caffeine awareness association’s community service scam

The Caffeine Awareness Association’s Community Service ScamBy Dr. Lori Gore-Green

In a recent article by the Oneida Daily Dispatch, New York a New York City group

admits to a community service scam. The group’s intention

was to make serving community service as easy as

taking an online quiz.

An anti-caffeine activist pleaded guilty to the scheme this past

Thursday. According to the Manhattan District Attorney

Cyrus R. Vance Jr. “a community service sentence is a public and

personal responsibility.”

Marina Kushner and the group that she founded, The Caffeine Awareness Association, pleaded guilty to a false-filing felony. Due to her sentencing she will have to complete 300 hours of actual

community service.

Kushner was recently arrested in Florida after officials became

suspicious after a local defendant filed a letter from Kushner’s group. They were also equally as suspicious at

the website linked to the group about “fast community

service.”

Before Kushner created her scam group, she had written anti-

caffeine e-books and her group’s website supported her messages. While the public is made aware

by the Food and Drug Administration about the harmful

effects of too much caffeine, Kushner took it to a whole other

level.

Soon after the trial, the groups website page was taken down

“due to technical difficulties.” As a part of the scam, the group

offered community service letters certifying completion and

would charge based on the number of hours needed for

completion.

All the customers had to do was take an online quiz, but were not

obligated to pass it. The questions on the quiz were based on the anti-caffeine e-books that Kushner wrote and would sell on

the website. Over the several years that the group was active,

the group received over $200,000.

As one could imagine, this “community service” raised suspicions in Portland and

Washington state where the group was headquartered.

It wasn’t until a 2013 case where a judge stated that the anti-

caffeine group community service was a “scam” and that it would

not pass as legitimate community service. New York prosecutors are

now on the lookout for group activity that is similar to the anti-

caffeine group.