Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, together with all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Federal Trade Commission, jointly filed a federal lawsuit alleging that four cancer charities and their operators scammed more than $187 million from consumers nationwide from 2008 to 2012. The complaint alleges that the defendants — including Cancer Fund of America, Children’s Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services and the Breast Cancer Society — portrayed themselves to donors as legitimate charities with substantial nationwide programs whose primary purposes were to provide direct support to cancer patients in the United States. However, the overwhelming majority of consumers’ contributions benefited only the defendants, their families and friends, and professional fundraisers, who often received 85 percent or more of every donation, according to the lawsuit.