Hurricane
Katrina
Hurricane Katrina did major devastation on the Gulf Coast. If you wish to contribute to recovery efforts, use caution and don’t just donate to any group. Here are the agencies we suggest and approve for receiving relief donations. Be sure to mark them for hurricane relief::
| Organization | Web Site |
| American Red Cross |
http://www.redcross.org |
| Mercy Corps |
|
| Salvation Army |
|
| Northwest Medical Teams |
http://nwmedicalteams.org |
As you might expect, there are many scams on this donated money. To protect your donation, here are some guidelines:
- Give only to reputable organizations. The ones listed here are all good ones.
- Give to organizations that have low overhead. For any organization, at least 90% of your donation should go directly to the relief.
- Never click through to an organization from an email, as there are scam emails that take you to web sites that look like legit websites but are really copies and the real ones – they scam you. Always go directly to the organization site in the browser.
- If coming in from another web site (as from our post or web site), it is best to copy the visible URL with Ctrl/C, then paste to the browser address using CTRL/V. Just licking the listed URL may pop you to a copy of the real site – another scam.
- Some email may be sent to you sending you to a site with “breaking Katrina news.” It could be a scam site that loads malware to your system – viruses, trojans, or spyware. Make sure your antivirus, firewall, and spyware is updated and even then use caution on strange web sites
- Watch out for pitches on how to make a fast buck off the disaster, such as penny stocks on oil refineries. Check spambusters.org for updated info on these.
- Be alert for email messages purposively from victims asking for donations. Unless you know the victim, your probably can’t do the need assesment. Give your money to a reputable agency and let them do the assessment.
