Verify Before You Give.
A hurricane makes landfall. A wildfire destroys a neighborhood. Within hours — sometimes within minutes — fake charity websites go live with names designed to sound like well-known organizations, emotional photographs taken from news coverage, and donation buttons that accept your credit card immediately. The money goes nowhere near the disaster victims.
How Large the Problem Is
According to a 2026 report from AttorneyGeneral.net, fake charities following Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the 2025 California wildfires stole an estimated $34 million from donors — $18 million after Helene, $12 million after Milton, and $4 million after the wildfires. Charity scams overall cost Americans $189 million in reported losses in 2024, and the surge rate after a major disaster runs approximately 400 percent above baseline.
Sources: AttorneyGeneral.net Charity Fraud Report 2026; Coveron.com July 2026; BBB Wise Giving Alliance 2025
In 2025, the FTC shut down a vehicle donation operation that raised more than $45.5 million supposedly for cancer screenings. Only $126,815 — less than one-third of one percent — ever reached actual patients. More than 84,000 donors were deceived.
How to Give Safely After a Disaster
Never donate through a link in a text, social media post, or email following a disaster. Go directly to the charity's official website by typing the URL yourself. Before giving to any organization you are not already familiar with, verify it first on Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org), CharityWatch (charitywatch.org), or the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (give.org). All three are free and show exactly what percentage of donations reaches the people a charity claims to serve.
Established, verifiable organizations active in disaster relief include the American Red Cross, Direct Relief, Team Rubicon, and the Salvation Army. Report suspected charity fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general.
With care,
Mike Bridges
Founder, The O55 Report