Social Engineering & FraudMANIPULATIVE

Disaster and Charity Scam

What it is

A fraud that exploits compassion after disasters, illnesses, or for popular causes, soliciting donations for fake charities or diverting nearly all funds to the operators rather than the cause.

How it works

These scams convert empathy into money before the giver pauses to verify. In the hours after a hurricane, wildfire, or shooting, fraudsters register sympathetic-sounding names (often near-copies of real charities), buy ads, and solicit by phone, text, and crowdfunding, using vivid, identifiable suffering to short-circuit deliberation. The identifiable-victim effect makes a single named sufferer more motivating than statistics, and urgency ("families need help tonight") discourages the checking that would expose the fraud. Some operations are outright fakes; others are registered nonprofits that pass on only a few cents per dollar while professional fundraisers and insiders keep the rest, which is deceptive even when technically legal. Slovic's work on psychic numbing and the identifiable-victim effect explains why an emotionally framed single story outpulls aggregate need. Regulators repeatedly bring large sweeps: the FTC and all 50 states charged four sham cancer charities in 2015 with taking about 187 million dollars, and the 2018 Operation Donate with Honor targeted fake veterans charities nationwide.

Real-world examples

•The FTC and every state charged four affiliated cancer charities in 2015 with bilking donors of roughly 187 million dollars while spending the vast majority on the operators and fundraisers.
•2018's Operation Donate with Honor brought more than 100 actions against charities that falsely promised to help veterans and service members.
•After major hurricanes, fraudulent "relief funds" with names resembling the Red Cross or local charities appear within hours, soliciting by text and social media.
•Crowdfunding pages invented around a sick child or a tragedy circulate widely before anyone confirms the beneficiary is real.

Ethical guidelines

●Soliciting donations for a nonexistent cause, or diverting them to insiders, is fraud that also starves the real charities of trust and funds.
●A registered status is not a guarantee; concealing that almost nothing reaches the cause is deceptive even where it is lawful.
●Legitimate charities disclose how funds are used and do not pressure donors to give instantly by untraceable means.

How to defend against it

►Give to charities you sought out yourself, not ones that contacted you; decide the organization first, then donate through its official site.
►Check the charity on an independent evaluator (such as the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, or your state charity regulator) before giving.
►Be wary of names that merely resemble a well-known charity, and of pressure to donate immediately by gift card, wire, or cryptocurrency.
►For crowdfunding, give mainly to people you personally know or campaigns the platform has verified, and treat viral emotional appeals with extra caution.
►Ask what percentage reaches program services, and report suspected charity fraud to the FTC and your state attorney general.

From the Defense Playbook

Check the Dateseconds

Before reacting to a story, photo, or video, find out when it was first published or recorded, because genuine but old material recirculated as if it were new is one of the cheapest and most common forms of misinformation.

Reverse Image Searchminutes

Upload or paste an image (or a video frame) into an image search engine to find where else and when it has appeared, which exposes recycled photos, stolen profile pictures, and images given a false caption.

Vulnerable-Audience Screenminutes

Before launch, ask who will actually receive the message, which of them are least able to evaluate or resist it, and what it does to them; then change the targeting, the tactic, or the safeguards so that the campaign does not get its results from the people least able to say no.

Every playbook entry states how strong its evidence is and when not to use it. Browse the full playbook.

References

Small, D. A., Loewenstein, G., & Slovic, P. (2007). Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victims. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102(2), 143-153 · link
Experimental basis for the identifiable-victim effect that charity scams exploit through single vivid sufferers.
Federal Trade Commission (2015). FTC, All 50 States and D.C. Charge Four Cancer Charities With Bilking Over $187 Million from Consumers. Federal Trade Commission press release · link
A landmark action against sham cancer charities that took roughly 187 million dollars from donors.
Federal Trade Commission (2018). FTC and States Combat Fraudulent Charities That Falsely Claim to Help Veterans and Servicemembers (Operation Donate with Honor). Federal Trade Commission press release · link
A nationwide sweep of more than 100 actions against fake veterans charities.

Last reviewed 2026-09-07

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