InfoCision Charity Scam: Report Finds Telemarketing Company Takes Largest Cut Of Donations

A telemarketing company that solicits donations for several big-name charities is keeping most of the money raised and systematically lying about it to the public, according to a new investigation by Bloomberg Markets Magazine.

InfoCision instructs its employees to say, when asked, that at least 70 percent of the money that they raise for the American Cancer Society and American Diabetes Association will go toward charity, Bloomberg Markets Magazine reports. But these charities, which approved the telemarketing scripts, had agreed to give InfoCision more than half of the money raised.

In fact, InfoCision kept all of the donation money that it raised on behalf of the American Cancer Society in 2010, according to Bloomberg Markets Magazine. InfoCision also kept 78 percent of the donation money that it collected last year in its nationwide neighbor-to-neighbor program on behalf of the American Diabetes Association.

You can read Bloomberg Markets Magazine's full investigation here.

The U.S. is the most charitable country in the world, according to the Charities Aid Foundation's World Giving Index. Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charity last year, according to a recent report by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

Americans generally trust nonprofits more than corporations or the government, and 71 percent think nonprofits will better address pressing problems, according to a 2010 survey by American Express.

Check out more information from Bloomberg Markets Magazine below:

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• Online Dating Scams

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/online-romance-scams-cost-50-million-in-2011_n_1518162.html" target="_hplink">Fraudsters feigned interest</a> in lonely online romance seekers to rob victims of about $50 million last year.

• Debt Collector Scams

  Phony debt collection agencies <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/ftc-busts-scam-debt-collector_n_1418582.html?ref=business&ir=Business" target="_hplink">have pressured victims</a> into giving up millions of dollars. The Federal Trade Commission recently closed down two California-based <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/ftc-indian-call-center-fraud-debt-collectors_n_1289751.html" target="_hplink">companies with call centers in India</a> after they defrauded Americans out of $5 million over the past two years.

• Online Marketplace Scams

  Craigslist and eBay are a playground for scammers. Consumers have sent payments to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/craigslist-scams-tips-losing-money_n_1445763.html" target="_hplink">places like Nigeria </a>for items advertised online only to discover they have been scammed. Last year, Romanians pretending to be U.S. citizens put fake ads for pricey items on eBay and Craigslist, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/craigslist-scams-tips-losing-money_n_1445763.html" target="_hplink">defrauding Americans out of more than $100 million. </a>

• Prize Money Scams

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/28/lottery-scam-probe-nets-2_n_1460916.html" target="_hplink">Canadian police arrested a man </a>who tried to take a $70,000 processing fee from an elderly Californian woman who believed she was going to win a $7.5 million lottery prize in April. More recently,<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/jamaica-lottery-scam-fraud-suspects-arrested_n_1525498.html" target="_hplink"> eight Jamaican swindlers accused</a> of duping Americans in lottery scams were also arrested.

• Charity Scams

  Fake charity organizations come out of the woodwork to exploit the generosity of others, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/tornado-relief-fraud-scam_n_1334853.html" target="_hplink">especially during times of disaster.</a> Most recently, an organization that claims to help disabled veterans called Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF) <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/charity-fraud-disabled-national-veterans-foundation_n_1499314.html" target="_hplink">took millions of dollars from donors</a> without spending the money on veterans.

• Mortgage Foreclosure Scams

  Scammers targeting struggling homeowners have offered false services to help with mortgage settlements. Mortgage foreclosure scams have shot up <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/mortgage-foreclosure-scams_n_1429805.html" target="_hplink">60 percent in 2012 as new federal programs</a> for mortgages have provided avenues for fraudsters to exploit.

• Travelling Relative Scams

  Scam complaints related to travelling surged right before <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/spring-break-travel-scams_n_1418954.html" target="_hplink">spring break last year. Crooks defrauded</a> grandparents out of money when their grandchildren were travelling abroad. The scammers, who find out about the travel plans from places like social media sites, pretend to be the grandchild asking for wire transfers on the phone. The scams have involved scammers pretending in an email to be a victim's travelling relative who has recently been mugged or has lost their passport.

• Food Scams

  Although there isn't much data on how often it occurs, food scams can pose a tremendous<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/food-fraud-hoax-grocery-store_n_1439995.html#s889480&title=Milk_" target="_hplink"> health risk. The chances</a> of dilution and counterfeiting increase when food is imported from other countries, and some foods like fish and olive oil are particularly prone to adulteration.

• Online Prescription Drug Scams

  Scammers have sold drugs to online consumers and then posed as government agents asking the buyers to pay money to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/12/online-prescription-drug-scam_n_1420776.html" target="_hplink">avoid jail time. A Texas woman </a>killed herself after being caught up in one of these drug schemes.

• Credit Card Scams

  Credit card breaches allow fraudsters to make charges on other peoples' cards after getting a hold of numbers. Global Payments Inc., a third party payment processing service for MasterCard and Visa, made headlines in April for reporting that over a million card numbers had been compromised from their system, <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57407981-83/global-payments-calls-data-breach-contained/" target="_hplink">according to CNET.</a>

Comments

[DanB101]

05:14 PM on 03/08/2013

Give the money to your local church and then get involved in how it will be spent.

[Shifoxx]

09:19 PM on 10/16/2012

I worked for this company for two years and I am so happy, that the truth came out, this place is a scam. Infocision you got what you deserve.

