We begin tonight, keeping them honest. Its a phrase we lose a lot on this program and one were passionate enough. Its never more more important than the story were bringing you tonight. Last night when we were covering the shooting in newtown, connecticut, anderson learned something that made us all sick to our stomach that people were trying to capitalize on the tragedy, fraudulently trying to capitalize on the victims family families. Tonight a woman has been arrested in connection with one of those alleged scams. Drew will join me with the details in a moment. First heres how we got to this point. Last week the uncle of 6yearold noah told anderson there were fake web site, facebook pages and emails going around asking for donations in noahs name. Drew griffin and david fitzpatrick, our produce, tracked one of those emails to the bronx, and her name is noah alba, and they went to her house. Here is what happened next. Hi. Are you ms. Alba . You set up donations on behalf of the newtown tragedy . No. Here is your name and address on the email. No, i will show you who i am. Can i come in with the camera crew . No. Alba eventually agreed to let her voice be recorded and denied she had anything to do with the email having to do with donations. This is more of what she told producer david fitzpatrick. This has your email on it right there. There is about noah pozners funeral, and take a look at this, because it has your email all over it, and on the second page it is your paypal account and a bank routing number, you have set up. Thats not my paypal account. I have a paypal account is that your email . Which one . It says right there. Yeah, thats one of my gmail. It is your account . My personal account. But i never set up any funds for anybody. You should know that the pozner family tells us that they are very upset about all of this. I e never did anything like this. Well, then who sent this email out . I never sent this email out. I dont have a reason to send any email out. This is all so bizarre. Alba claimed that she was being set up by enemies in of all things the crafting community. Alba has a business selling victorian picture frames. Its really hard to believe. Anderson and drew spoke about that last week and that she also allegedly also asked for donations after Hurricane Sandy. I think its important to name this person again as noel alba is her name . Thats her name and her story is it that her enemies, quote, within the crafting community thats the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. A, that she has enemies in the crafting community and that they have somehow set up a paypal account and web sites about Hurricane Sandy and about this beautiful little boy. I mean, that is ridiculous. Anderson spoke with noah pozners uncle after we tracked down alba and this is what he said. Instead of doing things with our family, im running around trying to protect the family. I look at my nieces and i think of these scammers, and they are stealing from them. They are the survivors of this tragedy. It is just infuriating. Its infuriating. Im going to do everything i can to protect them and to get the word out and today i spoke to ms. Alba, i did contact the fbi. And theyre looking into it. They were very interested in the information we provided. Thats great. Hopefully they can look into her finances. We didnt have the capabilities of looking into her actual bank records, but that should be relatively easy to track down. That report got a whole lot of attention. Turns out it got very specific attention from both the fbi and the u. S. District attorney in connecticut. Today, noelle alba was arrested, charged with lying to federal agents who were investigating her for fraudulent fundraising activity. Here you see her leaving court in hartford, connecticut. She appeared before a u. S. Magistrate. She was released on 50,000 bond. If she is convicted, she could face up to five years in prison and a 250,000 fine. The fbis criminal complaint refers to the reporting we did last week, saying quote, on or about december 19th, 2012, Cnns Anderson Cooper 360 Program Broadcast a story regarding Charity Scams and the sandy hook tragedy. Alba was a subject of the program and allowed the cnn crew to record her audio voice in response to questions about her involvement with charities to help sandy hook victims. Alba claimed that the paypal account listed in the request for donations was not hers, only that she had an account like that. Alba claimed she never set up any funds for anybody. The journalist reported that alba claimed she immediately refunded all of the donations she received. She claimed other members in the Scrapbooking Community within which she interacted on facebook had tried to set her up. It also shows the sickening depth of her deception. And drew griffin joins me now. The story didnt add up to us when we first spoke to alba. Now the fbi is alleging pretty awful things, and she said she acted real quickly to decease to deceive people to donate money. The fbi complaint shows four hours after the shooting, really as we were all realizing the magnitude of the tragedy, noelle alba on her website called victorian glamour fairies, or vgf, in the complaint, identified herself as an aunt of one of the children who attended school there. Vgf also claimed at that time to have provided pictures to Law Enforcement officers to help identify victims. Vgf did not identify the identity of her nephew. Randy, that was at 1 30 in