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Charity Scams- how do you know that your money goes where it is needed?

With the number of charity scams around, how do you know that your money goes where it is needed? Okay, it’s a sad fact that we live in a world where charity scams are big business and are, especially in the U.K., on the increase.

There are three types of charity scam kicking around at the moment.

The first is the obvious one, the bogus charity. It’s not that difficult to create a name, print a letterhead and invent a pseudo charity number. And it’s not that difficult to write a nice, gently pleading letter which is designed to part a kind person from their money. The key for the spammer is to pull the heartstrings. Best bets are poorly kids, or dying pets. As long as its all looks genuine, as the amounts requested are small and easily affordable, and as long as the emotions play a part, the money will roll in.

Another twist on this is to play on the emotions following a disaster. The London bombings were a field day for the fraudsters.

Secondly, telephone marketing is a good whiz for the scammers, whether they elicit money through softly spoken people who work the phones, or send persuasive emails. In fact, emails and false web-sites have been great news for those that are determined to exploit people’s better nature.

Thirdly, it’s a more old fashioned scam, with street collectors calling on people in their homes, or standing on street corners, giving out envelopes, or rattling tins. People can find this very off-putting, as the request is immediate and very often, quite intimidating.

Okay, so there’s lots of dubious characters out there on the street, on the telephone and in cyberspace. What can you do about it?

Bogus charities are slightly easier to cope with than those pretending to be from a recognised charity. This can be checked out. All U.K charities have to be registered with the Charity Commission  There’s an official site - www.charity-commission.gov.uk – which lists all U.K. charities and gives extensive advice on how they should behave.

Telemarketing and email techniques are used by a number of charities, but not on a large-scale, so if in doubt, don’t get tricked by persuasive callers, or pleading emails. If in doubt, politely terminate the call, or bin the email.

As to door-to-door collectors, again, if you’re in any doubt, ask to see I.D, note their charity number and ask them a few questions. If you’re still not convinced, then say you’d prefer to pay by standing order, at a later date. And never allow any door-step caller into your home.

And once you’ve convinced yourself that the charity is genuine, and that you want to send them some money, then its worth a quick conversation to see where your money will end up. How much of your pound will be sent to the particular cause the charity represents? It’s a fair question and if it all goes on company cars for the management, maybe think again.

Be on the look out for charity scams and once you’ve decided who to give to, find out if your money goes where it is needed.

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