Cancel cancer-scam or not?

magicstrawberry

Usually I get leaflets every so often through my door from a company called Helpmates Limited entitled " Third world cothing collection" which i looked into, didn't need to look very far and found out that they are not a charity and instead a registered company.

They sell these clothes and do not given them away to needy people. Most of the people on my street to my knowledge do not give to them as we have been having these leaflets for ages.

Then I had another leaflet posted through my door today as follows:

Cancer
National help for children with cancer
Help us save children s lives
Please donate any good quality clothing, bedding etc
Please put all items out before 8am in clear view of the road with this leaflet attached to the bag
We will collect rain or shine
*Then a big red box with collection day is Wednesday*
All collectors carry ID cards. Collectors are not allowed to receive cash donations. Please do not offer
*Then it lists to email addresses one website does exist the other does not.*

It list's two website's but it says the main one is under construction the other website doesn't exist.
It also has a 0844 number on it which i wouldn't call due to thinking it would be routed to a premium number.

I have rung the Charity commission, they cant do anything about this because it doesn't include either a registered business or charity number on it or the word charity even through as you can see it imply's such.

Although i do not no for certain that this is linked to Helpmates Limited the leaflets look remarkably similar in lay out.I just feel discussed by this as they exploiting a terrible situation and wanted to warn people about it so they could give to real charity's and people in desperate need.

I will apologize immensely if i am wrong but all the signs point to a scam... what do you think?

Magicstrawberry

If i have placed this in the wrong section please feel free to move it

maninthestreet

What are the websites listed on this latest leaflet?

geordieracer

I get loads of similar leaflets and normally with a pic of some kid on the front.. When you read small print there is never anything to say registered charity so they go in the bin straight away. You just dont knwo0 if they are gonna give em away or more likely sel;l em in their own charity style shops..

I know of a romanian 'help' shop that pops up in different shop fronts every so often round our way and looks dodgy as hell

mippy

If there is no charity number on there, then it is likely to be a for-profit company that will ship 'donated' items to Eastern Europe for resale to the poor. If you are not comfortable with your donations being passed on in this way, please check for a registered charity number, and if it isn't on there, donate them to Oxfam, Save the Children or any number of charities which work in the region.

trisontana

mippy wrote: »

If there is no charity number on there, then it is likely to be a for-profit company that will ship 'donated' items to Eastern Europe for resale to the poor. If you are not comfortable with your donations being passed on in this way, please check for a registered charity number, and if it isn't on there, donate them to Oxfam, Save the Children or any number of charities which work in the region.

They may not even be sold to the poor as such. On a recent rip to Budapest I noticed a couple of expensive looking shops right in the city-centre that were selling second-hand clothes from the UK. I imagine these came from this sort of door-to-door collection.

BFG_2

Total scam.

Typically eastern european scamstsers [Lithuania esp]

Use bag as a bin bag.

Zebradome

Years ago we used to get these bags but they made no secret of the fact they were a second hand shop, just looking for stuff to sell - I knew where the shop was. They said in leaflet they gave a portion of their profits every month to charity (could have been £5, I suppose, the leaflets never said how much).

BFG_2

Zebradome wrote: »

. They said in leaflet they gave a portion of their profits every month to charity (could have been £5, I suppose, the leaflets never said how much).

Bingo!!!!

Up there on a par with Candis who have raised £50M for charity in the last 25 yrs [omitting that that is only 10% of the contributions that the public have made ie the family that owns the firm has made £450M...from people who think they are giving to charity [as the mag sub is sold by over-playing the charity aspect [imo]!!!]

pinkshoes

I remember this being featured on TV a couple of years ago, with people being warned not to donate anything unless there was specifically a charity number associated with the "charity".

I think one company made themselves sound SO realistic, when in reality they were flogging the clothes on ebay, and donating a tiny percentage of the profit to a charity.

They also arranged their collections on days before genuine charities collected, so that genuine charities were losing out.

BFG_2

The cowboys actually follow the genuine charities when they put out their collection bags and then turn up ahead of the charity on collection day and steal the full bags!!!!!!!!!

magicstrawberry

Thanks to everyone,
I just wanted this listed somewhere where people can see it and know its a scam.... they have no charity number at all and we have had bags stolen a few weeks ago it said in the local paper
Magic