I feel so dumb....

[Anonymous]

Ok so last night I am reading away on the forums. The phone rings. It is a charitable organization for firefighters. They ask if I would like to donate.

I do donate to all sorts of organizations. I asked the typical questions, got some very good answers. Then precede to give them my address. I tell him the amount I want to donate, and after everything is updated he asks for my credit card number. Since I use it to pay for one of my other charitable organizations, I didn't think anything of it.

So I gave him the info. After the call I decided to go check out the organization online. I could not find it. So I googled the phone number. Turns out this number has been reported as part of a scam. I then called one of the local firehouses. They said that they never solicit funds this way.

So I canceled the card, and feel like a chump. I should know better as I was a victim of identity theft in 2000. I can not believe I just gave that information so willingly.

Anyway, just thought I would share my oops moment. Remember all real organizations are verifiable, and will send you a donation packet, without requiring a donation right then and there. I need to stay alert!

[Anonymous]

The scams that are out there now days make me sick   Sorry you fell victim to one. 

The only ones I do a CC donation to are ones I know to be for real.  Local food drives, national telethons, etc.  The rest I promise I'll donate but will only do so via a check in the mail and they need to send me their package first.  Knock on wood, I"ve always gotten one and they checked out. 

A good warning though for others on these scams. 

[Lel]

We get phone calls like this nearly every day. We no longer pick up the phone unless it is someone we recognize. The people on the other end of the line are nasty, persistent, and lay on the guilt ("Why don't you care about war widows and their orphans?")

We used to get door-to-door people soliciting funds in the same way. We finally put up a "no soliciting" sign on our door, and that has at least temporarily stopped the flow.

Was it actually necessary to cancel your card? I thought you could call them and stop payment to the charity, and then arrange for some sort of verification if someone tries to use the card. But I really don't know how it works.

[fishbjc]

Before you donate....ask the organization who is soliciting how much their administrative fees are.  They can be as high as 80%!!!!!  In this case, you can donate directly to the organization.

I NEVER give money to a solicitor.

[demi]

I have always gone by the rule of unless I am the one initiating a phone call, etc...nothing gets paid by Credit Card.  There are so many Firefighter/Deputy Sheriff, etc scams, I always, always ask them to send my info in the mail...and never seem to get any !

On the line of dumb things...the other day I went to transfer 500 from my savings into checking on the ATM...next day I checked my balance, I was overdrawn...I transferred the money from checking into savings instead...DUMB !  New ATM instructions.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if it was necessary to cancel the card, but after finding out that this was not a legitimate deal I called customer service, and they said to wait 24 hours, nothing had posted. So to make sure that they could not use this info for other purposes (again I was a victim of identity theft in 2000) I canceled the card, because the lady said there wasn't anything she could do until a transaction posted. I was CMA, and making sure this would not be a charge and repeat kind of thing.

Oh well, I learned a lesson. Not that it isn't great to give. Just to make sure I check up on the donation before I hand it over!!!

[llecs]

I used to work for a political non-profit soliciting $$$ over the phone via CC or pledge. The organization is/was legit, but we were always told by management that we had to provide a copy of the most recent financial statement and our tax ID # if requested. I don't know if that was a fed or state law or not, but they were adamant we do so if asked.

Since that time, I request a financial from every charity asking for money. That seems to weed the good out from the bad. Ideally, admin costs should be 10% or less.

[Anonymous]

I lost $15 to another firefighter scam. Another guy calls me up for more money and said, are you calling me a LIAR ... He said I don't lie. I said yes, click! One of the give aways I found is when people say they don't lie when they were not accused. Usually liars say that. Normally an honest person isn't thinking of deception and the issue of lies never comes up. Glad you caught it.

[BungalowMo]

No one gets a penny unless they can mail me info.  I have gone online to some of my favorite charities & donated by cc directly on their site.  But over the phone...never!