Phony charities are big business for scammers who prey upon generous people who think they are contributing to help those in need.  I have written many times over the years about a wide variety of phony charities and the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and others to shut them down.  Recently the FTC along with the Attorneys General of California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin sue the Cancer Recovery Foundation International which also uses the name Women’s Cancer Fund along with its principal, Gregory  B. Anderson alleging they took in 18 million dollars in charitable contributions, but only paid $194,809 in support of cancer patients.  The phony charity solicited contributions primarily through telemarketing.  It is important to note that even if you are on the Do-Not-Call list you can legally be called by charities.  It is equally important to note that whenever you are contacted on the phone, you can never be sure as to who is really calling you so you may be contacted either by a phony charity or a scammer posing as a legitimate charity. Similarly, when you are solicited for a charitable contribution by email or text message you cannot be sure as to whether the person contacting you is legitimate or not.

TIPS

Never provide credit card information over the phone to anyone whom you have not called or in response to an email or text message. Before you give to any charity, you may wish to check out the charity with http://www.charitynavigator.org where you can learn whether or not the charity itself is a scam. You can also see how much of the money that the charity collects actually goes toward its charitable purposes and how much it uses for fund raising and administrative costs.  Charitynavigator.org will also let you know how to most effectively contribute to particular charities you may be interested in.

Never trust your Caller ID to indicate the identity of who is really calling you because it is quite simple for a scammer to use a technique called “spoofing” to manipulate your Caller ID into making it appear that their calls are coming from a legitimate source.

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#charityscam, #women’scancerfund