Be Careful During the Holidays: Online Donation Scams
If you are thinking of making online charitable donations before the end of December, be careful of scammers posing as legitimate donation sites.
Fraudsters are setting up fake GoFundMe, PayPal, Venmo and other charity links so they can trick you into entering your login credentials and banking information.
Use “Pause, Verify, Report” to protect your donations and get these to those in need.
Action steps:
- Pause before you click on any link in text, emails, or websites since some links may compromise your devices.
- Verify that the websites are legitimate by checking that you are on the official site, rather than through a link or QR code.
- Report any suspicious links or sites to the official charity.
See our CTR Cyber page for more cybersecurity internal controls. Departments should contact [email protected] with any incidents or suspected incidents of fraud or cyber threats or if you need support from our Statewide Risk Management Team.