Known Fakes and Scam Alerts

Fake animal rescues usually work the same way: they copy photos and stories from genuine shelters, post urgent appeals on social media or crowdfunding sites, and ask for money to be sent quickly to a personal account. Common warning signs include no charity or non-profit registration number, or a number that does not match the official register; no physical address or a shelter nobody can visit; donations requested by bank transfer to an individual, gift cards, cryptocurrency or "friends and family" payments; constant "emergency closure" or "animals will be put down tonight" deadlines; and photos that turn up on other rescues' pages when you run a reverse image search. Before you give, look the organisation up on its country's charity register (such as the Charity Commission in England and Wales, the IRS in the US or the ACNC in Australia), and donate only through its own website or a verified giving platform. If you think you have found a scam, report it to the platform where you saw it and to your national fraud reporting service, and contact us with the evidence. Every organisation elsewhere on Real Rescues has been checked against its official website and registration details.