the afternoon. We didnt know the names at that moment. All of that, it seems is a lie at that point. According to the fbi, every word of it was a lie. It didnt stop. Thats whats amazing. The fbi claims alba was basically building in sympathy on this web site. The very next day started asking for money. This is from december 15th. Some of these spellings are texts and theyre wrong. Were trying to take them straight from the complaint here. We have set up a funeral fund for my brother and families. Anyone willing to make a donation can make one. Then she goes on to give a paypal account number and a direct deposit number from chase bank. Then she says, we ask you to continue to not just pray for us but for families who lost their kids. I read the complaint this afternoon and was stunned. I mean, this woman sitting in her home in the bronx was allegedly telling donors she was actually visiting the crime scene, identifying the bodies of victims, right, and even meeting with the president . If its true, its so outrageous. Its almost like theres a mental issue, not just fraud. The fbi says she told one donor by phone she had to go to Sandy Hook Elementary School and enter the crime scene to identify her nephew for Law Enforcement. This is what she texted about the president. This is the exact text he met with us, hugged us, and even cried with us. Hes really down to earth. And most sickening to me is then she allegedly texted this detail about the victim she claimed is her nephew. Again, a text message, im a mess, not looking forward to seeing that casket because thats is what will all kill us today. 11 gunshots in his little body or take those bullets. The guilt we have just keeps building up. This was all made up. She had no ties at all to any family in the tragedy. She was apparently just trying to get people to donate to her personal accounts. Did she . Did she get any money . At the time, she told us she did get about 300 which she said she refunded. That apparently is true. The fbi is not specific about the money, but they say that the paypal deposits were refunded. She is charged with lying and the same lies that she apparently told us she told the fbi and that it wasnt her and that someone else was setting her all up. According to the fbi, they will be able to prove it was her, that she was claiming to be the aunt and was in the process of receiving donations on behalf of this family. Drew, this is so shocking, but really the most shocking out of all of this is its fairly routine, right . You have seen this happen before after other tragedies and other disasters. Yes, Fake Charities popping up, recently surrounding Hurricane Sandy victims. There could be more related to newtown. The u. S. Attorneys office in connecticut and the fbi are being very aggressive trying to track more of these, and nothing specific, they are telling us, but this arrest today which could end with a fiveyear prison sentence is to be a warning of anyone who is trying to take advantage of the tragedy and these suffering families. A warning that we certainly hope is true. Drushgs thank you very much. Ken berger is the president and ceo of charity navigator, a nonprofit that investigated evaluates charities and he joins me live. The details, you were listening there, so disturbing. Have you ever seen anything like this . Unfortunately, we have seen situations like this. And i think any time theres a tragedy, unfortunately some really awful people come out and exploit the public. Its really horrible. I mean, this is one of the worst i have seen. Its pretty horrific to say the least, but there are low things people are doing out there when it comes to many of these kinds of tragedies. What kind of person, i mean, i saw you as you were watching the report, you were shaking your head. What kind of person does Something Like this . This is not your average scam. Theyre taking advantage here allegedly taking advantage here of a horrific situation. In your work, can you take the picture or take us into the mindset of somebody like this . Unfortunately, it seems theres no simple profile. Its people from all different economic backgrounds and all different kinds of people we have seen engaged in some very unethical behavior. I think its a matter of character and integrity of an individual. And also there are occasions when there are clearly Mental Health issues involved, but there is no clear profile. It is across the board. Its so sad. Authorities have told us theyre investigating other cases. Are you at all concerned this case in newtown could be the tip of the iceberg . Absolutely. That is often the case. In the case of Hurricane Sandy, 1,000 websites were created within a week. So that gives you a sense of the scale of how these things can be. Our concern is that the amount of oversight capacity of the government is quite limited and is shrinking while this kind of abuse seems to be steam rolling and theres more and more of it we see. Especially this year when we had a number of tragedies. Are authorities outnumbered or can they do something to stop this . Theyre definitely outnumbered. The irs and state attorney general offices have long been far behind in keeping up with these things. And now as the government is shrinking, there is more of a problem. Unfortunately, it requires the work of cnn and other investigative reporters to bring it to light, and sometimes the e embarrassment to force the government to get involved, so there is a lack of oversight