Natural disasters, dread diseases or the plight of veterans – they bring out the scammers who create fake charities to grab the dollars of caring men and women.

“Charity” scammers do double damage. They take from the donor, and they take from those the donor wanted to help.

Before you donate to any group that’s new to you, investigate the group’s identity. It’s easy to do once you obtain the group’s EIN (its Charity DNA). Once you have the EIN you can do a Reverse Lookup to see if it’s recognized by the IRS.

A common fake charity ploy is to use a name that looks like a prominent charity. This builds on the confusion already out there because many existing charities having similar names. Search for charities with “disaster relief” in their name and you’ll find more than 220. Search for those with “warrior” in their name and you’ll find more than 1,400. Search for those with “cancer” in their name and you’ll find more than 3,300. Search for those with “veteran” in their name and you’ll find more than 17,400.