{"id":45888,"date":"2013-11-29T04:16:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T09:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=45888"},"modified":"2013-11-29T04:16:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-29T09:16:37","slug":"irs-warns-against-bogus-charity-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2013\/11\/29\/irs-warns-against-bogus-charity-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS warns against bogus charity scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Internal Revenue Service information<\/i><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2015\u00a0The IRS warns consumers not to fall for bogus charity scams. They often occur in the wake of major disasters, like the recent tornadoes in the Midwest or the typhoon in the Philippines. Thieves prey on the goodwill of people who want to help disaster victims.\u00a0Scammers\u00a0may\u00a0pose as representatives of charitable organizations\u00a0in order to steal money or get private information to commit identity theft.<\/p>\n<p>The scams use\u00a0varying tactics. Offering charity relief, criminals often:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Claim to be with real charities to gain public trust.<\/li>\n<li>Use names similar to legitimate charities.<\/li>\n<li>Use email to steer people to bogus websites that often look like real charity sites.<\/li>\n<li>Contact people by phone or email to get them to \u2018donate\u2019 money or give their financial information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"MGN Online graphic\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IRS-logo-12-2012.jpg\" rel=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IRS-logo-12-2012.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-32464\" alt=\"IRS logo 12-2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/IRS-logo-12-2012.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"135\" \/><\/a>The IRS offers the following tips to help taxpayers who wish to donate to victims:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Donate to qualified charities.<\/b>\u00a0 Use the Exempt Organizations Select Check tool at <a href=\"http:\/\/irs.gov\/\">IRS.gov<\/a> to find qualified charities. Only donations to qualified organizations are tax-deductible. You can also find legitimate charities at the Federal Emergency Management Agency website, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fema.gov\/\">fema.gov<\/a>. For more information about the kinds of charities that can receive deductible contributions, see Publication 526, Charitable Contributions.<\/li>\n<li><b>Don\u2019t give out information.<\/b>\u00a0Don\u2019t give out Social Security numbers, credit card and bank account numbers or passwords to anyone. Scam artists use this information to steal one\u2019s identity and money.<\/li>\n<li><b>Don\u2019t give or send cash.<\/b>\u00a0 For security and tax record purposes, don\u2019t give or send cash. Contribute by check, credit card or another way that provides documentation of the donation.<\/li>\n<li><b>Report suspected fraud.<\/b>\u00a0Those who suspect tax or charity-related fraud should visit <a href=\"http:\/\/irs.gov\/\">IRS.gov<\/a> and click on \u201cReporting Phishing\u201d at the bottom of the home page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Get more information about tax scams and schemes at <a href=\"http:\/\/irs.gov\/\">IRS.gov<\/a>. Click on \u201cTax Fraud &amp; Abuse\u201d at the bottom of the home page. Americans can also get Publication 526, <i>Charitable Contributions<\/i>, at <a href=\"http:\/\/irs.gov\/\">IRS.gov<\/a>, or call 800.TAX.FORM (800.829.3676).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Internal Revenue Service information WASHINGTON \u2015\u00a0The IRS warns consumers not to fall for bogus charity scams. They often occur in the wake of major disasters, like the recent tornadoes in the Midwest or the typhoon in the Philippines. Thieves prey on the goodwill of people who want to help disaster victims.\u00a0Scammers\u00a0may\u00a0pose as representatives of charitable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 00:45:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}