Be Wary of Scammers Looking to Take Advantage of BC Wildfire Victims

Monday, 17 July 2017 at 14:01

Natural disasters like the wildfires in B.C. can bring out the best in people and they can bring out the worst in people.

Residents of Oxford County are being to watch our for scam artists who might try to take advantage of the massive wildfires in British Columbia.

Thousands of B.C residents have been forced from their homes and are in need of money and supplies. The problem is scam artists know this and will take advantage. Ashley Casselman, Communications Manager of the Better Business Bureau of Western Ontario talks about a few red flags you should watch for.

"One red flag is if they claim that 100 percent of the donations will go to the relief victims. Despite what an organization might claim, they will always have some sort of adminstration costs, even if they are small, not a 100 percent will go to the donations, they will always have to cover some form of adminstration costs."

CEO of BBB Serving Western Ontario Linda Smith says you also really need to be careful on social media.

"Social media is filled with people opening their doors or their wallets for those in need but the sad reality is that some bad people are going to use this as a chance to scam people."

Smith says these types of scams always pop up when a natural disaster hits.

"We are always on the lookout for scams involving financial donations. We have seen plenty of fraudulent crowdfunding sites set up as well in the past after disasters such as wildfires. It's easy to do. We just need to exercise caution before handing over money or credit card information."

When being asked for donations, BBB offers the following tips:

- Be cautious when giving online.
- Be cautious about online giving, especially in response to unsolicited email or text messages or social media posts that claim to link to a relief organization.
- If you want to give to a charity involved in relief efforts, go directly to the charity's website. In response to other disasters like hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the Nepal earthquake, law enforcement raised concerns about new charitable organizations that were created overnight, allegedly to help victims.