Seabeach - scam?

noonesperfect

We had a leaflet dropped yesterday (Friday 7/9) which asked for items of clothing bedding toileteries etc to be put out for collection by monday morning at 8am

Being a highly suspicious person I decided to google Seabeach and it appears to be a scam (not before I'd filled a large bag with above mentioned bits and pieces though :mad: !)

So be warned, if you live in the Yorkshire area they're probably not a million miles away from you.

Personally I would rather give to a worthwhile cause.

Miss_Penny_Pincher_2

Thanks for raising this. So many of these are often companies pretending to be charities which print on made up charity numbers.

I'm so sick of these scammers that what I do now is whenever I get a leaflet that is pretending to be a company I check on the Charity Commission website. You can search for charities by name or by using the charity number that has been provided. Their register provides contact details and the main aims of the charity amongst other information.

Can search the register here:

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/

GiveItBack

Thanks Miss P and noonesperfect. There are a lot of companies doing this, some use false charity numbers, and some use no charity number, wording the info carefully so that it SEEMS to be a charity, when in fact it isn't.

This new kind of sam is thought to be costing charities £3m a year!

If you are suspicius of clothing bags at your home, you can call a new hotline number: The Clothes Aid hotline is 0870 60 74 600.

You need to register to read this, so I've included a lot of the info:

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/channels/Fundraising/Article/731069/Fundraisers-track-charity-collection-thieves/

Fundraisers track charity collection thieves

By Indira Das-Gupta, Third Sector Online, 10 August 2007
Fundraisers are employing motorbike teams to follow the growing number of thieves who are taking clothes intended for charity shops.
There has been a significant increase during the past 18 months in the number of criminal gangs stealing bags of donated goods before the legitimate collectors arrive, according to Clothes Aid, a company that carries out doorstep collections for charities such as Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Make A Wish Foundation.


The company estimates that Great Ormond Street Hospital has lost about £200,000 in the past year because of bogus collectors. It estimates the total cost to the sector is between £2.5m and £3m a year.

“In London, we have motorcycle teams following the bogus collectors and there have already been 85 arrests this year,” said Steve Kirby, operations manager at Clothes Aid. “This is something that we might try in other areas, including the north-east. The bogus collectors range from small-time thieves who keep the good stuff for themselves and sell the rest at car-boot sales, to organised gangs that sell the clothes on to dealers and make a fortune.”

A hotline has also been set up to help tackle the problem. Members of the public are being encouraged to call if they have any suspicions. When reports are telephoned in, legitimate collectors are informed and asked to try to track the culprits to their base before informing the police.

The Great North Air Ambulance said it had also been the target of bogus collectors. “This is definitely a problem; we're very lucky that the police are behind us and very supportive,” said a spokeswoman. “The problem is, they have to catch them red-handed. We ask members of the public to be vigilant.”

Clothes Aid is so concerned about the problem that it met the Association of Charity Shops last month with a view to developing a central alert scheme to stop bogus charity collectors.

The aim is to establish a database that would allow bona fide charity collectors to log and share information on suspicious activity across the UK for lobbying purposes and to provide intelligence for arrests.

The Clothes Aid hotline is 0870 60 74 600.

GiveItBack

PS. If there is a charity number, always check it because, collectors who use false charity registration numbers on leaflets are committing fraud and can be prosecuted under the new Fraud Act, which came into force on 15 January this year.

The Trading Standards Institute has the power to arrest and officers on the beat have succeeded in arresting people caught in the act, but it lacks the resources to carry out this level of policing constantly

vivatifosi

I checked with Companies House earlier this year as Seabeach was listed as "proposal to strike off". I asked why and they told me that they had failed to submit accounts and name a director or company secretary. Since that time Seabeach has been dissolved and nobody is allowed to trade using the name Seabeach Ltd or the co reg number 05501400 and this has been the case since July 2007.

If Seabeach is still trading as Seabeach Ltd (and it is the Ltd and/or the co reg number that are important), then The Companies Administration Department at Companies House would really like to look into this. If you have a copy of a flyer that you can send to them which shows "Seabeach Ltd" and/or the co reg number then please e-mail it to them with details of where you are and when the leaflet came to you, to enquiries@companies-house.gov.uk as this may be evidence that they are trading fraudulently.

If they have just changed their name to Seabeach and dropped the Limited and Co Reg number, then they are entitled to do so, but there's still no good reason to leave stuff out for them.

Lippycow

These people really get me mad i received a leaflet today asking for clothes and i checked their charity number and suprise no charity with that number,i have gone down my street telling everyone NOT to leave anything for these people THIRD WORLD COLLECTIONS.

lincroft1710

Clothing collections have now gone beyond a joke, it's averaging one a week where I live, some "companies" leaflet dropping every other month! One week there were three collections, I think two were actually on same day! How much unwanted clothes does the average family have. We don't dispose of clothes until they are literally worn out, they then become cleaning rags.

sethsgran

Whats sad is that all the clothes donated don't hit the shops. My aunt works in one, she is very elderly so can't action this, if things don't sell quickly they are just dumped!!

GiveItBack

many shops that can't sell things quickly put them to rag dealers rather than chuck them, so there's still some income