State joins national crackdown on fake charities for veterans

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen is joining his counterparts from around the country and the Federal Trade Commission in a donor education campaign that includes cracking down on charities that falsely claim to help veterans and service members.

“Charities fraud of any kind is abhorrent, and veterans’ charities fraud is especially upsetting. This campaign will offer important resources to help donors identify charities that match their own values,” Jepsen said Thursday at a news conference announcing the effort in Washington, D.C.

The campaign, dubbed Operation Donate with Honor, includes information on how to spot charities that are trying to scam consumers and how to identify legitimate charities. It advises consumers to do an online search of a charity’s name with words like “complaint” and “scam,” and to look out for scammers that make it look like their fundraising calls are coming from your local area code, a Washington, D.C., area code, or from an organization you know. It also recommends paying by credit card or check rather than cash.

Officials also announced efforts by various states and the FTC to crackdown on fraudulent veteran charities. The charities falsely claimed to help veterans including money for homeless and disabled vets, employment counseling, mental health assistance and care packages for deployed service members. The scams varied from falsely claiming donations would be tax deductible to money being stolen.

In November 2017, Connecticut was part of a multistate effort to shut down the operations of VietNow National Headquarters Inc., a national charity that claimed

it was raising money for Vietnam War veterans but spent only a fraction of its donations on veterans programs.

The Department of Consumer Protection’s Public Charities Unit regulates charitable organizations in Connecticut. It maintains a database of registered charitable organizations at www.elicense.ct.gov.

As part of Operation Donate with Honor, Connecticut is informing retailers, grocery stores and restaurants in the state, which are often asked by veterans charities if they can solicit funds outside of their establishments, how to spot fraudsters and scam artists posing as legitimate charities.