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December 9, 2006
Charity Collectors or Bogus collectors?
Over the last few months you will no doubt have had many charity bags put through your letterbox.
In most cases these come from registered charities, however there are some people that take advantage of your generosity by supplying plastic backs with a leaflet urging you to fill these bags with your unwanted clothing etc for the unfortunate people in Eastern Europe.
The bags from these so-called charity groups are easily identified.
1. Registered charities have printed bags where the bogus charities have plain white bags.
2. Registered charities have an official charity number the bogus charities leaflet will have a number on it though this is not a charity number.
3. You can be sure if you donate to a registered charity your donation will be used to benefit those less fortunate. The bogus collectors promise a lot but deliver nothing to the unfortunate people in Eastern Europe
So what happens to your donation to the bogus charity?
Firstly the clothes are removed to a warehouse where they are graded.
Grade 1 clothes are sold on to clothing companies for re sale in this country.
Grade 2 clothes are packaged and then sold to Eastern European countries (not donated) here your donation is then sold to those people you think are getting these clothes free.
Grade 3 clothes are baled and sent for shredding to make cotton waste which is sold on again.
You should be able to see the pattern by now. Throughout the whole process there is very little outlay from the bogus charity workers resulting in maximum profit all from your donation.
As a postscript you may also like to know that all of the distributors / collectors of these bags are known to the police.
The advice must be that if you are giving clothes to charity give them to one you can be sure will use your donation to help those less fortunate rather than line the pockets of bogus charity workers profiting from your goodwill.
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