Fraudulent Telefunding Operation Shut Down

Monday, March 8th, 2021 -- 2:00 PM

(WMTV) A large telefunding operation was halted Friday after allegedly placing more than 1.3 billion deceptive fundraising calls that claimed to be calling on behalf of organizations that supported homeless veterans, children with autism and victims of housefires.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, the Federal Trade Commissions and 46 other agencies announced the move, which included 43 million calls to Wisconsinites.

Of those Wisconsin calls, over 1.6 million were to individual phone numbers that resulted in 17,873 unique numbers being called more than 100 times a year.  “The conduct at issue in this case, preying upon Americans’ generosity through an enormous number of robocalls, is truly shameful,” Kaul said.

“Money that folks donate to charitable causes must go where it was intended to, not to line the pockets of those engaged in unscrupulous conduct.”  The complaint alleges that defendants collected over $110 million using their deceptive requests during their calls, which were “mostly illegal robocalls.”

The defendants have been making their calls since at least 2008, the complaint says. In addition to the causes listed above, the calls also claimed to support patients with breast cancer.

According to the complaint, defendants knew the organizations they were fundraising for spent little or no money on the causes they claimed they were supporting. Kaul noted that in some cases, the defendants kept as much as 90 cents of every dollar they solicited for donations.

The group, Associated Community Services, and its defendants have agreed to settle the charges with the FTC and agencies.  Kaul reports that each defendant will be permanently prohibited from working with any fundraising activities or telemarketing.

They will also not be allowed to use any existing donor lists or make a further misrepresentation about a product or service.

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