Recent hurricanes and earthquakes have left a trail of death and devastation. In the wake of these tragedies, criminal scammers are setting up fraudulent charities, telephone banks, websites, and mass email campaigns to steal money from people who want to help disaster victims.

In this special 2-minute No Crime Zone! episode, you'll learn the 3 most important things to NOT do, and what to do instead.

Key messages:

- Never respond to telephone solicitations asking for money or anything else.

- Never rely on caller ID to verify a caller. Scammers can easily create fraudulent caller IDs that appear legitimate.

- Never respond to email solicitations.

Resources to spot / prevent fraud and to investigate non-profit charities:

- Common Scams and Frauds - United States Government USA.Gov resource: https://www.usa.gov/common-scams-frauds#item-213707

- U.S. Federal Trade Commission Scam Alerts: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/scam-alerts

- Charity Navigator (note: only charities with revenue of $1 million or more are rated. You can usually find basic information about a charity even if it isn't rated by Charity Navigator): https://www.charitynavigator.org/.

- GuideStar - World's largest source of information on non-profit organizations. Has IRS form 990 available for all U.S. non-profits: http://www.guidestar.org/