A couple of things tipped me off. She said she had moved in to a house on Chinook, but was elusive as to where. I expressed neigbourly interest and asked specifically which house. After she left, I called the residents at that address who said the same woman had visited them last night. Obviously she wasn't who she claimed to be. She also said I could write a cheque to "ACC", though I made my donation payable to the Aladdin Children's Charity.
I immediately reported her to the police. Unfortunately they just left me a message that they had been unable to locate her. They said that they had received no other calls so they presumed it was a legitimate charity.
I checked out their web site, Aladdin web site. I haven't read any of it, but the 888 number is not in service, and the 416 number was answered by a fax machine. Seems to be a pretty slick scam.
I called back the officer in charge and left a voicemail message with this additional info. A couple of residents on Chinook also said they had given this same woman money last night.
Please pass the word around. I'd suggest that if you are approached by this woman, you note as much as you can about her, note which way she is headed, and call the police at 230-6211.
I went out looking for this woman this evening and found her working Dickson Street. I called the police and they eventually stopped her and questioned her. The police report number is 03-306-052, taken by Officer Jason Bond. She is driving an old grey Caravan minivan, ON licence plate AKVB 592. Of note, others who had received my e-mail also reported her to the police.
According to Officer Bond, the woman who identified herself to me as "Lynne" is not from the Ottawa area. She is collecting for a charity called the Aladdin Children's Charity. "The following link is to an article that is not overly praise worthy of Aladdin Children's Charity article, in the words of one of many neighbours who found this Toronto Star article on the web. It is also available on The Star's web site at Star article, under the title "Bad boys of charity waste your money".
Despite the above 2002 article, it seems this charity is still registered with CCRA, as can be verified on CCRA's web site, though they do not have a report on file. I have filed a complaint with CCRA which they acknowledged, though they said that privacy laws prevent them from disclosing any information about a specific charity. The good news is that you can deduct any donations you made, even if little of the donation reaches the needy. As another neighbour noted, "As a tax partner I worked with used to say, 'Any fool can lose $1 to save 50 cents in taxes!'" Yet another neighbour noted "Some more cyber research shows that they have had their web site since 1997." The nerve of some people!
Many neighbours responded to my e-mail with comments on their gift giving strategies. Certainly in this neighbourhood we are targeted by many reputable charities, and obviously a few scam artists too. Personally, I'll continue to support charities which my neighbours feel are important enough for them to get out and pound the pavement, but in the future I'll make sure they are who they say they are. I'll also cancel payment on the cheque I wrote for "Lynne". A neighbour I'll call Bob wrote "Unless I know them (or at least recognize them) or they are 10 years old or younger and are wearing a Brownie uniform I don't give them anything. I just indicate that all of our charitable donations are given through the United Way." Perhaps not a bad strategy.
The upsetting part of this story is that Officer Bond didn't feel there was much the police could do, despite the fact that this woman is lying to everyone she meets, at least about where she lives. He did say that he would refer it to the fraud unit, but after being stopped and questioned by the police, "Lynne" turned around and headed south on Dickson, knocking on each door. And I just got a call that she is now working down Okanagan!
The good news is that I believe my e-mail last night reached many of our neighbours, and hopefully most are telling this woman to get lost, and never come back to Qualicum. Interestingly, someone on Okanagan reported that he had been visited by this neighbour twice before.
Note that the only e-mail address in the "To" list above is the QGPCA webmaster; others that receive this message directly from me have been bcc'd (blind carbon copied). My understanding is that dozens or perhaps even hundreds of others received my message forwarded by the QGPCA webmaster and others. I think this is a testament to the sense of community in Qualicum. Thank you to the various people who passed along this message and got the word out. Hopefully this type of thing won't happen very often, but something that the QGPCA will I'm sure consider is how to address such scams in the future. Has everyone paid their $10 membership? If you're reading this and haven't, please visit QGPCA Membership and send in your cheque. Not that I'm on the executive, but I feel it's the best $10 I ever spent!
If anyone has any connections at CCRA, the media, or anywhere else, feel free to share this with them. Someone suggested that a newspaper article might discourage this type of activity?
The fact that she had large bills (at least one $50 and one $100) displayed prominently on her clipboard made me wonder, and I did not donate.
Would putting something on the website about this be useful, Andy?
