While using social media networks, you must have come across
a number of charity ads requesting you to make a donation to a good cause. The
ad would be accompanied by a disturbing image depicting malnourished people in
Africa or Asia, dying from poverty related causes. The image was specifically
used to trigger a reaction from users which would goad them towards making a
donation. You should know that the ads were probably fake and they were in fact
another one of those money scams used by scammers to take advantage of people’s
capacity to help those in need. Here are some tips to help you spot cyber fraud
on social media.
Trust Branded Charities
When you spot a charity message, should first check if it is
authentic. For starters, look at the name of the charity that is behind the ad
and visit their real website. Also do a Google search to check how the site is
rated by charity watchdogs like Charity Navigator or Charity Guide. If the
charity has generated four or more stars then it is not another one of those cyber fraud cases.
On the other hand, the charity message might reveal some new
charity which is yet unregistered or might have a ‘barely there’ presence on
the net. The scammers might have created a name sake site just to avoid
suspicions of people but this is where you need to be really diligent. Look for
some of their past projects, if the site is poorly developed, it could be a
money scam and any search for reviews should confirm it.
Cyber Fraud Donation Requests
Sometimes you might receive requests from random people
asking social media users to donate. Their child might be suffering from a
serious life threatening illness and they appealed to the kindness of strangers
to help them afford the cost of treatment. Scammers later started taking advantage
of this as well and made it another one of their cyber fraud scams. They would
simply take pictures of sick children from the internet and added their own
back story to get people to donate money. These posts would then go viral on
social media generating thousands of dollars in donations. The money would find
its way to a bank account held by the scammers and most times, people do not
even realize they just became the victim of money scams.
To prevent cyber fraud from happening to you, check the post
back to where it originated. People create the donations page with their own id
and you should be able to view the profile of the page owners. If the account
has been there for a long time, the chances are ad is legitimate. And also
people who are genuine have nothing to hide. They provide all details related
to the request which includes their names, phone number, email id, donations
URL site and other such information. While this is not a fool proof method, it
does provide satisfactory results more often than not.
So every time you see one of these ads, you need to make
sure that they are not cyber fraud scams uploaded by criminals to make quick
money. Take your time to verify the ad and only then send the donation. For
more tips on how to spot
