and its own news coverage will come up. If the only results are the page you were sent to, that is your answer.
Two: check the charity itself. Look the organization up on Give.org or Charity Watch, the two checkers the FTC names. You are looking for two things: that it is an established organization, not one that appeared overnight, and how much of every dollar actually reaches the people it says it helps. A charity that spends most of its money on itself is not a scam - but it is not the help you thought you were buying.
Three: look it up with the IRS. If you are in the United States and you care about the tax deduction, confirm the organization is registered. The IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search is free and takes thirty seconds. A real charity is in that database. A fake one is not, because registering requires exactly the kind of paperwork and identity the fraudsters do not want to produce.
Four: give directly, on their site, with a card or check. Once you have confirmed the organization, go to its website yourself - type the address, do not use the link from the message - and give there. Use a credit card or a check. Do not give through a link in an email, a text, a social media post, or a caller. A friend posting a fundraiser does not make it legitimate; the FTC says it plainly: do not assume something is real because a friend posted it. Their account may be hacked, or the friend may have been fooled too.
The one question
Every article in this series ends with the same kind of test, and it works here as well. When an ask feels urgent, ask one question:
Would a real charity collect this way?
Would it ask you to pay only by gift card, or wire the money, or buy cryptocurrency? Would it demand a decision tonight? Would it take your credit card number over the phone from a stranger who called you? The answer to every one of those is no. Real charities have websites, donation pages, and years of paperwork. They do not need a deadline and a payment method with no undo button. The one-question test from earlier in this series works exactly the same way here: the scammer is the only one who needs you to stay in the moment.
If you already fell for this
First, do not blame yourself. These operations are built by professionals whose whole job is making the fake look real, and they are very good at it. What matters is what you do next.
Do not pay anyone to get the money back. The follow-up call offering to recover your donation for a fee is the second scam, and paying it doubles the loss. Nobody can recover it that way. The fee is the scam.
Report it. File a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC’s follow-up alert explains why your report matters: it goes into the national Consumer Sentinel database, where state and federal law enforcement can see it, and the FTC’s investigators use it to spot patterns and build cases. The warnings this article leans on started with reports like yours. Your report is how the next fake charity gets caught.
Tell one person. The FTC’s advice is simple and it works: tell one person in your life what the scam looked like, so they recognize it when it comes for them. It will come for them. The fake charities are not one operation. They are an industry that re-forms after every disaster.
The one conversation
If this is your parent or grandparent, have the same short conversation from the rest of this series, with the giving version added:
“If you ever want to donate after a disaster, tell me first, or check with me before you give. And if anyone ever asks you to give by gift card or wire, or says you have to donate tonight - that is a scam. Real charities never need that.”
That is the whole conversation. No lecture, no test. Just the rule and the offer.
What to do now
Take the next step today, whichever one fits:
- Bookmark ReportFraud.ftc.gov so the next weird ask has somewhere to go.
- Before you give to anything this season, run the five-minute check: search the cause, check Give.org or Charity Watch, confirm the IRS listing, and give on the charity’s own site with a card or a check.
- Set the household rule: no giving by gift card, wire, or crypto - ever, to anyone.
- Tell the people you love the one question: would a real charity collect this way?
Remember the one question. The storm is not the only thing that moves fast after a disaster. The check before you give takes five minutes - and it is the difference between the good you do actually happening, and the good you meant landing in a stranger’s pocket.
Give generously. Give carefully. The people who need help deserve both.
This is the eleventh article in the Scam Awareness series. More coming - if there is a scam you keep hearing about and want explained, let me know and I will write it up.
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