Tsunami Clothing Collection Scam

trisontana

It looks as though the false charity collectors have now jumped onto the Tsunami appeal band-wagon. BBC East Midlands News is reporting that several hundred leaflets have been pushed through doors in Spalding. At the top of the leaflet is " Tsunami Appeal " and it goes into great lengths about collecting clothes and the money raised will be used for the appeal . There is even something that looks like a Charity Commission registration number. Only at the bottom of the leaflet are the words ( in very small print ) "this is a commercial operation" so technically they are not breaking the law but they are trying to dupe unsuspecting people . The Charity Commission are now investigating.

These people have been around for quite some time. They push leaflets through doors asking for clothes to be left . Most people assume it is for charity. It is not . I have even seen these rouges going through bags of clothes left out for council recycling. The clothes are sent to Eastern Europe and sold to people over there. This is a commercial operation designed to make money for the organisers .

Genuine charities suffer two ways . They are losing a source of income and it makes people wary of leaving out stuff for collection . If in doubt take the goods directly to the charity shop.

one-non-blonde

Thanks for the warning!

I got a leaflet through the door on Friday about a third world clothing collection and was considering putting a bag out to save carting it down to the charity shop. On reading what you said I did a Google search on the company name and came up with a list of warnings about them, eg.:

http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/scotland/4145563.stm

Of course the contact address being @hotmail.com is kind of a giveaway, but how many people read the small print?! ???

Big_Nige

I received a similar flyer this week. Simple piece of advice to all - bin the leaflet & if you have any unwanted clothes, take them to your local charity shop or phone them & see if they can uplift them.

rushnowt

Ive received a couple of flyers lately regarding this, and the only contact number on it was a mobile phone number, i contacted trading standards and they advised me to send or bring the form in, that they had been several complaints about these lately.

There are some very sick individuals out there :mad:

So as others have suggested please ignore these requests and take your stuff to a local charity shop or again ring up and they should collect no problem.

trisontana

These guys are now operating here in Newark and there is an article about them in our local paper. This is the substance of the leaflets they are pushing through the door :-

" Angels of Mercy
Help clothe the less fortunate
( picture of crying child )

Urgently needed ....
CLOTHES , SHOES , CURTAINS
BEDDING, BELTS& HANDBAGS
THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MAY NEVER USE AGAIN.

All goods are provided for the less fortunate in counties a lot poorer than our own"

Luckily people became suspicious and contacted the council who confronted the men collecting the bags. These men said that they do not need a door-to-door licence because they are collecting goods and not money. This was disputed by the council who also said that they also need a waste transfer licence to be legal. This was also lacking. So, I am glad that these con artists are being pursued and I hope they can be put out of business. So only put your unwanted goods into bags from legitimate charities.

jezza1O1

My mate ran a genuine collection scheme off his own back, he is a firm believer in such recycling. Wasnt very successful, prob down to threads like this lol!

tbh Id rather see old clothes recycled for profit than not at all. By all means slate such schemes just as long as you actually do recycle your old gear one way or another !

trisontana

I have no grievance with genuine clothes recycling schemes. It's just those that pretend to be charities and are not ( just look at the wording of the leaflet ). Indeed many charity shops do use clothes recycling companies . They sell on all the stuff they can't sell in their shops , either because it is in poor condition or it has just not found a buyer. This way both the charity and the recycling company can make a profit. I work in an Oxfam bookshop and we do the same with books . Those that have been on the shelves for weeks or are in a tatty condition are put into plastic sacks and sold to a waste merchant. We only get a couple of pounds a bag but that is better then binning them.