Greg's Corner

Beware of 'pink' scams this October

Even though our country is still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, that doesn’t mean that other illnesses have taken a back seat. As we’re sure you’re aware of, October is officially recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the American Cancer Society, in one year, 276,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women and roughly 42,170 women will die from breast cancer.

It’s around this time of year that most of the major breast cancer charities and foundations make the majority of their donations. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped scammers from trying to take money out of the donation coffers.

Now, we’re not talking about which charities are best when it comes to the actual goal of finding a cure. We’re talking more about the con artists who will try to fleece you into giving a phony donation.

Any scammer or con artist can slap a pink ribbon on a coffee mug or t-shirt and claim the proceeds are going to breast cancer research, but are they? The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about scams like this that are called ‘pinkwashing’.

While it might be easy to just buy the first thing that claims to be for breast cancer awareness, it might be better to research a charity that could do the most good. For example, we found a breast cancer charity on Charity Navigator that has a perfect four-star rating.

However, you may want to consider donating your time or money to a charity that is more local to you. You can do a web search for ‘local breast cancer charities near me’ to find local charities but still do your research and look for reviews to make sure their goals align with yours.

Wouldn’t you rather see your money go to someone who could use it instead of someplace just looking to make a buck?