Donation Scam

[susiestar]

About three or four years ago some big boxes were put in the parking lots of locally owned stores. They are labelled for donation of clothing, books, housewares, etc... MANY people put their unwanted items in these bins (they are rather like half-size dumpsters but made of wood and with a big door flap on front that pulls down so you can put stuff in) and felt very good that they were contributing to a charity.

One of these is in the parking lot of the place Wiz works at. He learned that these are for donations, but NOT to any charity. the man who owns the boxes takes the items and puts them on ebay and if they don't sell he puts them in a big quarterly yard sale!!!

I find this AWFUL but it is perfectly legal. he does not have anything posted about charity or for a cause or the name of any group on the boxes. Even the owner of the business where Wiz works didn't know. He donated the parking lot space for the box at no charge because it was for charity. He went to get a donation form for his taxes and then discovered it isn't for a charity at all!

Be careful when and where you donate things to be sure they are going to a real charity. Lots of people in our area are FURIOUS over this.

 

[InsaneCdn]

We take our donations direct to the actual charities involved - we have several good ones around here. Drop boxes are a double-problem... the one you mentioned, plus they get raided a lot by people who want stuff "for free".

The only stuff we donate in open box set-ups are stuff that has no value - milk jugs, cardboard... and yes, the cardboard bin gets raided - for usable boxes, especially at the end of the month. But THAT's just another form of recycling, right?

 

[susiestar]

You are right, about the people wanting free and those wanting boxes who use them. I don't generally even notice them, but a few mos ago the guy painted them bright orange.

We used to have an unmanned aluminum can donation thing that paid you for your cans. The man who bought them (who deals in scrap metals and does NOT label them as donations or charity) had to shut them down because people were filling the cans with rocks and mud so that they would weigh more because the machine paid by the pound. It was just sad to find out that people did that.

 

[DammitJanet]

We have those boxes here but I cant figure out where those boxes take the donations to so I wont use them. I have never heard of the charity they claim to be associated with so that made me extremely leery. They certainly arent associated with the only place we have here in town that sells used stuff so I felt it had to be a scam.