Charity scam.

Belfafter

Cant believe this one.
Got these 2 stickers in my door last week,the first 1 on monday and the next one on wednesday to be collected the next day.
Amazingly the same polish guy in the same van delivered both.
I was suspicious and rang Cancer Research and they told me it was a completly bogus charity which doesnt exist at all
I was astonished that the scammers are even putting their name to it now see bottom of sticker - organised by ICC (international clothing collections)
A quick google brought up http://iccltd.org:80/?action=associates
This is ICC s website and even gives the names of the guy from here and thge polish boss responsible for all these charity scams.
It is so unfair trying to deceive people when real cancer charities need funding critically.
Irish cancer society,action cancer,cancer research,ulster cancer,NI cancer fund for children, these are some of the legitimite cancer charities doiung excellent work across the country and every bag these scammers/criminals send to poland for their secondhand shops is funding stolen directly from real charities.
What can be done to stop this company ripping people off?
Any ideas anyone ?

Ideo

empty your rubbish bin into a black bag and stick it out for collection. stick all random crap in it, fruit and veg peelings etc! I done it once! Even put dog poo in the bag. wrong i know but very satisfying knowing im gettin one back on these scammers! :D

biko

I just stopped trusting anyone calling to the door/leaving stickers and just drop in my old clothes in charity shops around town. Use the bags for rubbish.

Pj!

Always burn the stickers when I find them on my doorstep. Would love to see someone picking up the bags to have a word with them.

Jimbo

charity scams really are the lowest of the low. Dirty bastards

Terry

I noticed a UK number on the sticker, but then I saw your location as Belfast.

Anyway, I have actually seen a couple of stickers with UK numbers here in the Republic.

OP, have you tried ringing the numbers (come on, it's gonna be cheaper for you )?

The ones that usually arrive here have mobile numbers that don't work.

ParkRunner

Ive noticed in the small hours in the early morning people raiding those clothes banks that they have for putting old clothes in..seems pretty desperate to me but they must need them a lot more than us.

Belfafter

Terry - thats why I found this sticker different.
As you say they usually use mobile numbers which never work but these idiots have got there name on ICC of longlands road newtonabbey.
I googled there website and the owners name is on there yet its a completly madeup/bogus charity.
Surely somebody high up in one of the cancer charitys could do something legal about this ?
I will ring that nice person tomorrow again from cancer research and see if they are interested.

DonJose

Terry wrote: »

I noticed a UK number on the sticker, but then I saw your location as Belfast.

Anyway, I have actually seen a couple of stickers with UK numbers here in the Republic.

Most of the stickers those scumbags put through my door have mobile numbers but some have 0044 numbers. They drive northern reg vans. I reported them to the guards, even phoned the guards when they were doing the rounds, no reponse. Last week had a roma guy in his early 20's with a 5/6year old girl calling round, asking me to sponsor her, she carried a wrinked piece of photocopied paper, don't know what the fukk they wanted sponsored but I'm sure it wasn't a charity.

Belfafter

My mates wife works in the council and she says in the republic if you ring your local council they will give you the number of the local enforcement officer.
He has the power to seize there van and load if they dont have proper permits and licences or are a proper charity.
She also says in N.I,where she is,there is not much can be done :(but its as well to call the cops if you think they are acting suspiciously
The guards have limited powers as its hard for them to know who is and isnt a legal charity but if its used clothing it is covered by a lot of licences apparently.
Best thing is give them nothing-any legitimate charity doing a collection will have I.D. badged vans and be well known.
Unmarked white vans and eastern european accents defintly a bad sign.

Belfafter

i got this sunday world article off a friend.
I think again it shows how it is not lots of small companys doing this,it is mostly controlled by International clothing collections/intersecond ltd.
Maybe the sunday world guys would be interested in ICCs website ?
http://iccltd.org:80/?action=associates

Terry

Belfafter wrote: »

i got this sunday world article off a friend.
I think again it shows how it is not lots of small companys doing this,it is mostly controlled by International clothing collections/intersecond ltd.
Maybe the sunday world guys would be interested in ICCs website ?
http://iccltd.org:80/?action=associates

Damn pdf.
Use jpeg.

Belfafter

- apologies all , not the quickest laptop in the store here but i am learning:p
jpegs this time.

Terry

Belfafter wrote: »

- apologies all , not the quickest laptop in the store here but i am learning:p
jpegs this time.

Ahh, it's cool.
I was just bitching for the sake of it.

Jpegs are just easier as they tend to be smaller and will open in another tab, rather than another programme.

Edit: looking at the file sizes, apparently they are not smaller.
Ahh well.

Try .png or something the next time.

Also, thanks for the pics.

This topic comes up quite a bit here.
I'm not going to berate you for starting a new one, because you are new here and that wouldn't be nice.
All info on these scammers is always welcome though.

