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Friday, July 3, 2015

WILDFIRE RELIEF- Look Out For Scammers

With the fires in Wenatchee, many people naturally want to help the victims. However, the Wenatchee fires are a perfect situation for scammers to take advantage of people’s goodwill. While I have not heard of any scammers calling to the local area asking for donations, yet, this is a time to be on guard.

The Better Business Bureau of Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington, along with the Washington State Attorney General and the Washington State Secretary of State have issued a warning to be on the alert for such scammers. They recommend that you be leery of callers soliciting charitable donations who:

  • Demand donations using threats, aggressive tactics or deadlines.
  • Only accept cash donations or checks made out to them personally.
  • Can’t explain what kind of relief will be offered, how it will be distributed, who will benefit, when it will be allocated and what percentage of donations benefit causes.
They also recommend that you be wary of:

  • Search engine results from unknown or untrustworthy websites.
  • Unsolicited emails, instant messages and social media posts from unknown senders.
  • Videos or news stories with unusual or shocking headlines.
The Secretary of State’s Office can provide help if you want to donate to a charity:


The Better Business Bureau also provides good advice at http://www.give.org/.

If you feel that you have been a victim of a scam, report is to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office at http://www.atg.wa.gov/file-complaint. You can also report your experience on the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker at http://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/alaskaoregonwesternwashington.
 

Better Business Bureau:

 

KING TV:


 

 

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