An important reminder from Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET:

If you’re panning on giving to the Red Cross or other charities to help people dislocated by the California fires (and I hope you are), it’s important to note that scammers want to take advantage of your good intentions.

Here’s a routine trick:

“First of all, do not respond to email messages soliciting donations, even from legitimate charities. These messages often are not sent by the charity itself. If you get an email from The American Red Cross and you wish to donate to this respected organization, do not use any information in the email as it may have been sent by a scammer that will redirect you to their fake Red Cross website. Instead, look up the phone number for the Red Cross, or open your browser yourself and type in http://american.redcross.org.”

Or, for more information on what is, or what is not, a legit charity organization, visit http://www.charitynavigator.org/.