Daily Preparedness

The images coming out of Haiti are heart-breaking and as generous souls, we all want to do our part to alleviate the catastrophic suffering we see on a daily basis. As with all modern disasters, the Haiti earthquake has unleashed a secondary storm of disaster–the charity scammers. Within hours of a major disaster, fake charities, websites and phone solicitors arise from the ashes to ply us with pleas for assistance. Sometimes sounding like recognized charities, or ‘collecting’ in their name, these scamming vultures move quickly and effectively. They want your money and in the latest schemes, your identity, computer files and credit card information.

In order to protect yourself from these unscrupulous vultures, follow these suggestions:

• Never link through an unsolicited charity email. Go to the charity’s own website from your own web browser. Be certain that the site is legitimate.
• The newest scams involve virus-laden websites that infect your computer with a virus and then cause a virus alert message to appear. It then tries to sell you virus protection software, which is actually malware. These sites will pop up if you search for Haiti and earthquake.
• Before giving to any charity, know what percentage of your donation will go to aid, what percentage may be diverted to other causes and what percentage is for ‘overhead’.
• Know that in most cases, the best thing you can give after a disaster is cash. Truckloads of clothing, furniture & bedding are often left to rot because there is no mechanism to distribute it after a large disaster.
• If you have goods that can be sold, sell them and donate the cash to a reputable charity.
• Do not respond to unsolicited phone calls pleading for money.
• Do not give cash to individuals coming to your home, place of business or in public asking for donations in the name of a charity. Instead, give directly to the charity.
• Ask if the charity is a 501c3. Ask to see their annual report. Ask for contact information for the headquarters. If they refuse to answer your questions, don’t donate.
• Beware of text message donations. You will most likely be paying the texting charges and fighting a fraudulent charge may be difficult. Also, do not text credit card or other personal information.
• If donating online, do so only through reputable charities’ websites and only those that begin with https
• The safest way to make a donation is with a check made out to the charity. You will then have a ready-made receipt for tax purposes.
• Ask the charity what help they are currently providing in the area. How many people are they currently serving? What other organizations are they working with?
• Do an internet search for the charity in question. Look for independent news reports of aid they are currently providing in the area they claim to be serving.
• Ask the charity what will happen to excess funds collected. How will they use them?
• Never give out your credit card or bank information over the phone, especially when the phone call is unsolicited.
• With any phone solicitation, ask the caller to send written materials. Do not donate unless they do so. Even then, be cautious.
• Know that countless ‘charities’ and ‘foundations’ prey on the elderly. They send statements that look like bills, rely on their instinctive generosity and employ a variety of other unsavory techniques. If you have elderly family members, watch their bank accounts for such donations. Some frauds include using the information on checks sent in to set up automatic electronic withdrawals.
• Avoid giving to newly established charities, especially after a major disaster.
• Every state attorney general’s office will have information on legitimate and fraudulent charities. If you believe that you have encountered a fraudulent charity, contact the AG office immediately.
• Decide what you can reasonably afford to donate and donate it to a legitimate charity of your choice. When you are asked for donations by others, simply say, “We’ve already donated.”

One of the most effective and fast-responding charities is LDS Humanitarian Services. 100% of your donation will go to assist others, not only in times of disaster but with a wide range of truly wonderful programs. A link to a rapid donation form is available at www.lds.org. For further information about other ways you can support worthwhile efforts around the world, go to http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/

Do not become a secondary casuality of disaster. Be wise in your charitable giving and be certain that your generosity goes to those you wish to aid!

Okay, so I just opened an email account and there were (no kidding here) 525 pieces of spam email. FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE! Thankfully, my fifth grade teacher had the foresight to teach me to speed read. 525! ! !

Most of you aren’t going to see that much spam in a month, but I seemed to have hit the Spam-o-rama Sweepstakes. How does all of that spam propogate?

One of the easiest ways to Spam-a-friend is to send everyone you know the latest touching story, beautiful graphic or ’sure to be true’ urban legend. You hit the forward button and then dump load your entire address book into the ’send to’ box, hit send and know that you have enlightened half of the civilized world. But wait, have you really? Most likely no!

