Easter is a time for family, food, Easter bunnies and….scams?  Unfortunately, yes!  A common scam during holidays such as Easter is creating a bogus charity for people to donate money to, especially by tapping into people’s religious beliefs.  Evil right?

Scammers love the holidays for the sole reason that they can take advantage people’s emotions, and they have succeeded far too many times.  Everyone becomes so excited for holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, making travel arrangements and shopping for presents, which may often lead them into frivolously opening their wallet

Here are some quick tips to avoid falling into the trap of handing out your credit card number to fake charities this Easter:

– Make sure the charity’s website URL of any site you visit is legitimate.

– Never give out personal information such as your phone number, driver’s license number and billing address.  It is highly uncommon for charities to ask for this information.

– Find out as much information as possible about the charity – name, address and phone number.

– Get a receipt with the charity’s name on it.

– Don’t act upon charity requests via email; most legitimate charities won’t solicit people via email unless you’ve donated to them in the past.

Scambook users: have you ever donated to a bogus charity? If so, let us know which ones and help others avoid making the same mistake.

If this has happened to you or someone you know please submit a complaint here.

See Also

4 Quick Tips to Get the Most Value Out of After Christmas Sales
3 Gift Card Scams to Watch Out For This Holiday Season
4th of July Scams: Beware Patriotic Phishing and Un-American Sales