Don’t let criminals exploit your compassion this giving season.

FBI Philadelphia reminds the public of the charity fraud scams criminals deploy this time of year to cash in on your kindness.

Charity fraud schemes seek donations for organizations that do little or no work—instead your charitable donation goes to the fake charity’s creator. Scammers can contact you in many forms, from e-mails, text messages, cold calls and social media.

Use these tips to ensure your charitable donation makes it to a legitimate cause and to protect yourself from potential scammers:

• Give to established charities or whose work you know and trust.
• Be aware of organizations with copycat names or names similar to reputable organizations.
• Be wary of new organizations that claim to aid victims of recent high-profile disasters.
• Give using a check or credit card. If an organization asks you to donate through cash, gift card, virtual currency, or wire transfer, it’s probably a scam.
• Practice good cyber hygiene:
• Don't click links or open email attachments from someone you don't know.
• Manually type out links instead of clicking on them.
• Don't provide any personal information in response to an e-mail, robocall, or robotext.
• Check the website’s address—most legitimate charity organization websites use .org, not .com.

We encourage the public to report charity fraud to the FBI through the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

For more information on charity fraud, visit: Charity and Disaster Fraud — FBI