Charity 'publishing' scams

Fake publishers are calling businesses around the UK and asking them for donations or to place adverts in various publications including charity booklets, emergency services magazines, and children's hospital 'activity' books. In reality, few are even printed.

The most common approaches incude catching victims unawares by making unsolicited contact by telephone - often using numbers from telephone directories. Often, the scamsters will ring beforehand to get a name of a manager or director. They then ring back and claim to have had authorisation from this person previously.

Scamsters also trick victims into agreeing with statements, sometimes unwittingly signing them up to a campaign. A standard question is 'do you agree that children need better drugs education? They also pressurise victims into feeling guilty if they don't offer money and often offer a smaller (cheaper) sponsorship / donation opportunity if businesses first say no.

The new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform guidelines include scam busting tips such as always checking credentials, ask as many questions as possible and don't send money or give out personal details to anyone until you've checked them out.

It's easy to check if a charity's genuine or not - check the online register of charities at the Charity Commission website.

Full scambusting guidelines are available from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website.

 

If you believe a trader is conning the public with bogus charity publishing scams

Tell your local Trading Standards Service and tell us - it may help us to stop them and protect other people.