Memorial Day honors war dead …. but also brings out scammers

This is Memorial Day …..  It’s a day when we honor our war dead.

It’s also  a day when scammers come out of the woodwork, asking you to donate to all kinds of causes. Charities will send you mailers, emails and texts. Some of the causes are legitimate but others might be designed to tug at your heart strings and rip you off.

One red flag is if an organization won’t provide you an IRS 990 form.

Another red flag is if the charity is keeping  too much of the money you give them.

Stephanie Garland of the Better Business Bureau says charities should keep about 10-12 cents of each dollar to pay their staffs and other expenses.

That means they should keep about .88 cents of each dollar. But recently. one so-called charity was found keeping .99 cents of every dollar.

Garland says you can check out a charity with the Better Business Bureau by going to BBB dot org..