[Carrie-On]

12:31 PM on 09/16/2012

Philanthropy exists because donors share their abundance. Operating costs are supported by donors income flow; improvements are supported by donors savings (higher contribution levels), and capital expansion is supported by donors top-level assets and trusts. Any non-profit that ignores the value of philanthropic standards should lose their IRS status, immediately.

When the US government, and states grant gifts to non-profits those are tax dollars. If a board is not a legal board, cannot make decisions based on knowledge and experience in all areas of the non-profits operations it is evident that the CEO is, in fact, leading the organization not the board. DHHS does this repeatedly with health and education programs. One such has a board comprised of the organization’s patients which violates HIPPA at least because such well-meaning board members do not understand what or why they are a legal entity. The CEO does and takes advantage of the board.

Boards must realize that when they approve a budget, they are responsible for raising those funds. Everyone on a board does not have to have to have deep pockets, but each board member must be well-versed in board operations and responsibilities. In the end, the public has to oversee how tax dollars are being used, and approved of those uses – and force a return to true philanthropy.

[Carrie-On]

12:25 PM on 09/16/2012

The problem with current non-profit organizations lies with the IRS and the states' AGs. The IRS oversees activities, states AGs oversee money of non-profits and no one has been "watching,' or regulating for over 30 years. The DHHS and states grant funds to non-profits that do not have responsible boards. Boards of Directors (and/or Boards of Trustees) are responsible for policy setting and enforcing their resolutions. Boards have a two-fold responsibility in which they must address the needs of the community (and answer to it) and also the non-profits’ missions (as stated in their Charter filed with Secretaries of State). They also approve the operating budget presented by the CEO the boards hire at will. Once the budget is approved, the board is responsible to raise the funds for that budget to keep the charitable organization operating. In that effort, operations funding is commonly raised via Annual Fund contributions from the organization's community, and income for services, or some foundation gifts that usually, at this level, match donors' gifts to increase the organization's annual fund donors.

The essence of philanthropy is that such charitable operations are approved by the community - not all communities have to approve a non-profit. In that regard, if another charity enters the realm it should collaborate with others to expand services and judiciously utilize the philanthropic dollar. Those principles have eroded to a serious level in the USA because there are no regulations, and that included churches and schools.

[babue]

04:27 PM on 09/14/2012

The reason non profit companies are non profit is; they pay all the money out in salaries to the owners. I imagine they have a way of getting out of paying taxes on it. We,d need to as Romney abou that.

[american-dolt]

04:41 PM on 09/13/2012

We were once an Honorable Lot, now every Company is run by a Crook.

[Anonymous Conservative]

02:36 PM on 09/13/2012

Ridiculous. Telemarketers are very annoying.

[ItalicsMyn]

02:33 PM on 09/13/2012

Locally there were callers claiming to be the police, wanting money for "worthy programs". The callers used coercive methods to get the money. At the time I called the police to ask if they were real representatives or not. There was a pause, and a semi-affirmative response. Several years later I discovered that it was a telemarket outfit that gave a very small percentage to "the worthy cause" and kept the bulk of it for administrative fees.

[Wanda Glass]

02:31 PM on 09/13/2012

I do not donate money anymore. To any organization. On the face of it, they seem legit. But, you only see the face....there always seems to be a scam involved.

[american-dolt]

04:47 PM on 09/13/2012

If you do, they sell your name to another Charity...jeesh.

[Wanda Glass]

05:36 PM on 09/17/2012

Yep, forgot about that one!  Thanks!

[Moderation2win]

02:14 PM on 09/13/2012

Charities should have an end date when they start. 20-30 years. They have a life cycle and then they need to go out of business. Let new and young organizations start over.

Most organizations are primarily volunteer driven in their infancy. Over time they become bureaucracies that take on a life of their own with large organizations of employees. Then they lose focus and spend so much time raising money to pay the overhead that the reason they exist is lost.

[fortressfountain]

01:17 PM on 09/13/2012

I feel no pity for ceos, so I do not donate.
On the other hand lots of my relatives gave thousands to worthless causes when they could have given it to me.

[Linda from Deerfield]

12:57 PM on 09/13/2012

Has this happened to anyone else? I never received a telephone solicitation from a cancer charity until I was in the middle of treatment for cancer! I was incensed. There was a series of calls, supposedly from the American Cancer Society. I not only refused to contribute, but after they ignored my plea to leave me alone, I accused them of preying on people at their most vulnerable. I have no idea where they got our telephone number, but the timing was very suspicious. They did finally stop calling.

We are all free to donate to charities at will. I fail to see how hounding us is constructive.

[Wanda Glass]

02:32 PM on 09/13/2012

I smell scam......

[Diggo Deva]

12:55 PM on 09/13/2012

Yes, this always happens with bigger charity organisations.They always loose focus as they grow.Most forget their cause.So we donate for smaller charities like http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/222488

[Albert Jenkin]

12:16 PM on 09/13/2012

Wll, that seems fair. After all, the informercial crews are the ones doing the real work of getting the charity out there in the public eye. The workman is worthy of his hire. And it's not as if these so-called charities were going to do any good works with their cut anyway.

[Mary Alice]

01:34 PM on 09/13/2012

THAT'S a little cynical...

[Albert Jenkin]

02:30 PM on 09/13/2012

Maybe. What about those [phone calls I get from people claiming to be from the local police widows and orphans league asking for donations? How much if any goes to police widows and orphans? It didn't start with TV and internet.

[hopeseeker]

12:14 PM on 09/13/2012

...and it's all legal :(