Charities and voluntary organisations are invaluable to society as they help people in the greatest need, and they rely on donations to carry out their work. Nowadays, giving donation to charities can be very effective and convenient thanks to the Internet. Yet, aside from the fact that most of them are authentic and legitimate, we have to be aware of fraudsters and scammers. So how do you make sure your donation is secure? Below are 10 tips for safe charity donation:
1. Collect information about your charity
Before giving to an online or offline charity, dig more information about them. The mission statement, the list of program accomplishments and the board of directors will give you a clue. Doing a further re-check on the Internet about their reputation could prove useful.
2. Contact information is a must
The charity should give you an option to contact it online (e-mail address) and offline (phone number and physical address). That way, if the website of the charity is not functioning properly, you can contact it offline. Also, you can protect yourself against scammers attempting to raise a lot money but then they disappear after collecting your money. You can contact the charity to make sure if the site or e-mail is genuine.
3. Check the date of information
Find out when the donation event put on the website of the charity was last updated as some charities, if not many, do not update their event information for months or even years, which make it no longer accurate.
4. Donate safely
Sharing any credit card information online requires extra caution due to the hazard caused by frauds and scammers.
- The website should use encryption technology to protect you against online threats. The URL of the site should begin with "https" instead of “http” as the "s" letter stands for "secure", and it indicates that any of your private and sensitive information will be encrypted and transmitted securely.
- Check that you are visiting the correct website address, and not a fake one created to harvest private information including credit card numbers from its unaware visitors. Links embedded in e-mails, text messages, instant messages, and pop-up ads can take you to websites that look legitimate but are not. Type the address yourself or use your own bookmark to visit the site.
- A trustworthy website will contain signs or symbols that indicate that it is legitimate for doing money transaction. For example, third-party seals of approval.
5. Say no to third parties
Avoid using a third party including money transfer companies to donate to a charity. Besides the fact that some of them are scams, they often charge you a transaction fee, and then charge the charity additional fees for having received money from you. Such sites might also seek to earn bank interest on your donation by delaying its transmission to the charity.
6. Protect your online privacy
Read privacy policy of the site carefully. Make sure their privacy policy really safeguards your privacy. Before revealing your personal information, especially your credit card number, find out how the site is planning to use your information.
7. Keep the transaction record
Keep the copy of your on-screen confirmation notice or an e-mail confirmation of your donation. If you do not immediately receive such notices, check with the charity to make sure that it has safely received your donation.
8. Do not respond to any spams
Spams or junk mails may contain some harmful links to scam sites that loke like those of the legitimate charities. Ignore or delete e-mails from unfamiliar senders or sources, especially when you are not expecting any e-mails from anyone. Your email providers usually have a spam protection activated so most spams or junk mails will not enter your inbox. But, one or two spams may escape the filter. Use “unsubsribe” option if any, if you do not wish to receive similar e-mails from the sender. Otherwise, simply filter any e-mails from the sender as spams.
9. Update your firewall, antivirus, and antispyware software
Updated softwares will help you protect all your online transactions better. The wireless connection you are using at home should be encrypted as well. Activating the automatic update feature will help you keep these softwares current.
10. Online donation should be safe
Online donation provides a chance for everyone to do something good for humanity in a more effective way. Just make sure your favorite charities have taken all the required precautions for any of your online transactions.
By following the 10 tips for safe charity donation above, you should now be able to reduce any risks in online transaction. Do not stop donating money to the good cause of your choice.
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Via charitywatch, microsoft
Photo via huffingtonpost
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