BALTIMORE — It’s the season of giving, and it’s not just charities who want your donations. Many animal rescues are overcapacity and desperate for funding, but bad actors are hijacking or cloning their social media pages to get that money before they do.
The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) takes in 10,000-12,000 animals a year, however the need is even greater.
“This year has been insane. We aren't sure why intake numbers are so much higher. But we haven't seen this level of intake since 2016,” said Noelle Patterson, the assistant director of communications at BARCS.
This means every dollar donated is put to use, but they’ve run into some competition while soliciting help.
“We have limited our administrators, we're always checking, changing passwords, just being careful,” said Patterson.
They’ve had to take extra precautions to protect their Facebook account as local non-profit pages were compromised.
“Went to my Facebook page for the rescue and found that I couldn't access it,” said Leah Biddinger, president & founder of Bring 'Em Home Animal Rescue and Trapping.
This happened to Biddigner's rescue over the summer, and to Rescue Well earlier this year.
“Out of nowhere we were removed as administrators of our own page,” said Christine Sandberg, president of Rescue Well Inc. “It puts people and animals at risk because our organization helps people that are in crisis.”
And hackers took over a page with tens of thousands of members working to connect lost pets with their owners changing the name and photo to BARCS then claiming to sell puppies.
“If those donors are giving to somewhere else and they think they're helping animals in need, and they're not, that's a percentage of proceeds that aren't coming to us to help the 10,000 to 12,000 animals a year that come through our doors,” said Patterson.
Fortunately, the admins of the lost and found page were able to get back control, but BARCS is constantly keeping an eye on other scam attempts.
“A fake profile will use our logo, they'll pop up, they'll have a fake site where they sell shirts with our logo on it. It's not a real site. They're not even actually selling those items, but they're scamming people out of their money thinking that they're donating to BARCS to buy something with our logo on it,” said Patterson.
Scammers are capitalizing on the reputation of these non-profits and they’re using the guise of helping innocent animals to trick donors.
“It's discouraging and disheartening. I would hope that people aren't scamming in general, but especially not taking advantage of a group that's trying to better the community,” Patterson said.
When donating, your safest option is to go directly to the non-profit’s website instead of clicking through a link or social media post.
BARCS doesn’t accept payment methods like Cash App or Zelle, however, they are verified on Venmo and PayPal.
Use a credit card in case you need to dispute a transaction. And check websites like Charity Navigator or Guidestar to learn more about the organization, including how they’re spending their fundraising dollars.
You can also vet a charity by looking them up by their name or employer identification number on IRS.gov.
