Fraudsters are sending fake letters to charities claiming to be from the Charity Commission and requesting personal information such as passport details.

The regulator has warned charities to be on the guard from the fake letters, which are also asking charities to take action to remove a trustee of chief executive from their position or to release funds as part of a grant application.

These may be signed as from “the Commission”, from its chief executive or directors.

The regulator has assured charities that it will only send a letter by post if it does not have a current email address. It will rarely send generic letters, for example to “whom it may concern”.

Matters around tax and certification are not the subject of the Commission’s letters and emails. The regulator does not “issue requests to authenticate an account online by supplying personal identity documents”, it added.

The Commission says it would never ask a charity in a letter to provide banking information.

In the rare occasions a letter is issued the regulator says this will be franked and not stamped and will normally have a case number or reference on it.

It is unlikely to be marked “strictly private and confidential” and will come from the “Charity Commission for England and Wales”, not the UK or England only,

It adds: “It is unlikely that any serious allegations against individuals would be detailed in a letter, or that we would name individuals before there was clear evidence of wrongdoing.
“Matters to do with casework or investigation would normally come from a caseworker or a team at the Commission.”

All incidents of fake letters have been reported to Action Fraud and the regulator says it will continue to monitor the situation regarding the fake letters.

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