October 22, 2018
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Francine A. Giani, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Commerce announced today that the Utah Division of Consumer Protection is joining the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the National Association of State Charities Officials (NASCO) and global charity regulators to kick off the first annual International Charity Fraud Awareness Week (ICFAW) from October 22 to 26, 2018. ICFAW is a coordinated international campaign to help charities and consumers avoid charity fraud and promote wise giving.
“Our agency is pleased to support this worldwide consumer education initiative. The hope is that with the collective efforts of our partners during this premier campaign, more charitable dollars will end up in the right
hands and not in fraudsters pockets, “remarked Francine A. Giani.
Utah and other U.S. partners are joining the Charities Commission for England & Wales, which for many years has hosted its own Charity Fraud Awareness Week, and this year the event is expanding to other countries. In addition to the U.S. participants, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, the New Zealand Charities Service, and the Office of the Scottish Regulator are also joining in the international outreach effort. Key non-governmental participants include Chartered Accountants Worldwide, the UK’s Fraud
Advisory Panel, and international charities Oxfam, British Council and Amnesty international.
International Charity Fraud Awareness Week will feature a social media campaign that promotes wise giving tips focused on particular topics of interest each day. Follow @UtahCommerce on Twitter for daily fraud tips and tune into the weeklong discussion through the hash tag #CharityFraudOut. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has produced new public service announcement videos on “Make Your Donations Count” which can be found here; https://youtu.be/KlPMiai9ILo “Charity fraud continues to trap consumers and businesses as scammers become more sophisticated in creating schemes that play on the public’s emotions. The Utah Division of Consumer Protection is proud to be part of the ICFAW effort to put more user-friendly information into the public’s hands no matter where they live,” stated Daniel O’Bannon, Director, and Division of Consumer Protection.
For more information about the Utah Division of Consumer Protection click here dcp.utah.gov/
