charity scam?

Sam Vimes

i got a leaflet in the door a few days ago from a supposed charity saying they wanted old clothes to be sent to the starving kids in birmingham or wherever. they said to leave bags on the road and they'll be picked up tomorrow

the charity is called "care and concern in action". apparently charity number: XO/1372//91.

i can find no mention of them on the net and i went through a list of registered charities in ireland.

my mother wants to leave out a big bag of old clothes we'll never wear again but i think its a scam. the clothes are crap so they're effectively just saving us on the bin charges but its the principle of the thing. what do people think? should we leave the bag out?
are they legit despite their poor grammar? (roundsmen are not allowed to collection money but you can donate by calling 048xxxxxxxxxx)

should we let them take our rubbish away?

KdjaCL

Umm they are members of the travelling community.


We get at least 10 stickers a week.


kdjac

iFight

No way, give them to a different charity

Sam Vimes

KdjaC wrote:

Umm they are members of the travelling community.


We get at least 10 stickers a week.


kdjac

na, we get the travellers in all the time, we don't mind them. this is something else. i heard rumours of something like this run by some lithuanians. and while travellers as a rule aren't too good on the old writing, they can speak english and they know "roundsmens can not collection money" is wrong

Ruu_Old

Is there a phone number for the registered charities office? Maybe they could advise you best on what to do and if the information you found on the net(?) is up to date.

Terry

complete scam.
i get lots of them in the door every week.
sometimes they send in bags. this saves me from buying refuse sacks.

bluto63

Unless they are travellers looking for free clothes, I don't see what the scam could be. Really it seems like a good idea to get rid of old crap

Karoma

Brummies: The poorest souls alive.

XO/... is English charity format, no? (Irish being CHY...)
I can't find them on http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk

The scam being that second hand goods can fetch a fair bit of money. There are quite a number of well-known scumbags giving the impression that they are charities making a fortune from it, both north and south of the border.

Ruu_Old

Karoma wrote:

Brummies: The poorest souls alive.

XO/... is English charity format, no? (Irish being CHY...)
I can't find them on http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk

The scam being that second hand goods can fetch a fair bit of money. There are quite a number of well-known scumbags posing as charities making a fortune from it both north and south of the border.

Yeah I mean, come on! Theres alot worse than Birmingham (parts of it are bad, yes).

iFight

Infairness, if people dont need clothes, theyll hardly take old ones off of people, they probably need the clothes, just dont say it's for them, so it is going to people who need it. Albeit, dishonest people

Sparky

Some places use this whole 'charity bag' thing to collect old clothes.
The fact is that 90% of these companys let people fall into thinking they are charitys.
Infact the clothes are then collected and then steam cleaned and sold as secondhand at a pure profit to the business.

I know this because I am the Irish service agent for said steamers that they use on the clothes.

Sam Vimes

Karoma wrote:

XO/... is English charity format, no? (Irish being CHY...)
I can't find them on http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk

it does say its based in antrim but when i google their address (50 craighill, antrim) i get some tatoo parlour that's at number 61

neither of the phone numbers on the sheet work

paul666

There is no central body for the regulation of Charities in Ireland or statutory provision for their registration and inspection. There is no statutory definition of charity, Charitable purpose, Not-for-profit organisation, etc. We have no reliable information on the number of active Charities, what their financial worth is and how they spend their funds.


i got that from charitytaxreform.com, i checked a half dozen stickers from my letterbox and it suprised me i thought it was genuine, obviously not when u look closer i see some of the stickers have mobile phone no.'s on them.
they can put down any ould charity company number on it to make it look genuine, u cant trace it though.

connundrum

julep wrote:

complete scam.
i get lots of them in the door every week.
sometimes they send in bags. this saves me from buying refuse sacks.

Problem - all of these stupid bags have 'air holes' in them.. which lets the smelly old clothes breathe?!

I tried to use one as a refuse sack.. who woulda guessed that 2 litres of sour milk could find those pesky 'air holes'. I feel hard done by :mad:

Karoma

The majority of stickers/labels which I have encountered don't explicitly claim to be registered charities. They just cleverly phrase their collection to sound like it's going to be put to charitable use, and put down a "C Y" number - which, when checked, turns out to be the 'CompanY' number. You can check registered charity numbers with a quick google & the revenue commission.

r3nu4l

I get at least seven of these a week in my door, I've been counting and saving the bags

The thing is you rarely, if ever see these from recognisable charities such as the ISPCC or ISPCA etc. Here in Cambridge I have three charity shops around the corner from me, East Anglia Childrens Hospice, RSPCA and Cat Protection yet they never put bags in the letterboxes of local residents. It's always some obscure, unnamed charity with a vague reference to tSunami relief or Lebanese children. While these people do deserve support you'd be pretty thick to think that all (or in some cases, any) of the money got from sale of your clothes goes to these people.

Hobbes

Sparky-S more or less explained the scam.

They basically resell the clothes. Seems Poland is one of the main places they get sent to.

I've seen a lot of these stickers, some of them are quite blantant about it and some of them are devious.

Funniest one so far was a sticker going on about how it was an Irish run charity to help the Irish poor people yet had a contact phone number in England and a website address in Lithuania.

Pal

very good sparky.

they deserve the clothes for the initiative.

macroman

At least two of these arrive in the letterbox daily. Tis a sham so tis :eek:

humanji

Just hide in a bag and wait for them to come and collect it. Then jump out and attack them with a pointed stick. If they're charity workers, they'll flee in terror. If it's a scam, they'll probably kick the sh*t out of you. Either way you'll have your answer.

Lone Wolf

jomanji wrote:

Just hide in a bag and wait for them to come and collect it. Then jump out and attack them with a pointed stick. If they're charity workers, they'll flee in terror. If it's a scam, they'll probably kick the sh*t out of you. Either way you'll have your answer.

I took your advice, they had a pointed stick too, my eye hurts now

*goes looking for some steak to put on eye

CreepingDeath

Maybe you can hide a sort of exploding ink dye pack in the clothes.....

jaggeh

poo in each peice of clothing.

FranknFurter

better idea.....

half fill bag....
break an egg, some sugar and possibly a cube of raw meat, and stir in.....
fill bag rest of way....
(any syrup-like thing you were going to throw out anyways).

They will be halfway through unpacking before they realise, or worst case scenario they will let it sit for a day or two
Even steam cleaning would have a hard time with that hidden mess!

(Obviously make sure there are no identifying marks on bag / sticker / clothes to trace them back to you )

b

Oriel

Put a dead b....fish in the bag.

Terry

they have kids delivering the bags/ stickers.
give them a menacing stare the next time you see them.
trust me, they will skip your house the next time.

Sleepy

sinecurea wrote:

Put a dead b....fish in the bag.

that line literally has tears in my eyes... kudos.