Avoiding scams when donating to victims of the Hawaii wildfires

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Many people wish to donate to help those who were affected by the recent wildfires in Maui, but the Better Business Bureau asks potential donors to be careful.

Many scams get set up within a few weeks of a natural disaster happening, usually they are online scams from fake charity sites that appear legitimate. But with a little bit of research they will prove to be less than legitimate. Whitney Adkins, Director of Strategic Marketing at the BBB in Kentucky says to use the BBB website to look for legitimate charities to donate through.

Many scams look very legitimate, this presents a problem because often they are from the position of being a relative or friend of a victim.

“The majority of them [scams] are going to originate online, and it can be as simple as someone claiming to be a victim in the natural disaster or emergency situation or claiming that they are a friend or a relative of a victim and that they’re just trying to raise money in support of that person.” Adkins said.