Phishing emails are one of the most common ways to dupe NGOs with false promises of grant money offered by unknown individuals. Here are some tips on how NGOs can avoid falling into phishing email traps.
Do not expose your email: Online scammers hunt for your emails everywhere. Unfortunately, these scammers even pay some individuals in poor and developing countries to collect emails and put them in a database targeted for these scams. If you wish to stop getting phishing emails, avoid posting your email addresses on comments, message boards or other websites. There is no point in posting your email everywhere. It is also advised not to post your telephone numbers.
Do not expose your bank account: Many NGOs believe that if they just display their bank account numbers and SWIFT codes on a website, donations will start flowing in. Forget getting donations, such sensitive information will only attract online scammers who will instead get the money out of you. In fact, these scammers just want such kind of information to create false identities, manipulate important financial data and exploit you further.
Never respond to unknown emails offering donations or invitations: Whenever you receive phishing emails offering donations or invitations to international conferences, you are free to do some research about it for your own satisfaction. But never reply to them even if you wish to vent your anger against them. This is because it has been observed that replying to such emails actually invites lot of spam. When other online scammers come to know that you have responded to a phishing email, they will flood you with more such phishing emails, happy with the idea of catching on another victim!
Source: https://www.fundsforngos.org/online-scams/steps-ngos-avoid-phishing-emails/
