Half of charities believe fraud is a major risk to the charity sector, according to a report from the Fraud Advisory Panel.
Charities believe themselves to be vulnerable because unethical people exploit the sector’s presumption of trust and goodwill.
According to the report, most charity frauds take place at head office (18 per cent) or within the banking system (17 per cent) and involve the theft of cash (28 per cent) or cheques (23 per cent).
Almost half of victims know who committed their fraud. Typically it is a paid employee acting alone.
Frauds are most often discovered by internal controls or audits (46 per cent) or the bank (18 per cent).
The likelihood of fraud is highest among the largest charities (20 per cent have experience fraud versus 7 per cent overall), those that employ full-time staff (15 per cent compared to 3 per cent for organisations that have no full time paid staff) and those with trading subsidiaries (20 per cent).
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The Ministry of Consumer Affairs in New Zealand has issued an alert for donors to charities handling the Christchurch earthquake disaster following the release of a scam email which appeared to be sent by the Red Cross.
Public complaints about charity clothing collections have risen by more than 200 per cent, according to unofficial figures from the Fundraising Standards Board.
Don't be an easy target, says Niki May Young. Protect yourself from charity theft.
A former Everton Football Club chief executive has been jailed for 18 months after being found guilty of stealing thousands of pounds from the club’s charity.
WRVS has established a fraud response team with representatives drawn from four different departments in order to tackle the changing nature of fraudulent activity going on both inside and outside the charity.
An internal audit's view of fraud
The recession has prompted fraudsters to find ever more ingenious methods of lining their pockets. Jill Reid, WRVS' head of audit and risk management, offers some tips on how to prevent, identify and address fraudulent activity within your charity.
David Philpott, chief executive of the London Air Ambulance charity, has been sacked as he was investigating allegations about conflicts of interest and misuse of funds against some of the trustees.
Do charities who took donations from fraudster Bernard Madoff have a moral obligation to return the money? Like many clever fraudsters, Bernard Madoff, the investment banker who was jailed for 150 years this week for robbing investors of £40bn, fuelled his lies with the cover of respectability, which included major philanthropy to maintain his position in high society.
A father and son who claimed to be raising money for sick children in order to con donors out of cash have been banned from running companies for 18 years. Bruno Schulz and his son Paul's actions were described as "inherently objectionable" by the Insolvency Service after an investigation into their Scottish companies The Goodwill Children's Cancer Company and Rosebuds. In a newsletter from the companies the pair claimed to have raised £1m for sick chilren, but in fact they raised only £250,000. Out of that total they paid themselves £190,000 as salary.
Those of you who, like us, have been victimised by scammers purporting to fundraise on your behalf in North America may gain some quiet satisfaction from this scambaiters posting by Charles Crawford, a former diplomat.
Several charities are to tighten their checking procedures on new recruits after one worker duped nine different organisations into giving him paid employment.
The Institute of Fundraising Scotland has expressed its relief that the sector is finally to get closure on the Breast Cancer Care (Scotland) scandal, following the news that Anthony Freeman, the fundraiser who siphoned £450,000 from the charity, looks likely to be sent to prison.
Seven fundraising companies based in and around Manchester have been wound up in the High Court following investigations by the Department of Trade and Industry.
A £1m charity tax fraud involving a disabled children's charity has resulted in four people being jailed for a total of 19 years. The contractors from fundraising company Drawtreat Ltd in Manchester, who were working for the charity, Care and Action Trust for Children with Handicaps (CATCH) plus CATCH's founder, Trevor England, were charged with theft, failure to operate PAYE taxes and the abuse of gift aid schemes offences.
Donors warned about fake charity collectors
Complaints by the public about doorstep collectors has led to the publication of new guidance to help prevent people from mistaking commercial collectors as charities.
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