Beware of Dorian Charity Scams

[ritchie58]

In general most Americans are compassionate people. Especially in an emergency or crisis situation we will go out of our way to help a complete stranger in need. That's just who we are as a society.

Americans are also some of the most generous people on the planet but unfortunately there are always individuals ready & willing to take advantage of a bad situation for their own selfish gains.

There have been some reports of people receiving unsolicited emails claiming to be a charitable organization seeking donations for the victims of hurricane Dorian.

You should always treat "any unsolicited email" with a great deal of suspicion, especially if it comes from a charity you never heard of or never donated to. That should raise some red flags! If you receive an email like this don't even open it, who knows, it could even be malicious in nature. Just delete the email.

In the hardest hit area of the Bahamas there actually is a humanitarian crisis going on. People there are in desperate need for food and fresh drinking water.

If you wish to contribute to help out you can't go wrong with the non-profit American Red Cross. I made a donation today. https://www.redcross.org/

Of course there are other legitimate non-profit organizations out there but there is also bogus entities that just want to steal your money. Before donating do some research yourself on the web to make sure the charity is a legitimate non-profit organization.  

There is the GoFundMe site & others like it but you never know if the contributed money will actually be spent on it's intended use. That's the main problem with crowd funding sites.

Regards, Ritchie...