Consumers who want to make a donation to help the people of Burma have been warned of e-mails that direct them to fraudulent websites.

The need for aid in the cyclone-torn country is “immediate and vast”, according to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the UK aid agency co-ordinating the appeal.

The committee is urging Britons to dig deep for the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless, starving and vulnerable to disease in the wake of cyclone Nargis.

However, according to a survey by the development charity World Emergency Relief, more than half of those who gave money to the Asian tsunami appeal have concerns about how donations were spent.

E-mail scams using the Burmese disaster to direct people to fake charity websites have added to these fears. The charitable sector is trying to prevent such concerns stopping people supporting worthy causes by encouraging charities to be more transparent and educating people to donate only to registered charities. To see if a charity is registered go to charitycommission.gov.uk.

Higher-rate taxpayers are eligible to reclaim 25p from the taxman for every £1 donated to charity.

For information visit tax-effective-giving.org.uk.

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