Be wary of fake charities asking for money

Do research before giving a donation

By Sarah Stultz | Albert Lea Tribune

Published Friday, July 3, 2009

Local officials are asking area residents to be mindful of the charities they donate to, as several mailings and phone calls have been received in recent weeks from fraudulent organizations.

United Way of Freeborn County Director Ann Austin said she received a call from a woman who had gotten three or four calls within the last two weeks from different organizations asking for money. The woman had never heard of the organizations.

Austin said people should do their research on an organization before donating. Any legitimate organization should have a phone number to call or a Web site to visit.

“They should be able to answer all of your questions — who is helped by this, how many people they have helped in the past,” Austin said. “Be on top of it, especially at this time. People start organizing scams because they are moneymakers.”

That is just another reason for people to donate locally, she noted. When people donate locally, people can see how the money is used.

Albert Lea Police Chief Dwaine Winkels echoed those statements.

“Our advice for people for donations is if you have money to donate to a charity and want to do so, look local first and then consider the large, known charitable organizations,” Winkels said.

This would include organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army, the United Way or the American Red Cross.

If you’re not familiar with a charity, do some investigation before you consider donating to it, he said. If you don’t want to go through the effort to investigate, then don’t donate to it, he recommended.

Bogus checks

Winkels said another problem law enforcement officials have been seeing recently is people getting bogus checks in the mail. People need to look out for these fraudulent checks before they quickly cash them.

“People are not going to send you money out of the blue,” Winkels said. “It just doesn’t happen in real life.”

He said the banks in town are doing a good job of screening some of these checks and catching them before they are cashed, but people still need to be on the lookout.

The same is true for the Internet, too.

If an offer comes over on the Internet, don’t answer it, Winkels said.

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