Generous donors are an essential element of a successful charity. Charities and nonprofit organizations rely on donations to fund their daily operations and help achieve the goals set forth in their mission statements.

While charities rely on donors, criminals prey on them, especially online. Generous men and women are prime targets for online scammers, who can easily present themselves as a worthy charity with a goal of scamming donors out of their money, funds that could be going to worthwhile charities instead. As a result, men and women need to be especially suspicious of online scams while employing the following tips to protect themselves.

* Don't fall for victim stories. Anyone who has had an e-mail account has no doubt received an e-mail from a stranger claiming to be a victim but only needs some generous donors to get back on his or her feet. Such stories typically involve someone affected by a natural disaster or stricken with a terrible disease. The "victim" will solicit financial information, which he or she claims will go toward financing the recovery process. These victims are almost certainly criminals hoping to access your financial records or simply squeeze a donation out of you and thousands of other generous men and women. When you receive such an unsolicited e-mail, delete the message before opening.

* Never open unsolicited e-mail attachments. Another way criminals use e-mail to get at unsuspecting victims is by sending unsolicited e-mails that include attachments. Criminals may say these attachments are photos of the tragedy left in a natural disaster's wake, but they are more likely viruses aimed at gaining access to your computer and any sensitive information therein. Never open these e-mails, and if you do by mistake, never open the attachments.

* Don't click on links included in an e-mail or online solicitation. Criminals are clever, and many are fully capable of creating a fraudulent Web site that's a mirror image of a reputable charity's Web site. Links to these fraudulent sites might be included in the body of an e-mail or on social media sites. Never click on these links. If a particular cause or charity strikes a chord with you, find out the charity's URL address and then type that address into your browser manually. Clicking on the link in the e-mail could bring you to a fraudulent site, and such sites are so well done that you might not know the difference.

* Only make secure donations. When making a donation, only do so via secure Web sites. A secure Web site will include a padlock symbol at the top or bottom right of the page, and the URL

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