Messages arrive asking for urgent help for someone seriously ill. Viral posts circulate with devastating stories. Fundraising links appear in your feed.
The internet democratised solidarity, and fraud along with it. And the fraud is no longer the badly written email of ten years ago: today it is professional pages, detailed stories with photographs, convincing testimonials, and well-constructed emotional pressure.
The five warning signs
1. Extreme urgency
“Donate today or tomorrow is too late.” “The child does not get treatment unless we reach the target this week.”
That artificial urgency exists so you will not think, will not check, will not ask anyone. Real causes, even urgent ones, accept that you verify before transferring.
2. Transfers to a personal account
Legitimate foundations have an institutional account in the organization’s name. If you are asked to send money to a private individual — “the boy’s father” — be suspicious.
Serious organizations avoid that arrangement precisely to protect themselves and the people donating.
3. Nothing you can verify
Legitimate campaigns give you something to check: the foundation’s full name, its tax id, an institutional site, social accounts with history, the option to visit in person. Fraud hides behind pages created days ago.
4. Images that do not survive a search
Plenty of scams use photographs stolen from elsewhere online: sick children, dramatic scenes, real events belonging to somebody else.
A reverse image search takes thirty seconds and settles it.
5. No formal receipt
Legally constituted foundations in Colombia issue certificates backing your donation, and those certificates even carry a tax effect.
If they refuse the document or offer vague excuses, you are probably not donating to a constituted organization.
How to give safely
- Prefer track record over urgency. A foundation with verifiable history beats an individual cause with no background.
- Use platforms that verify before listing. Somebody else having done the checking saves you the work and the risk.
- Channel the specific cases. If a particular situation moves you, donate through a serious foundation that can assess it, verify it and administer the resources. That protects your contribution and the person receiving it.
- Keep a record of everything you give.
A budget beats an impulse
Set a monthly or annual amount for donations and split it between two or three organizations you have already looked into.
That produces sustained impact on verified causes instead of an impulsive answer to every emotional request that crosses your path. It also makes you immune to time pressure.
The 48-hour rule
After a disaster reaches the news, hundreds of accounts appear asking for donations, riding the sensitivity of the moment.
In that context: wait 24 to 48 hours, confirm the organization existed before the crisis, and prefer known channels over new accounts that appeared afterwards.
A real emergency is not resolved in the first hour, and your contribution works just as well on Thursday.
Keep reading
- How to tell whether a foundation is real and trustworthy
- Foundations that receive donations safely in Colombia
- How to donate safely in Colombia, step by step
At Corag money moves by direct transfer to a verified account, in the name of a responsable whose identity was validated, and the evidence of the delivery is published afterwards. None of that replaces your judgement, but it gives it something to stand on.
