Start here
The free tool below runs entirely in this browser — no account, nothing stored or transmitted. Redact anything you would not want kept before you type it.
Open the companion tool →Why the registration check is enough
Registered charities are listed in public registries, and a real organization will happily point you to its registration page. An appeal that cannot survive that lookup is the signal, not the emotional weight of the photographs.
The payment route has the same logic as any other scam: card and check payments leave a record and a recipient name, while gift cards, crypto, wire transfers, and peer-to-peer transfers often leave you with nothing to dispute.
The protocol
- Pause the emotional decision for the length of one lookup. Forgiving yourself a two-minute delay costs nothing.
- Search the organization's registration status in a public registry (in the US, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search). Verify the name exactly, including any lookalike spelling.
- Pay by card or check to the named organization, never through a personal transfer, gift card, crypto, or a payment link sent in a direct message.
- Go to the organization's site by typing its address, or use the registry's own link — not a link from the appeal post.
- Prefer organizations you can name and follow up with. If you want to help immediately, give to an established organization working the same disaster.
What the tool does
Paste or describe the appeal and get a donation reading: which registration check applies, which payment routes leave no recourse, and the wording that gets you the organization's own registration details. It runs in this browser; nothing is sent or stored.
Limit first: This is a giving-safety aid, not a vetting or endorsement service. It can flag a legitimate small organization that is simply not registered the way you expect, and it can miss a well-built fake. A clean reading is not an endorsement.
Open the companion tool →One human next step
If an appeal you donated to turns out to be fake, contact your card issuer to dispute the charge, then report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Report suspected charity fraud to your state charity regulator as well.
Research log and safety checks
AI-assist path: not used for a verdict. The decision hinges on a registry lookup and a payment route, both of which the reader can verify directly — showing those steps beats any model score. §6.10: not a frontier-pace topic.
§0.5 protection result: category is scam-fraud-defense; crisis-adjacent: no; fear/urgency/scarcity toolkit used: no. The protective function is free and the paid feature is convenience only.