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Last year, the FTC and state charity regulators joined in Operation Donate with Honor to stop sham veterans charities from lying to donors. Today the FTC is announcing that it shut down two more operations that collected donations with false promises of helping veterans and military service members.

In American Veterans Foundation, the FTC and its co-plaintiff, the Florida Attorney General, charge that this supposed charity falsely told donors that their contributions would be used to send care packages to deployed military service members, and to give immediate support to homeless veterans. In fact, almost no money went to these programs and little went to help veterans in any way. 92% of donations, instead, paid for telemarketers and other administrative costs.

It’s a shame. Generous Americans gave more than $6.45 million to this group, but their good intentions were not fulfilled. Worse yet, that money did not get to legitimate charities that actually help our veterans and military service members. As a result of the action announced today, American Veterans Foundation and its operator, Paul Monville, agreed to be banned from fundraising so that they can never deceive donors again.

Earlier this week, the FTC had announced that it shut down another sham charity, Veterans of America, that used robocalls to solicit car donations, claiming the donations would benefit veterans.  Like many fraud schemes, Veterans of America used sympathetic sounding names, including “Saving Our Soldiers,” “Act of Valor,” and “Medal of Honor.” It turned out that none of these were real charities and no veterans were helped. The only one who benefitted was the scammer running it. (The FTC’s action challenged practices by Utah resident Travis Deloy Peterson and entities he controlled that used names like Veterans of America and Medal of Honor. The FTC has not taken action against other entities called Veterans of America, Medal of Honor, or similar names.)

The FTC and its partners continue to fight veterans charity scams. But the best way to make sure your donations are going to the cause and program you intend to help is by researching the organization first. The tips at FTC.gov/Charity can help you. And watch this video to see how some veterans talk about this issue themselves.

Military Veteran Hugging Child

Note: This post was updated on November 6, 2020

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Daboom54
March 28, 2019
Awesome job by the FTC and partners! Shame on those telemarketers and scammers that take prey on our veterans. Our veterans have made it safe to go to bed in the United States. How many other countries can say that. My hat is off to all veterans.
67CrochetQueen
March 28, 2019
Thank you for this information. My husband is a disabled US Vet. We donate to many charities to help other vets. I really appreciate the effort to stop fraud/scams!!
Dedeye
March 28, 2019
THANK YOU, THANK YOU FTC for all your hard work in finding and shutting down these leeches who : #1 steal from the American people, #2 deprive our Valiant WARRIORS from receiving the medical/emotional /housing /financial help they desperately need. The Gvt. isn't helping our Vets, which has left a void for these leeches to slither through and birth these scams. Shame on our Government, and shame on these criminals. Praise to you FTC!! In the final day, we'll all be judged by a Holy Righteous God for our decisions & actions.
Spice
March 28, 2019
So - Monville has "agreed to be banned from fundraising"?? How about 20 years in prison?
Armygirl63
March 28, 2019
Thank you! Watchdogs like you keep folks honest and allows for the caring public's hard-earned donations are going to the very ones they are intended for. Thanks again.
KITTY
March 28, 2019
Wow, that's surprised! Thanks for your information very helpful. I got charity donation in my mail everyday, non stopping! Veterans is one of them, this is helpful info, I will use your website and check each charity out.
Jgall11
March 28, 2019
Thank you so much for doing this!
Stuart
March 28, 2019
Thanks
Concerned Donor
March 28, 2019
How do we report a Charity or have them investigated?
Don't use your…
March 28, 2019
Thanks again for great help
JM
March 28, 2019
I support this!
Ninosh
March 29, 2019
Kudos to the FTC!! I've received so many of these calls myself. Keep up the good work. It's so frustrating! Thanks again.
Honor
March 29, 2019
The swamp of scam and indiscretion known as social media is saturated with these scammers. In the news recently was a woman by the name of josephine klein from whiting, new jersey who ripped off a soldier by pleading a false case of lack of lack of funds, promising to pay him back then failing to commit to that promise when he needed the money to return to base. Fake entities aren't the only ones who take advantage of military members.
DickNick
March 30, 2019
The punishment should continue as long as the victims are still suffering!