United States Attorney Susan Lehr issued a public safety alert today advising the public to be vigilant to hurricane relief fraud in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

On Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend Region and quickly caused major devastation there and across states including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and others. On October 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida. As we have seen in the wake of previous national disasters, fraudsters will target victims of the storms along with citizens across the country who want to do what they can to assist individuals affected by the storms. Unfortunately, criminals exploit disasters for their own gain by sending fraudulent communications through email or social media and by creating deceiving websites designed to solicit contributions. 

The public should exercise diligence before giving contributions to anyone soliciting donations or individuals offering to assist those affected by these storms. Solicitations can originate from phone calls, texts, social media, e-mail, door-to-door collections, flyers, mailings, and other similar methods. Before making a donation to benefit victims of Hurricanes Helene or Milton, individuals should adhere to certain guidelines, including:

-Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf.
-Do not be pressured into making contributions as reputable charities do not use such tactics.
-Do not respond to any unsolicited communications (e.g., e-mails and texts), and never click links contained within those messages because they may be targeting your personal information, to include bank and credit card account information, and other identifiers such as dates of birth and social security numbers.
-Rather than clicking on a purported link to a charity, verify its legitimacy by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming whether the organization is a valid charity.
-Beware of organizations with copy-cat names similar to but not exactly the same as those of reputable charities.
-Avoid cash donations if possible. Pay by credit card or write a check directly to the charity. Do not make checks payable to individuals.
-Know that legitimate charities do not normally solicit donations via money transfer services, and their website will normally end in .org rather than .com.
-Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
 
The U.S. Department of Justice established the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to deter, investigate, and prosecute fraud in the wake of disasters. More than 50 federal, state, and local agencies participate in the NCDF, which reminds the public to be aware of and report any instances of alleged fraudulent activity related to relief operations and funding for victims. Complaints of fraud may be reported online at www.justice.gov/DisasterComplaintForm. Complaints may also be reported to the NCDF at (866) 720-5721, a hotline that is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.