Trusted communication with sponsors, members, donors and volunteers. Five million donors supporting conservation efforts worldwide.

Fraudsters targeting charities are looking to exploit people’s generous natures

Charities, like businesses, are targeted by fraudsters. Cybercriminals are increasingly sending emails impersonating charities and their employees, resulting in funds being stolen.

With over 5 million individual supporters globally, as well as government and corporate sponsors, WWF handles a large number of monetary donations from people who give because they value the work the charity is doing. Charities also hold a wealth of personal information, as they have large support bases. The South African chapter of WWF has a large supporter base and raises significant amounts annually from donors.

The good work of WWF South Africa relies on donations

With so much at stake – financially and reputationally – it’s crucial that WWF South Africa is protected from fraudulent email attacks scamming its supporters, employees, and partners.

People are more likely to trust an email that they believe is sent from a person and organization they know. This gives fraudsters a way to exploit the good nature of people. Without the right protection, cybercriminals could use email to impersonate WWF South Africa, and trick donors into believing they’re contributing to the legitimate WWF South Africa, when in fact their donation is going to fraudsters. This could have serious consequences for WWF South Africa and negatively affect their ability to carry out conservation projects.

Increasing use of technology to raise funds

WWF South Africa is increasingly using technology to engage its supporters and the broader community to raise funds. These funds are used to continue current conservation efforts and to support new conservation projects.

Without the right level of protection in place cybercriminals could easily fake the identity of WWF South Africa and use email to trick supporters and members, siphoning their donations into their own pockets. And unless the correct configuration and protocols of WWF South Africa domains are in place, the effectiveness of communication with supporters is weakened with emails marked as junk or spam, never reaching the inbox. Impersonators of WWF South Africa and poor delivery of legitimate emails to supporters puts the charities’ ability operate and raise funds at risk.