Beware of charity scams. Do your homework before donating. Those are the warnings issued to the public by CNBC in a recent report about fraudulent nonprofits. The CNBC report focused on an unprecedented enforcement action in 2015. The Federal Trade Commission, along with all 50 states and other law enforcement authorities, filed a complaint against …
Posts Tagged: scams
WATCH OUT! Phishing Remains a Threat for Taxpayers
The IRS is warning taxpayers to watch out for fake emails and websites trying to steal personal information that can be used to commit identify or financial theft. The IRS is listing this type of “phishing” scheme on its list of the top tax scams for the 2015 filing season, the typical time when scams …
Nonprofits Subject to Email Phishing Attacks
On October 29, many received an email from Christopher Oechsli, president of Atlantic Philanthropies, saying the New York foundation was planning on randomly giving away $1 million. The email stated that recipients should consider themselves to be “lucky individuals.” Unfortunately for these email recipients, the foundation, which announced plans to stop its operations by 2020, …
New IRS Phone and Email Scams
The IRS is warning of phone and email scams targeting individuals and businesses. First, scammers have been making calls claiming to be from the IRS. They may say that a taxpayer owes money or is entitled to a large refund. Even worse, some of the scammers are threatening arrest or revocation of the taxpayer’s driver’s …
Vendor Warning
Do you check references before you engage vendors for your organization’s fundraising events? If not, you should. The New York Times Haggler recently reminded us why. In a recent post, the Haggler investigated a company called CreditCardMachineRentals.com, which charged a nonprofit a wrongful late fee of $8,100 for returning borrowed credit card machines weeks late …
IRS Warns of Pervasive Phone Scam
You may encounter something even scarier than Halloween today. The IRS is warning about a sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers around the country. The scammers tell people that they owe money to the IRS and that it must be paid immediately using a debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to cooperate, the …