At the same time, scores of legitimate Internet companies hope to earn commissions from donations they generate for charities. There's nothing illegal about this, but an entrepreneur's share of the take can be huge, and donors who assume that charitable contributions made on the Internet are tax-deductible are often wrong. To make matters worse, many state regulators have concluded they can't oversee Internet charities the way they police solicitors who use the mail or the phone. Conventional solicitors must register with state authorities, pay fees, post bonds and report on their finances. But Internet appeals are not like mail or phone solicitations that entail a sales pitch.
Donors visit Web sites voluntarily and give voluntarily.
This, regulators say, gives e-charity solicitors free speech protection that phone or mail solicitations lack. The Web is worldwide, and it's easy to set up offshore sites. Today, no state is going after solicitations on the Internet. Internet charities can pose problems for donors, too. It's sometimes hard to know where to turn.