One thing that you may not have covered here is the little trick they play by leaving the sticker hanging out your letter box.
They use this to see if the sticker has been taken in.
If it hasn't, they may break into your house.

JIMMYDEE1

Take a look at www.iccltd.org This is not the company your talking about,
But other companys are doing all the scams, some have as many as 6 labels,Which none are legal, sad but true.
www.iccltd.org Works with a Charity called Helping Hands all our vans are all signed and have Phone numbers and our web address, for all to see, If only everyone did the same things would be better all round, B.F.N

Larianne

Terry wrote: »

One thing that you may not have covered here is the little trick they play by leaving the sticker hanging out your letter box.
They use this to see if the sticker has been taken in.
If it hasn't, they may break into your house.

Thanks for that one! :eek:

I've heard about this before. They collect the clothes and ship them off to eastern European countries and sell?

I don't trust anyone coming up to me for donations of any kind. Whether on the street, in a shop or in a pub. How can you really tell the money/clothes are going directly back to the charity? Even if they have ID badges?!? They could be fake. I always drop bags of clothes into the shop.

Terry

Terry wrote: »

I noticed a UK number on the sticker, but then I saw your location as Belfast.

Anyway, I have actually seen a couple of stickers with UK numbers here in the Republic.

OP, have you tried ringing the numbers (come on, it's gonna be cheaper for you )?

The ones that usually arrive here have mobile numbers that don't work.

Not sure if you noticed or not but the phone number in the first one is a UK mobile (0044 77xx). Adds to the "dodgyness." (is that even a word? )

Dun laoire

To be fair i don't care who takes my unwanted clothes. They don't even need to act like scammers cause i don't care. It's quite simple and straightforward. If Mr Polish man wants to take my unwanted clothes to sell on he's more than welcome to them and if the charity man comes along and says i want your clothes to give to the poor folk over here and there i would also gladly give them to him.

Kintarō Hattori

Hmnnn how does the OP know he was polish. I wonder was that the case or they heard an eastern european accent and came to that conclusion.

ewj1978

i only ever drop my old clothes to a charity shop or to a bring bank at the local dump... stops the scammers tbh..

phasers

I got rid of a load of carpet in one of those, they're great for disposing of rubbish

Macha

You want to see a charity scam?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_yorkshire/4437328.stm

A charity for professional footballers. Those poor, poor, men..oh wait..

BDubliner

I rang the Charities Regulation unit in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs yesterday to see what the story was.

They said that at present there is little or no regulation of the charities industry in Ireland at present. There is NO such thing as a registered charity in Ireland at the moment. The only register of charities in Ireland is a register of charities that have applied for tax exemption with the Department of Revenue. You can contact this department and ask if such an organisation is registered with them for tax purposes and if they are a legitimate charity then they should be registered.

They have presented a bill which governs the industry and it has gone before the Dáil and they hope that it will be implemented into law by the end of the year or early next year. It is available on their website www.pobail.ie. At that stage a regulator will be set up which all charities will have to apply to be a charity and submit documentation to show that they are a legitimate charity.

They said that the majority of bags and stickers that do be dropped into houses are scams. They said that if you are going to give clothes to an organisation then you would be better off giving it to a charity shop.

ewj1978

My gawd... next year... Wow our government really does act fast.........

Genghiz Cohen

Terry wrote: »

I'm not going to berate you for starting a new one, because you are new here and that wouldn't be nice.

This is the most interesting piece of writing in the entire board.

On topic; I have a door full of em back in the college house, will gief pics when I get back

Honey-ec

I bring all my old clothes to the womens' shelter in Rathmines.

I will continue to gladly accept free bin bags from all of the door-stepping "charities", though

twinkle77

has anyone else noticed the strange times that these stickers are posted through your letterbox........in my area its always between 5.00 a.m. and 6.00 a.m.!!! Is that not a bit weird. I get at least 3 of them a week which are supposed to be for different charities (got another one yesterday which went straight in the bin!) They seem to rotate the type of sticker so every two weeks I get the same ones in. Each one has a different collection day.

I was off a couple of months ago for a few days. My next door neighbour had put a bag out for collection......along comes the "charity collector" in a white none descript van. A couple of days later we were due another collection for another charity....ooh guess what......along comes the SAME GUY in the SAME VAN!!!!!

This erks me soooooo much!! :mad: For the sake of 10 or 15 mins out of your life that it will take you to get to your local chaity shop or clothes bank, you will then know that your clothes etc. will be going to a good cause.

indough

Dun laoire wrote: »

To be fair i don't care who takes my unwanted clothes. They don't even need to act like scammers cause i don't care. It's quite simple and straightforward. If Mr Polish man wants to take my unwanted clothes to sell on he's more than welcome to them and if the charity man comes along and says i want your clothes to give to the poor folk over here and there i would also gladly give them to him.

agreed, as long as they're not cluttering up my wardrobe i don't give a damn what happens to them

trout

I always liked the free bin liners ... and the stickers were useful too.

