Philanthropy or humanitarian aid is a very laudable act but it is beyond heartbreaking for the fund to fail to reach the intended beneficiaries. This is true for both the donor and the recipient – but certainly more so for the recipient. Meanwhile, it is another unfortunate aspect of the tale for the unscrupulous scammer to have been successful. We do not want that, so let’s consider two well-known fake donation scams and precautions you can take to avoid such scams.

“Help Ukraine” Crypto Donation Scams

Crypto donations towards humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion in 2022 were prompt and significant. But scammers also took advantage of the situation to exploit donors.

• Elliptic reports that the amount of crypto donations that “Help Ukraine” scammers siphoned off donors on social media amounted to roughly $100,000.
• It was not solely via social media. BleepingComputer goes on to report that scammers used multiple cryptocurrency scams to receive donations through counterfeit Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses mimicking those of the Ukrainian government.
• Some scammers even set up elaborate .org domains to hoodwink unsuspecting donors – as investigated by MalwareHunterTeam, a Ransomware intel provider.
• Yet other scammers implemented email phishing campaigns, an example being emails that seemed to come from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

California Wildfires Fundraiser Scams

While on the subject of email phishing scams, these “California Wildfires Fundraiser” scams pretended to be a part of Binance Charity’s initiative. The aim was to trick donors into donating cryptocurrency to a so-called fundraising campaign for the provision of aid to victims of the California wildfires. Of course, the wallet addresses were not honest ones.

Tips on avoiding crypto donation scams

Here are a few tips to help you avoid scams such as those highlighted above and other crypto donation scams:

• Be wary of social media posts and direct messages aimed at tricking you into sending donations. Investigate such accounts to know whether they have been recently set up, renamed, or are simply not genuine.
• Do an online search of the group or entity. Add words like “scam,”or “complaint” to your query. If it’s a charity, they should have good reviews on platforms such as CharityWatch.
• The fundraiser as well as the charity group should be registered entities.
• Confirm how legit the donation campaigns are. There should be a realistic and transparent roadmap for the use and distribution of funds.
• You may want to confirm whether your donation will be tax deductible. For good measure, you may visit IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search to look up the organization.
• Also research wallet addresses to confirm that they are real.
• Report suspicious communication or potential scams to ReportFraud.ftc.gov and include relevant details such as the cryptocurrency wallet address.

You can donate safely and securely

Cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible so you need to be cautious when making crypto donations. Even though transactions are traceable, it does take quite the effort to trace them and initiate legal measures.

At CryptoDonateNow.org, you can be sure of a safe and secure crypto donation.

Disclosure: This article is part of the CryptoDonateNow paid Contributor Program.