Avoid Charity Donation Phone Call Scams

Many laws have been passed to keep a certain breed of annoying vermin, outbound telemarketers, from calling and interrupting your dinner, family, or resting time. The most common of these, of course, being the National Do Not Call list, which imposes stiff penalties for calling an unsolicited household of whom you have not done business with.

There are, however, loopholes, which I learned about through working a few years for a market research firm. First of all, market research and survey calls are completely exempt from the National Do Not Call list prohibitions, as are companies, out to make money, of whom you have done business with. An example of this would be, say, if you buy an appliance from a major retailer, they are legally allowed to call you up and try to sell you insurance on such an item. But then, there is one type of caller out there that is also exempt, though is even worse than someone randomly cold calling you trying to get you to switch phone or cable providers.

Most everybody, now and then, has probably picked up such a call and hopefully hung up. And mind you, I know all about this, because I did such a job for approximately a month, though was let go on the count of not being able to make the quota. Anyways, the call goes something like this; a person identifies themselves and maybe a "sub-contracted" company they work for and some cause that they claim to work for. Some of the most common are for the firefighters, the police, the Amber Alert system, the EMT union, the Hurricane Relief fund, a political party, the Red Cross or, possibly the most sick, the Fund to send care packages to our troops. After the identification, the caller goes into a long diatribe about how money is so sorely needed to provide services at the current levels, or pull the emotional strings of how, say, our troops go without so much to protect our freedom and we really should give them a little help.

And then, they go in for the kill, mentioning something such as the need is so great, that they are trying to get some exorbitant amount such as $100 or $200 from every caller, and even offer some small incentive such as concert tickets, tee shirts or some other small giveaway if they give now. If you mention that that is too much and that, say, you're on welfare or some other public assistance, then they start on something like, "well, I don't mean to be a burden, though since money is so sorely needed, even little amounts go a long way; anything helps." The salesperson will desperately try to get a yes, keeping on cutting down the price, all the way down, sometimes to five, ten, or twenty dollars.

All of such "companies" are like aggressive panhandlers who bum rush you in the downtown district of any big city; starting off with some big sob story about how their life sucks, and that how they really need something to eat and asking if you could spare a couple of bucks, whereas you know, full well, that their going to hightail it to the convenience store for tobacco, booze and/or drugs. An extremely small fraction of the sums of money that such companies make go to the actual cause they claim to be fundraising for. And most of the time, absolutely none of it makes it to the cause.

So where does the money go? First and foremost, the very little operating costs. All of these firms operate in extremely dangerous and sometimes unsanitary structures and are set up, fly by night, with obsolete technology and ghetto furnishings. The company I worked for employed extremely old computers and technology, set up on plastic card tables in front of fold-out chairs. Employees are paid minimum wage at such "charity firms," and very rarely, if ever, see any bonuses. And then, the rest of the money earned that is left, the lion's share, finds its way into the fat wallets of the con men who set up the whole operation in the first place.

After saying such a thing, let's review. And take it from me; I used to do such work. If you really feel the need to give to such charities, do the research first. When you get such a call, ask questions. Ask them such things as, "do you have a website," or "do you have another phone number I can call to verify the legitimacy of your organization," or, "Are you registered with the Better Business Bureau?" Very few, if any are registered with the BBB, and many have been turned in.

Not to mention, I wondered why my boss, on the first day, mentioned to me that the vast majority of our customers are "old people." Sadly, just like other scammers who pitch things like oil schemes, college grants or retirement funds, two of the biggest targets are the geriatric population and college students, who are extremely inexperienced in the ways of knowing a legit organization and a phony. Companies will get you, also, by mentioning, if you agree to give money, by saying it is "easier and safer" to take care of their donation by credit card. While it is best to never give to such organizations, if you do feel the urge to, NEVER, repeat, NEVER give such a caller your credit card or bank account number. Lots of such companies are set up by con men and the first place and have a reputation for hiring, well, absolutely anyone who walks off the street; or straight out of the slammer. In other words, that person who is calling asking for a donation may have just served time for identity theft or embezzlement and would be furnished the avenue to do some "business" of their own.

Bottom line, the absolute best thing to do is to just hang up or notify the person that they know what kind of company they work for, and that you wish to be removed from their list, or you shall turn them in. Maybe this will see that no more people fall victim to these sleazy, morally bankrupt scams which play on the consumer's emotions.