FTC Charges Four Cancer Charities with Bilking over $187 Million from Consumers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges that four charities bilked consumers out of over $187 million falsely claiming that the donations would help pay for pain medicines, hospice care and other services. Unfortunately, these donations were spent on cars, trips, sports tickets and professional fund raisers. This story is currently the largest graphical banner on the FTC homepage. You can read the full article on the FTC website by clicking here.

The four charities named in the federal court complaint are:

• Cancer Support Services, Inc
• Cancer Support Services, Inc
• Children’s Cancer Fund of America, Inc
• The Breast Cancer Society, Inc

The so called “charities” raised millions of dollars by the use of telemarketing calls, direct mail, websites, and materials distributed by the Combined Federal Campaign (which raises money from federal employees for non-profit organizations). Please do not confuse these organizations with other great organizations that may have similar sounding names.

The sad thing here is that people were donating money out of the goodness of their own heart and this money was used by a few people for personal gain. This negatively impacts the good nature of people who genuinely want to help, but don’t want to get ripped off by con artists.

When my wife went through treatment for breast cancer last year that included surgery and chemotherapy we saw good organizations doing great things to support her and the other patients. These organizations included the American Cancer Society (www.Cancer.org) and Face in the Mirror (www.FaceInTheMirror.org). The American Cancer Society was very familiar by name, but I had no idea until we went through this process how much they actually do to support people going through issues with cancer. Face in The Mirror was completely unknown to me until this experience and they were so kind and actually pampered my wife during these difficult treatments that I cannot say enough good things about their program.

The message here is that there are good charitable organizations out there that really do help. If you are thinking about donating money there are resources such as Charity Navigator (www.CharityNavigator.org) that tracks and rates charities on a number of criteria including their goals, mission and use of funds. This site might help clear up concerns or at least help you understand if your money is going to help in the way that you prefer. Don’t let bad people slow you down and stop donating, just take a few minutes to educate yourself about the organization and move forward when you are ready.