Beware of social media accounts asking for donations for Turkey-Syria earthquake victims

If you’re considering donating to victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake, you'll need to be on your guard against scammers looking to exploit the crisis.

We’ve seen a host of accounts appear on social media claiming to collect funds for victims, with some asking people to send donations via cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or PayPal.

Read on or watch our video above to learn about how to spot a potential donation scam and to get advice on donating money safely.

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Suspicious social media pages

We’ve found pages, posts and videos on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter that may contain misleading or false information about the crisis in an attempt to get people to send money.

Some images posted on Facebook ‘donation’ pages have been flagged by the platform for containing false information. We’ve also come across accounts on Twitter and TikTok requesting donations via Bitcoin and NFT. While some major charities do accept donations via cryptocurrency, it's also common to see scammers asking for these types of payments. 

We contacted one suspicious donation page on Facebook and were asked to transfer funds to a bank account based in Pakistan, under the guise that the money would go to individuals affected by the disaster. There is no way of verifying whether a bank transfer will actually go to victims, so it’s best to avoid ‘charities’ that ask you to do this.

A Meta spokesperson told us: ‘Any attempts to impersonate non-profits or create scam accounts are against our rules, and we have removed the fraudulent page brought to our attention. We encourage people to use our dedicated donation tools available across our platforms, this will ensure individual donations are reaching verified charities.’

We shared one suspect video with TikTok. It told us that the video we shared doesn’t violate community guidelines but said it is monitoring the situation so it can take action against those who do violate its policies.

Avoiding donation scams

As a rule of thumb, don’t donate money to unfamiliar accounts on social media, as there is no guarantee the donation will reach your intended destination.

For the Turkey-Syria earthquake, the government recommends you donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee.

UK-based charities can be verified on the government’s charity register. Here, you can search using the charity’s name and registration number. You can search the OSCR for Scottish charities or the charity commission for Northern Ireland.

Before donating, Action Fraud advises that you:

• Check that the charity is signed up to the Fundraising Regulator’s Directory, which lists charities that have committed to good fundraising practices.
• Ask the charity or fundraiser for more information about their work if you’re suspicious.
• Look out for information on where donations go, as fundraising appeals should clearly state this.
• Look for the registered charity number on the charity’s website.
• Don’t respond to random fundraising messages via email, social media or any online posts that only contain a mobile number to call.
• Avoid donation requests via a money transfer company – this is a sign of popular donation scam.

If you have been the victim of a donation scam, contact your bank immediately to see what it can do to retrieve the funds or reimburse you. You can also report the scam to Action Fraud.