Lately, I'm getting the stickers in the door, but I've noticed the bin liners are getting scarce.

That bothers me.

Holsten

Pro tip: Never give to charity.

Belfafter

twinkle77 wrote: »

has anyone else noticed the strange times that these stickers are posted through your letterbox........in my area its always between 5.00 a.m. and 6.00 a.m.!!! Is that not a bit weird. I get at least 3 of them a week which are supposed to be for different charities (got another one yesterday which went straight in the bin!) They seem to rotate the type of sticker so every two weeks I get the same ones in. Each one has a different collection day.

I was off a couple of months ago for a few days. My next door neighbour had put a bag out for collection......along comes the "charity collector" in a white none descript van. A couple of days later we were due another collection for another charity....ooh guess what......along comes the SAME GUY in the SAME VAN!!!!!

This erks me soooooo much!! :mad: For the sake of 10 or 15 mins out of your life that it will take you to get to your local chaity shop or clothes bank, you will then know that your clothes etc. will be going to a good cause.

These are likely the guys since they use several charities and dozens of eastern european collectors all across the country from belfast to dublin to cork to galway and everywhere in between - total Scammers with such a legit looking site - http://www.jsdniltd.com/

RoundTower

Dun laoire wrote: »

To be fair i don't care who takes my unwanted clothes. They don't even need to act like scammers cause i don't care. It's quite simple and straightforward. If Mr Polish man wants to take my unwanted clothes to sell on he's more than welcome to them and if the charity man comes along and says i want your clothes to give to the poor folk over here and there i would also gladly give them to him.

I didn't know they were scams either and I also don't really care. It's not like I was putting wads of cash in the bags for whoever collects them, I wouldn't put anything in the bags I didn't want to get rid of anyway.

Fionnanc

These clothes get sorted. The good stuff is kept and sold on the rest is usually dumped illegaly. Alternatively the clothes are compressed into bales( each 1m2 bale can contain up to 100 items of clothing), loaded into containers and shipped to 3rd world countries, where they are sold to businesspeople by bale who then sell each item of clothing individually. So lots of people profiting from these bogus charities

Linku

One of these was dropped in my letterbox at 3.30am recently, I heard someone on the driveway, looked out and saw a guy hopping over the wall into my neighbours garden. There was another guy across the road emerging from the side of someone's house, so I thought they were just scopeing the place out for a burglary, not seeing the sticker at the time. I called my garda station and they had a car within 3 minutes driving around the area.
I saw the leaflet the next day and called the gardaí back to tell them what happened, and they said it was most likely a scam, and I googled the website printed on the sticker, and sure enough it was.

Not only are these people scamming anyone who does leave out a bag of clothes by selling them for profit, posting things in peoples letterboxes at 3.30am is unacceptable. My area is full of elderly people who could feel very threatened if they were in my position, and I'll continue to call the police if I see them dropping in again.

Belfafter

Linku wrote: »

One of these was dropped in my letterbox at 3.30am recently, I heard someone on the driveway, looked out and saw a guy hopping over the wall into my neighbours garden. There was another guy across the road emerging from the side of someone's house, so I thought they were just scopeing the place out for a burglary, not seeing the sticker at the time. I called my garda station and they had a car within 3 minutes driving around the area.
I saw the leaflet the next day and called the gardaí back to tell them what happened, and they said it was most likely a scam, and I googled the website printed on the sticker, and sure enough it was.

Not only are these people scamming anyone who does leave out a bag of clothes by selling them for profit, posting things in peoples letterboxes at 3.30am is unacceptable. My area is full of elderly people who could feel very threatened if they were in my position, and I'll continue to call the police if I see them dropping in again.

The poor old guards have limited powers with dealing with these guys as it is very hard to decide what is or is not an illegitimate charity.
More success can possibly be had by calling the local council waste enforcement manager.
If they find it is bogus they can have it seized under waste laws i think.

dotsman

From a legal/technical point of view, they're doing nothing wrong!

As long as they donate even €5 a year to the various good causes they claim to support, then they are perfectly legitimate. They don't lie on the stickers. Actually read what they say they are doing:

• asking you for your old clothes etc
• these clothes will be sent to Hungary
• the clothes will then be resold (it doesn't even explicitly say they will be resold in Hungary)
• fund are raised for breast cancer (the key here being that they don't say how much or what percentage etc).

So, although the stickers give the impression that donating your old clothes will help research/treat/cure breast cancer, by actually reading it, you will see that they are not actually claiming anything of the sort!