are some charities scams or are they legit?

[cell]

this morning i was sitting in mcdonalds and this lady puts down a pin of the american flag. it said something around the lines of "hi, im deaf. please help us by donating a dollar or two..." and the rest of it i dont remember. then there were other times at different locations that these people try and sell cute stickers for the same cause. i never really bought them. the stickers daisy bought.

my questiong is...are these legit charities? or are they total scams by people pretending to be deaf?



are there other scams pretending to be charities?

 

[BAW]

Personally, I think its a scam. They know that most people will feel like an ass for handing back the pin, sign language card, pencil, etc. so it probably works most of the time.

I don't like this type of "charity" because they are playing on people's conscience, almost forcing you to give. I would rather give my money directly to a well known organization for the deaf than to some guy on the street.

And I guess she really could have been deaf, who knows

 

[Doozer61]

i agree and i have been known to completely ignore the person and whatever they lay on my table. its hard in this day and age to know whats real and whats not.

 

[nbcrusader]

Scam. I've seen this same pitch for over 20 years.

They love to send you on a guilt trip if you don't accept the pencil, pin, whatever...

 

[~BrightestStar~]

Scam.
I've had people come to my house scaming ...I especially liked the one who pretending to be deaf....and then when I bumped into him on the street later that day, he *heard* me coming up behind him with my dogs...

 

[beli]

Here in Western Australia ever "can rattler" has to carry a permit. Its usually just a piece of paper from the government stating that this particular charity is licensed to collect street donations on a particular set of dates.

Dunno about USA laws.

Might be worth you finding out. Street Collecting is very time consuming and sometimes uncomfortable (depending on the moods of the people in the street). It would be a shame if the legitimate charities are being thrown out with the bath water, so to speak.

 

[nbcrusader]

Solicitation for donations is considered a form of speech in the US. The legitimate ones, however, have evidence of their non-profit standing.

 

[beli]

Thanks. Our charity collections are heavily legislated to prevent pedestrians being swooped upon to much. And legislation allows for permits to not be issued for misbehaving charities.

Each charity is only permitted one week a year door to door collecting and one Friday a year for street collecting.

Its actually quite a headache to firstly obtain a permit, and to obtain the permit for a week no similar charities are collecting. For example, I used to apply for the permits for Oxfam and Oxfam, obviously didn't want to be collecting the same week as Red Cross. It was better to be on the same week as the Heart Foundation or a similar dissimilar charity so we weren't competing for the same "customers". If that make sense.

 

[U2Kitten]

On the 'hi I'm deaf' thing, I hate to say it, but I'd say mostly scam artists. It used to be keychains, before that, combs. My sister and her boyfriend caught the 'deaf' comb seller on a public telephone later! I have noticed that the latest participants in this scam appear to be illegal aliens.

Another scam story: I had a friend who once worked for a telemarketer who was soliciting by phone, mostly businesses and law firms, to sponsor blind and retarded children to go to the circus. Everyone was paid under the table at the end of the day in cash, never any paper trail, and employees were asked not to use their real names. This made her suspicious, added to that a story on the local news that there were only 6, count 'em 6, blind children in the entire area and they had a hard time finding funding and help for them. Then why did they need to sell hundreds of tickets? She questioned the boss but he never gave any straight answers. She left that day and never went back. She reported the scam to the state officials.

It was investigated and busted. It turned out it WAS a scam and no handicapped children were being sponsored- the money all went to the crooks! Several weeks later, there was a story in the paper about the scam being busted. They never used her name at her request, and she got nothing from it other than satisfaction. Sad anyone could do that!

 

[Kieran McConville]

Yeah.

 

[beegee]

it's hard to tell if it's a scam or not.

i guess what really matters is giving with the right intentions.

let fate deal with the hustlers.