The scam occurs in the following way:  You are walking into or out of a store.  A person approaches with a jar and a brochure saying they represent some charity that sounds like a good cause.  The person is only asking for whatever change you may have.  The person sounds legitimate.  You think to yourself, why not, I have some change in my pocket so you hand the person the money.  

The questions that you dont get answered are: where is your money actually going, is it even a real charity, does the charity coordinator or collector have a criminal past, or have you just donated to a random person who just scammed you?  

The Police Department wants to encourage those who want to donate to do so but only to organizations that you research and/or feel confident as to their legitimacy. 

A great resource when trying to determine if a charity is legitimate, or if you have a complaint against a charity please go online to the Office of the Attorney General at http://ag.ca.gov/charities.php