![\"Scams](\"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/nd_before_zsypb.jpg\" "\\"Scams")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe world was shocked when fire broke out at the\u00a0Notre-Dame de Paris<\/a>, one of the most iconic cathedrals in Paris. People mourned as the centuries-old structure burned<\/a> and as the spire fell while 400 firefighters fought the fire. Almost immediately, charities \u2013 real and fake\u2013 began asking for donations<\/a> to rebuild the French national treasure.<\/p>\n Almost 13 million people visit Notre Dame each year. Builders erected the church in Paris 850 years ago. The church houses famous works of art and serves as a museum. It is no surprise that people are willing to dig into their wallets to rebuild the cathedral. Scammers scrambled to create a plan to take advantage of the fire and make some easy money. Thieves set up websites acting as charities and crowdfunding sources to trick the public. Thieves assume people don’t know that the cathedral is owned by the French government. Private citizens, businesses, and the government have already amassed billions of dollars in a fund to reconstruct the church.<\/p>\n Con artists play on the emotions of people in the aftermath of disaster. For every natural disaster, accident or act of terrorism, scammers are waiting to collect from the public. They ask for money through websites, social media, email and phone calls<\/a>. The pleas for money are convincing and never ending. People should take steps to check out any organization before giving any money, even if it\u2019s a good cause.<\/p>\n Donors can research charities by logging onto The Federal Trade Commission\u2019s list of organizations<\/a> that can verify if a charity is real. You can also read news on charities. The article Before Giving to a Charity<\/a> shows how to donate wisely through social media.<\/p>\n People think that donations are tax deductible. They might give more money because of the deduction. However, donations made to foreign organizations aren\u2019t usually tax deductible. Money given to individuals or crowdfunding sites aren\u2019t tax deductible, either. The IRS can help determine which organizations are tax deductible. You should use the IRS\u2019s Tax Exempt Organization Search<\/a> to check eligibility.<\/p>\n Telemarketers can be pushy when they ask for money. Companies and scammers use robocalls to make it harder to avoid the demands. If you receive a call from someone asking for money to help rebuild Notre Dame, ask a lot of questions. What is the full name and address of the organization? How will the money be spent? Does the organization use the money for admin costs or marketing expenses? If you are unsure of the person calling, hang up and research the charity online. If the calls continue, use an app to block unwanted numbers<\/a> from your phone.<\/p>\n If you think you\u2019ve been scammed by a fake charity, report it to the FTC\u2019s Complaint Assistant<\/a>. Give as much information as possible. Second, if you have used a bank account or credit card to make the donation, contact the company right away to block the payment. Lastly, you should also report the event to your state\u2019s Attorney General.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world was shocked when fire broke out at the\u00a0Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the most iconic cathedrals in Paris. People mourned as the centuries-old structure burned and as the spire fell while 400 firefighters fought the fire. Almost immediately, charities \u2013 real and fake\u2013 began asking for donations to rebuild the French national treasure. […more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[49,47,44,48,45,46,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.creativejapan.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Cry for Help<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Fake Charities<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Researching Charity Organizations<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Making Donations
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\nHow to Avoid Scammers<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How to Report Fraud<\/strong><\/h2>\n