In less than a week, the Arab world has been faced with two natural disasters. In Morocco, an earthquake of unprecedented magnitude in the country left more than 2,500 dead, and a much larger number homeless. According to the UN, 300,000 people “lost everything” in this tragedy. Another Nation, another tragedy. After terrible floods in Libya, the country already has more than 2,300 dead and more than 5,000 missing. A toll set to increase.
The international community is taking massive action, as are individuals. In France, the Leetchi prize pool site has already received more than 1.25 million euros in donations for the Moroccan population. The Fondation de France association had more than 4 million euros on Tuesday. But donating, especially online, can be scary because of possible scams. 20 minutes has made a guide for you to avoid them as much as possible.
Bank on a known association
Of course, we haven’t reinvented the wheel with this advice, but caution never hurts. Several renowned French charitable organizations exist: the Red Cross, Unicef, Popular Relief or the Fondation de France. Donating to a “big name”, known, recognized and proven, remains the most effective way to guarantee that your donation will arrive safely.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful though. There are fake sites sometimes using the visual identity of the associations mentioned. That’s good, we’ve given you the right links corresponding to each association.
Check carefully for a lesser known association
It is of course possible to donate to a less reputable association. But in this case, be careful. The simplest thing is that it has the “Donation of Trust” label. As its name suggests, this organization is responsible for monitoring the accounts of many organizations, to ensure that the money is well used.
Be wary of sites that are too simplistic, too vague, or seem too amateurish – it’s rarely just an impression. You can Google the name of the organization to see if it already has a legacy and actually exists.
For all associations, Don de Confidence recommends checking “the scope of action”, including obviously the planned use of the money collected. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the association. Obviously, you only give your bank details to a secure site.
Check the site carefully before giving
For online prize pools, same principle. Above all, we rely on reliability, or we check. On Leetchi or even Le Pot commun, you don’t have to be wary of having your banking details extorted (on the future of your money, we’ll come back to that later). For other prize pool and money collection sites, you can check if the platform is well referenced in the register of insurance, banking and finance intermediaries, by searching for it on the site Orias.fr.
If you have any doubts about a site, type its name and address into Whois, which lists all domain names. A fraudulent site will quickly be referenced there.
Beware of small prize pools
The larger the prize pool, the more media attention and curious people it attracts, and the quicker it will be identified if it is fraudulent. Alix Poulet, CEO of Leetchi, reminds 20 minutes that the verifications from the jackpot sites are the same regardless of the amount, she indicates “that there is indeed a greater chance that a jackpot with a large amount will be reported by the community, because it is more likely to be spotted.”
Request verifications at the slightest suspicion
Alix Poulet indicates: “Our own site takes care of certain checks and can ask anyone for proof of what the money collected was actually used for. “Overly fanciful or suspicious prize pool descriptions are also automatically identified.”
On your own, you can report a prize pool that seems fraudulent – whether you participated in it or not. In this case, the site will be responsible for requesting the proof. If they are not provided, the amount is refunded to each user.
It is also possible to file a complaint online or in a police station or gendarmerie.