White-Collar Looting
In spite of our bluster and our arrogance, we have big hearts, we Americans. Disasters of all types, from 9/11 to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, from the Asian tsunami to a South American earthquake, trigger in us an immediate charitable response. We stage benefits, volunteer at shelters, and open our checkbooks to help those affected by such tragedies.
The flip side of that coin is the presence of heartless, evil people who would exploit our kind-hearted impulse. With heart-rending images of charred homes and chaotic lives still being transmitted from the sites of the Southern California wildfires, the Internal Revenue Service is warning Americans not to fall for “a new e-mail scam that appears to be a solicitation from the IRS and the U.S. government for charitable contributions to victims” of the fires.
In an effort to appear legitimate, the bogus e-mails include text from an actual speech about the wildfires by a member of the California Assembly.
The scam e-mail urges recipients to click on a link, which then opens what appears to be the IRS Web site but which is, in fact, a fake. An item on the phony Web site urges donations and includes a link that opens a donation form which requests the recipient’s personal and financial information.
The only difference between this thievery and the lawless destruction of property that accompanies other natural disasters is that the crooks here are using laptops to access their treasure instead of a trashcan or sledgehammer. It may be white-collar looting, but it’s looting all the same.
As always, if you want to give, verify every solicitation you receive. Better yet, use your phone book or the Web to track down contact information for reputable charities and send your donation along through them.
And don’t let those heartless bastards quash your natural impulse to help those in need, okay?
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POSTED IN: Charity, Illegality
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