Christmas Joy

The Christmas season is a time for sharing with those who are less fortunate than we are. It’s called the ‘Christmas spirit’. We WANT to give back. The problem is, because we are naturally generous particularly during the Christmas season, we are more apt to be taken advantage of. Giving back is a good thing and giving back helps others and makes us feel better about ourselves but we don’t want to give to the crooks and scam artists that are out there waiting like vultures to take advantage of us and ultimately take advantage of those who need help the most. The scam artists have gotten better, too. You will get pleas both in email and in snail mail from what looks like legitimate organizations like the American Cancer Society but the mail will not be from a legitimate group at all. It will be from a crook. The difference might be subtle like a word misspelled or an ‘s’ added to a word. The fact is, though, if you contribute to these fakes, nobody benefits except the scam artists.
Now don’t misunderstand me here. Giving is a good thing. We should all give to those who are less fortunate. We all need to help make this world a better place to live. But we also need to be vigilant in seeing to it that the donations that we make are to legitimate organizations that will use what we give to help others.

The way to protect yourself is to never respond to an email or a snail mail plea for money. If you want to donate to an organization, find the correct address for that organization and contribute to it. That way you will know that your donation will actually go to the place and to the people that you want it to go to. 

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