Acorns collection bag scam

Mids_Costcutter

Worcestershire-based children's charity Acorns have been hit by a collection bag scam, with fake collection bags being distributed across the region and collected by a private firm. The impact is probably difficult to gauge but last year Acorns raised £1m selling second-hand clothing. The legitimate collection bags are white, the fake ones are yellow.

http://www.acorns.org.uk/home/about-us/press-releases/2010/06/11/30-acorns-warns-public-to-be-alert-to-fake-collection-bags.html

Has anyone come across the fake collection bags e.g. in the Birmingham area?

Personally I'm reluctant to use the collection bags anymore anyway as there have been reports in my area of collection bags left out for charities being stolen, and prefer to take any donations directly to a charity shop or clothes bank.

Jenneee

Shameful behaviour

cat04

I can't comment directly on the scam, but where I live we get at least 2 charity bags every week. I've read the small print on a lot of them and they are usually collected by a company who donates a set amount per tonne of clothing to the charity etc etc. I never know which ones to trust, and as we have 2 charity shops very close to us, and plenty in the surrounding area and in town we tend to take our donations directly to the shops, that way we know they've got them and we can spread our 'goodies' out between the different ones