Now THIS is disgusting...

[Gabriella84]

I heard this on Los Angeles talk radio earlier tonight. I looked for an article about it on the internet, but was unable to find one. Maybe someone else can.

A group has been making sales calls in Southern California purporting to be collecting funds to "help service men in Iraq and their families." You send them money and they send you one of those "support the troops" decals.
A radio host researched the group and found they were using a large phone soliciting service (like many telemarketers do). Out of the money collected, 70 percent goes to the phone service, 20 percent goes to the group (for "operating expenses") and 10 percent goes to "selected (unnamed) veterans groups."

And you thought I was disrespectful.

 

[Annie]

I heard this on Los Angeles talk radio earlier tonight. I looked for an article about it on the internet, but was unable to find one. Maybe someone else can.

A group has been making sales calls in Southern California purporting to be collecting funds to "help service men in Iraq and their families." You send them money and they send you one of those "support the troops" decals.
A radio host researched the group and found they were using a large phone soliciting service (like many telemarketers do). Out of the money collected, 70 percent goes to the phone service, 20 percent goes to the group (for "operating expenses") and 10 percent goes to "selected (unnamed) veterans groups."

And you thought I was disrespectful.

I don't think anyone accused you of being criminal? There's the difference.

 

[Merlin]

I heard this on Los Angeles talk radio earlier tonight. I looked for an article about it on the internet, but was unable to find one. Maybe someone else can.

A group has been making sales calls in Southern California purporting to be collecting funds to "help service men in Iraq and their families." You send them money and they send you one of those "support the troops" decals.
A radio host researched the group and found they were using a large phone soliciting service (like many telemarketers do). Out of the money collected, 70 percent goes to the phone service, 20 percent goes to the group (for "operating expenses") and 10 percent goes to "selected (unnamed) veterans groups."

And you thought I was disrespectful.

It's no different than these marathons that you see movie stars putting on all the time for some worthy cause. Depending on who it is putting it on, they get between 70% and 90% and the cause gets the rest. That is after overhead is taken out of the balance. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is Willie Nelson's last Farm Aid in which he gave it all to the cause after overhead.

 

[Bonnie]

It's no different than these marathons that you see movie stars putting on all the time for some worthy cause. Depending on who it is putting it on, they get between 70% and 90% and the cause gets the rest. That is after overhead is taken out of the balance. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is Willie Nelson's last Farm Aid in which he gave it all to the cause after overhead.

Not to mention a whole lot of free publicity for the stars involved........

 

[dilloduck]

These professional fund raisers have been operating like this for years--they also do it for cops, firemen etc. Ya gotta investigate before you just dump bucks somewhere which is why I prefer to directly help those who need it.

 

[krisy]

I got a call a couple of yesrs back form someone saing they were form a charity that was collecting money for kids of fallen sherriffs in the area. The money was supposed to help them pay for college and so on. The guy really wanted my credit card number,and I knew it wasn't right. I hung up and called the sherriff's department to find there wasn't any kind of charity like that. Some people are just leeches.

I have heard about this kinds of thing many times ,where a lot of the money doesn't go to where you think it is. Pretty sad.

 

[Zhukov]

That's why it's best to donate directly to well known Veteran organizations like the VFW.

Always know exactly who you are sending your money to.

 

[5stringJeff]

Any scams are worthy of disdain.

But these people should be shot.