How to avoid scammers when donating to Kansas City mass shooting victims

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A lot of people are still looking for ways to help victims of the shooting. While there are plenty of charities doing a lot of good, there are scammers who often use these moments to take advantage of people.

Every day the memorial outside Union Station continues to grow, showing how much Kansas Citians want to support everyone impacted by last Wednesday’s mass shooting. Many have also pitched in financially, but experts warn if you do that, be on guard for scammers.

Among those wanting to make a difference is Chad Grittman. He sent money through TheChurchLovesKansasCity.org.

“It’s the least I can do,” Grittman explained. “You know it’s such a small part of what it means to care for a steward your neighbors well and take care of people.”

READ MORE: Chiefs’ Butker provides jersey to Super Bowl rally shooting victim’s family for funeral

Chad Grittman wanted to help, so he donated money to shooting victims through that fund after his church told him about it.

”Not only do I trust my own church but also all the other churches I’m seeing on social media that are sharing the link about this fund,” Grittman continued. “And saying we’re doing this as a response to being the body of Christ in Kansas City.”

There are a lot of good causes - but some not so good. The Better Business Bureau often finds scammers posing as Good Samaritans claiming to raise money to help.

“You want to make sure you know a little bit more about transaction fees, the specifics of where that donation is actually going?” Josh Planos with the Better Business Bureau said. “It is very easy to fall for 100% of your donation would go to ‘X’.”

The BBB urges you to do research by seeing if a so-called charity popping up on your screen is an official 501c-3 non-profit.

”Whether or not you produce an annual report as you are contractually legally obligated to as a non-profit yearly,” Planos added. “Whether or not you’ve got any oversight as an organization with a board of directors.”

And they urge caution using “crowdfunding sites.”

“If you have a GoFundMe Page you don’t need to provide any sort of financial snapshot to the IRS,” Planos told KCTV. “You don’t need to provide any sort of paperwork or paper trail. It’s a lot easier to say, ‘Hey, Venmo me $10 and I’ll give it to those who are impacted.’”

If you feel anyone asking you for donations is a scammer, there are ways you can report them anonymously to the Better Business Bureau which will turn your complaints over to law enforcement.

GoFundMe also has guidelines on their website to avoid anyone cheating you out of your money.