Voice of the Consumer: Keep your guard up during the giving season | News

We are days away from Christmas and that means it’s the season of giving, but beware of scams. If you are giving to a charity this holiday season, we want to make sure you don’t fall for a scam. You may have seen this on our weekly Fraud Friday segment on 11 News at Noon. I talked with the Colorado Attorney General about how to make sure your donation is going to a good cause.

“Unfortunately, there are people out there trying to scam you. They may pretend they are a charity, but not actually be one,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. “Or in some cases they may actually be a nominal one where 95 percent of all the money supports the people asking, administrator fees, and not the cause. So do your homework. There are places like charitynavigator.org where you can actually look up whether a charity is real, see how much money they give to administrative expenses.”

“A telltale sign, if they say they need your money right away, don’t open your checkbook. They’re probably not legitimate,” he added.

According to AARP, there are some warning signs you can watch for, like if they pressure you to give right now. You might also get a thank you card for a donation you don’t remember making. AARP says making you think you already gave to a cause is a common trick to lower your resistance. Another red flag is if they ask for…

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