October 18–22 is Charity Fraud Awareness Week, highlighting efforts to curb cyberattacks on charities, which lose an estimated 5% of revenue to fraud each year. Also problematic are fake charities, which are on the IRS’s Dirty Dozen list of tax scams for 2021. Fake charity scammers take advantage of tragedies and disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and commonly solicit donations by phone, using organization names that sound similar to legitimate charities. They also tend to ask for donations in the form of a gift card or wired funds.
CPAs, get four hours of fraud CPE with our 2021 Fundamentals of Fraud Prevention & Detection On-Demand Webinar. Click here for more information.