there and a need for far more enforcement. Im sure youre concerned people at home are listening and saying maybe i shouldnt donate. Maybe it makes them afraid to donate. What do you say to them . For every horrible story, theres a great story and fantastic charities. The united way of westchester, or western connecticut is involved, and they are helping the Community Help where the money goes. You have save the children, a whole lot of organizations out there that have a track record, a reputation. They do wonderful work. Dont despair. Please just do a Little Research and dont just give on impulse. All right, ken berger, appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Sure. And just a note from a local official in newtown. She said the town has received so many gifts since the tragedy that the post office and local workers cant even handle the volume anymore. Shes actually asking people to stop sending things and instead donate them to needy families in their own communities. As far as donations, there are several legitimate funds for the victims, including one for noah pozner. You can find them at impact your world, cnn. Com impact. Breaking news when we come back. Looks like president obama and congressional leaders will try again tomorrow to steer us back from the fiscal cliff. More on what, if any, deal could be shaping up. And keeping them honest, why avoiding Economic Disaster seems to be so hard to do for some of the folks in washington. 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The package of drastic budget cuts and tax increases that go into effect Tuesday Morning are totally manmade and totally avoidable and all sides know it. Its a kind of legislative dooms day machine written by the men and women who work here and signed by president obama. The idea being to make it so painful not to cut a deal on taxes and spending that they would be forced to cut a deal on taxes and spending. Except keeping them honest, they havent done it. Even though they knew the stakes, they knew the deadline, and both sides promised that this time things would be different. We need to return to fiscal responsibility. How is it that were going to be able to do that . Getting our fiscal house in order. The American People have spoken loudly. They want us to get our fiscal house in order. Fiscal handcuffs on this congress that are sorely needed. Washington is beginning to get its fiscal house in order. So they approve legislation that gave everyone nearly a year and a half to reach a longterm agreement on spending and taxes or face truly punishing consequences if they didnt. Youll remember at the time this was a really big deal. Republicans had forced the issue by refusing to raise the debt ceiling without budget cuts. Markets went haywire. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords even returned to washington from rehab from her almost fatal gunshot wound just to vote for the bill. And while the experience left everyone bitter, they promised to work extra hard, as they said, to get our fiscal house in order. If only because the law they just passed made it crazy not to. Well, call them crazy. No progress before the Election Campaign began. No progress during the campaign. Then more recently, House Speaker john boehner and president obama each made important concessions. The president on entitlement spending. Speaker boehner on upper income tax rates. Speaker boehner, though, could not get conservative republicans to go along and seemed at a loss on what to do next. We cant cut our way to prosperity. We need real economic growth. Many of us believe on both sides of the aisle on the fundamental reform of the tax code will help us get our economy moving faster and put more americans back to work. And more americans on the tax rolls. How we get there, god only knows. President obama, meantime, seemed to lose patience. No sign hes eager to go off the cliff, but hes also not ready, either, to concede in his words what hell get for free when the bush tax cuts expire Tuesday Morning. Democratic lawmakers, though, are more willing to let that and Everything Else happen and both sides are still pointing fingers. Take a look at Mitch Mcconnell and harry reid just this afternoon. Youll excuse me if im a little frustrated at the situation. Republican leader finds himself frustrated. I say im frustrated because we have been asking the president and the democrats to work with us. He complains i have not delivered the votes to pass the solution to the fiscal cliff. Hes in error. I told the president i would be happy to look at whatever he proposes. Hes upset because, quote, the phone never rang. As i said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago. We have nobody to work with, compromise. Republicans arent about to write a blank check. We cant negotiate with ourselves. Thats all were doing. We dont have many days left. Were in the same situation we have been in for a long time. As you can see, senate is back in session today. The house plans to be back on sunday. More now on the breaking news. Senior Congressional Correspondent dana bash joins us now from capitol hill. Chief White House CorrespondentJessica Yellin is on the white house north lawn tonight. Dana, ill start with you. You listened to big talk on the intro. Today was finger pointing and political chicken, but both sides will be talking to each other tomorrow instead of at each other. What is the latest on that . Thats right, theyre going to all