Charities and Direct Debit Scams

Let me get this straight.....a complete stranger comes to your door and wants direct access to your bank account. Debit or no..

And you considered it?

What country is this...Fantasyland?

The other day two yokels here in SD came to my door and acted like I OWED them...needless to say they were promptly kicked the F off my porch.

As they left muttering under their breath...I wondered how many times a day they get kicked the F off a porch.

I found some designs for your pain inducing spring loaded welcome mat Roaddog, you can thank me later:

I like the "come back with a warrant" one.

In the old day's that would have saved me a lot of breath.

Thanks

I prefer one that gets the message across no fuss no muss...like **** off

That's just one of the reasons I have a "no solicitation" policy for my home, which includes solicitation in person or by phone. You never know who you're dealing with. I choose the charities I give to, I don't let them choose me. That may sound cold, but simply saying, "We don't accept soliciation here." has ended many attempts to separate me from my money. If someone tries to redirect the conversation after I tell them that, I simply ask, "What part of 'no' don't you understand?" That ends it. They may not like it, but too bad.

these type of scams are the saddest and some people do fall for them. You cant go any lower then that.

Are you in the USA?

PS. As far as I'm concerned, if you knock on my door and I don't know you, you better have some food, like a pizza or girl scout cookies.

What country are YOU in? In the US, they ALSO must have a federally issued card.

Actually, there are two ways to do that. The ludicrous expensive way, or the sane way. With the sane way, a lot of the expense is reduced by having a family handle the support, etc... Usually they are given a relatively small stipend. And volunteers can man the lines.

WOW, WHY? And there are a LOT of non cash ways to donate money!

I would have asked for the number of whoever is in charge, and told them to get people that didn't scream it was a scam, and knew how money works. MAN! It is NOT the same AT ALL!!!!!

People HAVE been known to go to a LOT of expense and trouble! Look at "frank abignale"! YEAH, ANOTHER movie, but THIS one is about REALITY! I mean he bought a bunch of panam(?) airplane models, etc... to facilitate kiting checks. He then got a uniform and REAL checks, etc... That guy must have at least APPEARED to have spent many THOUSANDS of dollars, which THEN was a FORTUNE! On American greed, they spoke of a person that wanted to steal stuff from a vault. TWO problems! 1. "security was tight"! 2. "The vault was impenetrable"! So HOW did he do it? He packed up supplies, etc... and snuck into the safe when they were open through a flaw in the security. He STAYED THERE! When they closed, he got out, emptied a few boxes, and hid AGAIN! When they opened, he snuck out again! They had a HARD time figuring out how he did it. The two sets of boxes joined at 90degrees, so there was a small space he could say in. There was a similar case where the theif hid in a small area that was hidden in a store nextdoor. Well, dressing up in a suit and all starts to sound simple and CHEAP!

Steve

Sounds like a pro commission fundraiser to me. He wanted the sale too bad, probably gets his commission based on your monthly payment.

They want your cards, so they can get you in their funnel and not have to worry about collecting your billing info next time, just rush a pitch over your head and bill you before you even know what you said yes to... the same organization probably represents four different programs... Either that or their next pitch is gonna be designed to fly right over your head and trick you into agreeing to a monthly debit on the next call with slick wording...and get you on tape saying "yes", or at least "ok", before you realize the semantics you were just fed and what you said ok to.

I use to run (manage) a call center that promoted 5 different charity programs simultaneously.

They get you into the funnel with a police drug awareness program, then they call you back next month and say "This is Bob with '_______' calling on behalf of the disabled officers, just wanted to say we appreciate you being a faithful past supporter of 'our' (notice quotes) programs...the officers are hosting this __________ (whatever) and 'we' (note: remember who "we" is) just wanted to call and see if it was okay to go ahead and send your stickers out to you like usual... Okay Great.

We went ahead and allocated the same pledge amount you did last time...would that be okay"?

Note: remember who they paid the $50 to last time, not the program, not even the SAME program... but to the "fundraisers" programs... thats why they can say "You donated to our programs in the past"... and the prospect assumes the rest.

"Okay great Mary, the guys at the precinct will sure appreciate that, and we will go ahead and send those stickers right out to you then at 123 oak street like always then okay"

Note: At this point the prospect is caught up in 3 different kinds of tie downs and obligatory energy, expectations from the past, and social psychological factors are playing in there, belonging to a group of faithful supporters....all kinds of good stuff.

"Great... by the way for only ten dollars more we can go ahead and send the "Gold Stickers" (The "George Wallace Memorial Pledge"/ Name doesnt matter, they call it whatever...) , you can put those on the back of your car, that alerts officers on the road to know that you are a friend...Lol, it'll save you from getting stopped for driving through any 'green' lights anyway...'Lol' (but subtle hint). So anyway Mary, we are going to go ahead and send this out to you like last time... as long as you are 'still' (presumption) okay with it (Prospect says: "Thats fine")

"Okay then, blah blah blah, mary and we'll go ahead and bill that to you the same way as last time...
(Disclaimer time)

"Now remember to look out for the envelope Mary , with the big badge on the front, that way you know its from US '________', the ONLY paid solicitor FOR the program..." Okay?

Note: The way you use the word "only" , with emphasis, implies to the prospect that there should be confidence that all the money goes to the program, and the semantics fly right over their head, even though thats not what you are saying.

(Yes JD's telemarketing knowledge goes deeper than just "Hey, you want a web page"? Shocking I know).

You'd think the prospects would catch it, but they dont. Thats where "what works in reality" differs from "theory".

Also, italicizing (emphasizing) a word both before and after the words "paid solitictor" causes the two red flag words to be de-empasized... and the telemarketers implication comes across, while the two red flag words go over your head.

So...

Next thing you know you are expecting a pledge packet in the mail , and your bank account gets dinged... and they have you on tape saying you are a regular customer practically and that its okay to bill you the same way as last time...

I know you dont think you would fall for that, but NO ONE does, and yet thousands do everyday. In fact I PROMISE that when you donate to any professional fundraising organization, and not directly to a charity, the first thing they do is put you in whats called the "tap" funnel, and only the best salesman get to call you hence... and they will rotate you through 4-5 programs per year masterfully...

Now, again, you may not fall for that... but where I managed, there were people who had been on the tap list for 20 years and still donated every single time, to five different programs per year...

Now ask me why did I run such a place?

Money. I had a family to support...The police department approved, the fireman approved... even "endorsed"... that made it legit.

Now let me tell you the ugly part... as if...

What does the telemarketer say when you say "I just want to make sure this really goes directly to the organization...".

Telemarketer: "Dont worry sir, I promise you 80% goes directly to us...".

Invariably the customer is like "Thats good to know...what with all these people out here running scams...".

Note: The company I worked for actually raised millions of dollars in FREE money for these charities, but kept 80%... There is nothing illegal about it, because with proper semantics, you comply on every level, and every bit of money you make can viewed on your state attorney generals website...nothing hidden, just that "most people dont look".

You learn alot about human nature telemarketing.

Hows that for a post yall? Lol.

Ps. Always give directly to the charity itself and there wont be these issues. Make sure you arent giving to a fundraiser organization representing a charity.

PPS. Thank you for taking part in the John Durham Fundraising Pitch training post. You are a hardcore telemarketer now!