Phantom Memoir’s Author Also Apparently Had Phantom Charity

The New York Times reports that Margaret Seltzer, the author who confessed this week to fabricating her memoir “Love and Consequences,” appears to have also have created a phantom charity.  The memoir, written under the pseudonym of Margaret B. Jones, described the author’s experience growing up as a foster child in the gang violence of South-Central Los Angeles.  Her book-flap biography referred to her involvement with the International Brother/SisterHood, and her agent set up a website to describe this purported charity as well as promote the book.  The New York Times found no record of such a charity in IRS filings or state filings in Oregon, where the author lives, or California.  Neither her agent nor her publisher apparently verified its existence, and leaders of groups combating gang violence in Los Angeles interviewed by the New York Times had never heard of either the organization or the author.

The website did not solicit donations, according to Ms. Seltzer’s agent, and there is no indication that Ms. Seltzer otherwise sought contributions for it.  Nevertheless, it is another example of the need for donors to verify that purported charities in fact exist and are in good legal standing.  The ability to search for charities on the IRS website, review IRS filings by charities on Guidestar, and growing access to state filings on the Internet, makes this task increasingly easier, but it still requires at least a modest amount of effort on the part of potential supporters.

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