First, check out any ‘fact’ with snopes.com or other site that tracks the latest ‘Bill Gates is going to pay you to send emails’ or ‘Aliens really did land in NYC’ postings. If the information is truly valid and you are certain your friends can’t live without it, DO NOT SIMPLY forward the email. Many of these emails are sent out by spammers who can ‘collect’ every email address you pass on. Yep, they really, really can. And then your friends can thank you when their in box is filled with offers for things they never needed to know exist, obscenities and all other manner of unsightly spam!

Instead, if you really want to pass on information to a friend, copy only the contents of the email. DO NOT include any previous email addresses. ‘Paste’ the information into a new email and send it to your friends. But, first, ask yourself if your ‘friend’ will appreciate the mail.

SCAMS: Email in-boxes are overflowing everyday with urgent messages from banks, mortgage lenders, insurance companies and government agencies urging the recipient to click on the handy dandy imbedded hyperlink which leads straight to their website where your attention is urgently needed. Once at the website, you will merely enter your account information, password and then save yourself from certain doom. Right? WRONG! ! ! The vast majority of these are ‘phishing’ emails which hope you will follow their dim-witted instructions, provide your account information and then sit happily by while your identity, funds, accounts, etc. are pilfered by the highway bandits of the information highway.

How then do you tell which emails are legit and which aren’t? The first rule of thumb is; if in doubt, don’t!  Look for mis-spelled words, logos that are slightly off, emails from banks you don’t even have accounts with and a sense of supreme urgency that you act NOW!

The second rule is; DO NOT use a hyperlink in an email. A hyperlink is the ‘click here’ type button or highlighted word that takes you from the email to a website. If you believe the email may be legitimate (from a company you know that you have provided your email address to), simply close down your email program. Open a new browser window and type in the web address of the company that you have used previously. DO NOT use the web address provided in the email. Or better yet, pull out your ‘What If’ notebook, look up the company’s phone number and call them. (AGAIN, DO NOT call a number provided within the email!) Let them know that you have received an email claiming to be from them, what it says and have a customer service rep check on the status of your account.

Most large companies have fraud departments and they may want you to forward the email to them. If requested, do so as soon as possible. eBay and Amazon both have established ’spoof’ addresses which you can send suspicious email to.

Beyond the nuisance factor of in-boxes polluted with nonsense, computer virus’ which can do significant damage are often passed by email. Unsuspecting ‘friends’ pass on a lovely image, touching attachment or serious warning hoping to protect their friends. Instead of helping, they pass on a virus which can wipe out their hard drive, fry the entire system or ’spy’ on them in order to retrieve valuable information. Why take the risk? (To knowingly pass on a virus is a serious crime.)

Do everyone you know a favor, practice safe email sending! Let’s not waste each other’s precious time, risk forwarding a virus or provide ‘phishers’ with one more email address that they can hope to victimize. Email is truly a miracle form of communication—use it wisely and well!

P.S. Linda, our every-faithful reader forwarded a few more hints to me that are too good not to include:

1. If you are sending an email to more than one person, always use the BCC option. This hides the additional emails from the group.

2. Ever get those emails urging you to sign an ‘online’ petition? DON’T! ! The completed petition’s only value is to a professional spammer who will pay bucks to harvest all of those lovely email addresses. Not only will the spammer reap the addresses, he/she will know which cause is important to you. If you want to have your voice heard, write a letter, send an email, shoot off a fax or simply call the group you are trying to impress. A big list of email addresses will NOT impress an elected official, corporation or civic entity.

3. Remember that every address you receive or send an email to is most likely stored. When you simply hit ‘forward’ every email address listed in that email is going to be stored. All it takes is one individual computer getting a virus and then sending it out to ALL of those stored addresses.

4. Again, before forwarding the latest urban legend, AMBER alert, virus alert, etc. check it out on snopes.com. They are pretty up to date and accurate!

Thanks again, Linda, you are a great reader and contributor