What You Will Learn
If a charity calls, texts, or emails asking for money and you want to give but are not sure it is real, you can verify it yourself in about two minutes, before you hand over a cent. The rule that protects you every time: decide to give on your own, look the charity up yourself, and donate directly, never on the call. ScamVerify™ tracks the charity scam category behind these solicitations: 11,603 complaints in our FTC and FCC data, with 1,430 in the last 90 days, and those recent complaints came from more than 1,200 different phone numbers, a rotating cast of fundraisers and fakes. Here is how to tell a real charity from one of them.
Step 1: Get the Exact Name, and Watch for Sound-Alikes
Ask the caller for the charity's full, exact legal name and write it down. This one step trips up a lot of scams, because many use names that sound almost identical to a famous, trusted charity, swapping a word or two so it feels familiar. A real organization will give you its name without hesitation and will be happy for you to look it up. If the caller is vague, rushes past the name, or pressures you to give before you can check, that alone is your answer.
Step 2: Look It Up on a Charity Checker
Do not use a link the caller sends. Open a browser yourself and search the exact name on one of the free, independent charity checkers. Each shows you whether the group is a registered nonprofit and how it handles money.
| Charity checker | What it shows you |
|---|---|
| BBB Wise Giving Alliance (give.org) | Whether the charity meets accountability standards |
| Charity Navigator | Ratings on finances, accountability, and transparency |
| CharityWatch | Letter grades and how efficiently donations are used |
| IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search | Whether the group is a registered tax-exempt nonprofit |
| Your state charity regulator | Whether it is registered to solicit in your state |
Step 3: Check How Much Actually Reaches the Cause
Being a real, registered nonprofit is not the whole story. Some legitimate-sounding groups, especially ones that fundraise by phone, spend most of what they raise on fees for paid fundraisers, leaving only a small slice for the actual cause. The checkers above show you the breakdown. If most of each dollar goes to overhead and fundraising rather than programs, you can choose to give to a more efficient charity working on the same cause instead. Your goal is not just a real charity, but one where your money does what you intend.
Got a call like this?
Tell Ava what happened. She checks it against millions of FTC and FCC complaints and real-time carrier data, then tells you exactly what you are dealing with.
Step 4: Give Directly, Never on the Call
Once you have verified a charity and decided to support it, give on your own terms. Go to the charity's official website by typing the address yourself, and donate with a normal credit card. Never donate by gift card, wire transfer, or a payment app to a caller, and never read your card number to someone who phoned you, because those are the exact methods scammers use and cannot be undone. A real charity is glad to receive your gift through its own site, on your schedule. Nothing about a genuine donation requires you to pay a stranger in the moment.
The Sound-Alike Trap
The single most common trick worth calling out on its own is the sound-alike name. Scammers know you trust certain well-known charities, so they register or invent names that are one word off, or that mash together respected-sounding terms, to borrow that trust. On a phone call, where you cannot see the spelling, a name that is almost right slides by easily. That is exactly why Step 1 matters: get the precise name, in writing, and check the spelling against the real organization. A single altered word is often the entire difference between a genuine charity and a fake.
The Two-Minute Recap
If you remember nothing else, remember this sequence, because it protects you from every version of the charity call. First, never decide to give in the moment on a call, a text, or a social post; let the pressure pass. Second, get the exact name in writing and check the spelling against the real organization, since sound-alike names are the most common trick. Third, look the group up yourself on an independent charity checker and see how much of each dollar reaches the cause. Fourth, if it checks out and you want to give, go to the charity's own website by typing the address and donate with a normal card, never a gift card or wire, and never over the phone to a caller. Verify first, give second, on your own terms. That order is the whole defense.
What to Do If It Fails the Check
- Do not give. If you cannot verify the charity, or it fails the check, keep your money.
- Do not use any link or number the caller provided. Go directly to sources you trust.
- Let Ava check it. Paste the number or the group's name, and Ava checks it against the same complaint and carrier data we track, then tells you whether it is a known scam line.
- Report it. File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and with your state charity regulator so your report helps warn others.
For the scams this verification protects you from, see our guide to charity scams, how the police and veterans badge-charity call works, and how disaster-relief donation scams surge after a big event. When in doubt, verify first and give second, and let Ava confirm the number before you do anything. One last habit worth building: if you give regularly, keep a short list of the charities you have already vetted and give to those directly, on your own schedule, so an unexpected call never has to be a decision at all. A caller can invoke any cause, but they cannot force you to decide on the spot, and the few minutes it takes to check is always time a real charity is glad to give you.
