See these tips below:
During times of turmoil the best of humanity comes out as people show their support through donations. In fact, 56 percent of Americans donated to charity in 2021. Oftentimes, the easiest way to donate is online through organizations. Unfortunately, scammers take advantage of others’ kindness and create fake websites claiming to be accepting donations.
It is often difficult for people to distinguish between a legitimate site and a fake one. Security experts from Lookout, a leader in delivering integrated security, privacy, and identity theft protection solutions, identified the below scams regarding donations for the crisis in the Ukraine.
Scam 1: A phishing example where scammers have created a fake copy of the official Ukrainian government website. The scammer added a “Donate Fund” button with Bitcoin, Ethereum and U.S. Dollar payment options.
Scam 2: A fake website that was created for “Ukraine Appeal” that targets people to try and trick them into believing it is a legitimate donation site.
Lookout experts are vigilant in protecting consumers from falling prey to scammers. Hank Schless, senior manager of security solutions at Lookout, is happy to comment on how to identify scams and has provided a few basic tips to follow below.
Lookout Suggests These Tips for Combatting Common Online Scams:
>> Check the source and watch for misspellings.
When selecting an organization to donate to, inspect such elements as the organization’s name, phone number, or email address, as well as the language within the website for any inconsistencies.
>> Remember that not everything you see online is real.
Deepfake technology, fake websites, spoofed social media profiles and fraud messages can all lead to phishing attacks — and these types of scams are growing increasingly difficult to discern with the naked eye. Always exercise caution if you can’t confirm the validity of the donation site with 100 percent confidence.
>> Use only donation outlets you can reliably trust. If a popular donation outlet you use isn’t available, don’t resort to donating through any alternate site. Do your research and avoid inputting information, like your credit card number, onto a website that you or someone you know have not used before.
>> Install security software on your devices
Security protection, like Lookout, will automatically monitor and identify scam URLs in email, text messages, and on the web and block you from threats that can do harm.
