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Every year, charity regulators from around the word get together to raise awareness about charity fraud. The FTC joins this effort again this year because it’s so important to know how to spot a charity scam. The more you know, the less likely you’ll donate to a bogus charity. Better yet, you’ll make sure your money is helping in the way you intended.
 
 
Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at #StopCharityFraud to get the latest advice on how to avoid charity scams. This year, we’re focusing on:
You can help people make sure their donations reach real charities, not scammers. This week, join in to raise awareness in your community about charity scams:
  • Share our videos on social media
  • Follow us at Facebook.com/FederalTradeCommission and at Twitter.com/FTC
  • Create your own social media posts using ideas from ftc.gov/charity. Don’t forget to tag @FTC and use #StopCharityFraud
  • Report charity scams at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
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It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

esdanny
October 18, 2021
Don't you guys think, in addition to your website, would you provide Charity Navigator? I use it as a source, I didn't even know you guys had a website for this. Just sayin', the more you know the better. If your trying to stop fraud, shouldn't you use everything you know to combat it?
zoesmom
October 22, 2021
I receive about 10 to 15 charitable request mail in my mailbox each week, how do I know which ones are legitimate? I try to pick at least one each month but I really cannot afford them supporting myself on social security alone.