Watch Out for Charity Scammers

Phone scams are becoming more and more sophisticated. While they can be easy to spot—such as a call about your car’s extended warranty—they can also be clever, and trick you into thinking there’s a legitimate caller on the other end of the line.

One recent scam tactic has been to employ the use of pre-recorded messages that sound like someone having a conversation with you. The call will start with the caller looking for someone named something specific. Chances are, you don’t have that name, so the call doesn’t seem like it’s for you. But the caller will insist that that’s fine, and that maybe you can help anyway, because they’re calling for donations to police officers that risk their lives protecting their communities.

For many, this pitch is a worthy cause, and would happily donate to help. However, the “charity” is actually filed as a super PAC, which lets them fly under the radar in a way real charities wouldn’t be able to. Almost all the money donated actually goes towards “fundraising” for the super PAC, not towards the intended recipients. In short, very little of that money actually goes to the cause they’re advertising, which means those who wanted to help out these police officers gave their money to scam artists.

These scammers are clever, however. Those pre-recorded messages work because employees run them through a soundboard, choosing which message to play based on the caller’s questions and statements. It doesn’t work on everybody, but when it does, it means you can employ way fewer callers to roll out these scams, and calls tend to wrap up much quicker.

In general, to avoid these types of scams, the best advice is to never give money over the phone or from door-to-door advertisers. If one of these pitches catches your interest, ask where you can find more information so you can continue to research the organization. A real charity will be happy to point you towards their official site, where you can donate if you feel so compelled.

Of course, if you ever pick up the phone, hear silence, then something along the lines of “Hello? Is the Michael? Well, maybe you can help me …” Just hang up.