Online Charity Scams Article written on 12/1/13 by Kelly Holland on NBC news

Kelly is Raking Muck This is a muckraking article because it presents a problem involving the public, and uses terms such as “unfortunately” and a quote that included “In my opinion, that’s a fraud.” This shows that the issue is portrayed as something that should be fixed.

The Muck to be Raked Charities gain much of their donations towards the end of the year, so scamming “charities” also gain money from careless donators, especially online. Under 6% fall for pitches over the phone, but an average of 30% of donators don’t research charities online. Scammers also create websites and charities with similar names to trustworthy ones to more easily fool people.

Why the Muck should be Raked People’s money is constantly being wasted by scammers that claim they have “non-profit charities”, and are giving a miniscule percentage of donations to those in need. This is also false advertising, which is illegal.

Disposing the Muck A solution to the problem could be to register charities with a certain organization with information on usage of donations, so donators could check to see if the charity is registered and easily avoid scams.