Group of Defendants Accused of Making Deceptive Fundraising Calls Must Pay Court Approved Non-Profits

Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 -- 11:00 AM

(WMTV) A group of defendants accused of making deceptive fundraising calls agreed to pay $500,000 to states affected, who will distribute that money to court-approved nonprofits, including to some in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Tuesday that his agency, the Federal Trade Commission and 46 agencies from 37 states and the District of Columbia had deconstructed a large false telefunding operation.

The group of defendants, including Associated Community Services, will pay the money to states with the goal of giving money to the charities it was originally going to go toward, such as the American Cancer Society.

Nonprofits that help Americans with cancer screenings and treatment, military service members and first responders will all be given the money they were supposed to have. Kaul explained that nearly 43 million fake calls were made in Wisconsin alone from January of 2016 to August of 2019.

Also, 1.6 million of them were unique numbers, meaning they were made repeatedly to the same phone number. Kaul encouraged Wisconsinites to be cautious when donating to a charity and consider contacting the Better Business Bureau to make sure a charity doesn’t have complaints against them.

People can also research how charities use their donations, avoid providing bank information to unsolicited callers and search a charity name with the word “scam” to see if any complaints come up.

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