Hugh, good research! If the police get back to you needing more info, you can refer them to me and/or quote what I just reported.
Some more damning information about Aladdin in this item, found on the net. Article on Aladdin Children's Charity
Thanks for the information.
I recall receiving past visits (in previous years) from the Aladdin Children's Charity. While I have donated in the past I politely refused this woman last night given that I recall some negative news re this charity. She was very defensive when I pointed out that I had heard some negative publicity re Aladdin and its high "administrative ratio".
At the very least, no donations should ever be made out to an acronym - i.e., "ACC".
I have met this woman twice before, and I have more information for you. In brief, I think it is a "near-scam" rather than outright fraud, and unfortunately, I don't think it's a police issue.
The first time she came to my door, I refused to give her money on the basis that she had no charitable registration number.
Several months later, she returned proudly announcing that my issue was resolved, and that the charity now had its official registration number. What she didn't anticipate was that I had since read an article in the Toronto Star which pointed out that having a charitable registration number is no guarantee of authenticity, and that unlike Britain and the US, no one actually checks that charities meet basic standards of value for the money received.
I reached for the article in question, and blow me down, her Aladdin charity was mentioned by name as one of the "offenders"! I told her she could read the article on the Internet so that she could see who she was canvassing for, so since she's still at it, either she didn't, or she's well aware of the "near-scam".
She has not called on me since.
(As a side issue, on Monday morning, I noticed a car parked on Okanagan facing south just before Sioux - a spot chosen as being not really outside anyone's house - occupied by a lone man with a beard. I stopped the car long enough to rue that I had no pen and paper in the car to take its number, and went on my way. The car had gone half an hour later, but returned again mid-morning. I wonder if this was "Lynne"'s ride from Toronto??? Needless to say, I have a good supply of paper in my car now.)
For anyone who has the time to check the Star article, go to article and wonder at the material there, and check out the penultimate reference "Bad boys of charity waste your money" where Aladdin is mentioned by name.
My own personal opinion is that people should concentrate their charity giving to a small number of causes known and understood by the donor or the donor's trusted friends, and refuse all door-to-door or telemarketed solicitations point blank. There simply isn't enough time to validate a charity in such a meeting. A large proportion of my interactions with canvassers have been negative, including:
You can check out charities to see if they are registered with
CCRA at
CCRA
search
and although Aladdin is registered they do not have a report on file.
The following link is to an article that is not overly praise worthy of Aladdin Children's Charity Article on Aladdin Children's Charity
Some more cyber research shows that they have had there web site since 1997. So they have been around for a while.
I, too, am generally very cautious about donating to charities with which I'm not familiar. The exception is when a neighbour feels strongly enough to get out and pound the pavement, I usually give a nominal donation in recognition of their efforts. This woman was obviously taking advantage of the Qualicum sense of community.
There is a group of three people named Perrin, Corriero and Dobbs who run a fundraising agencies called "Community Fundraising Consultants", "Canadian Care Marketing Associates" and "OFC Charity Call Centre" [1]. Their full names are Ronald Perrin, Don Corriero and Heather Dobbs [2]. Their modus operandi is to run charities for the purpose of assigning 75% to 80% of the gross proceeds to their collection agencies [1].
Community Fundraising Consultants, which may have had an office in Ottawa [6] was associated with three not-for-profit organisations: Aladdin Children's Charity, the National Children's Burn Society and the Canadian Association of the Blind [3]. The Canadian Association of the Blind, run by Don Atkinson [5] who is actually visually impaired [7] has had its registered-charity status revoked [4]. The other two are run from the same location on Danforth Avenue (Toronto?) by Tom Reid Sr and Tom Reid Jr [5] and their websites were set up by the same registrant (Martin Warren) [11] [12]. To mantain the illusion of value, they give donations to each other and call it "charitable works" [5]. This location also at one point housed the "Senior association of Canada" [10] of which I can find no trace.
It appears that the courts choose to shut down the not-for-profit organisation [2] rather than bring a criminal prosecution [2]. When an organisation such as the "National Society for Abused Women and Children" is shut down [2] they simply move on to another. I note that the three respondents in this case were "prohibited from acting as directors of any other charitable organization until the accounts of the Society have been approved" [1]. I wonder if they have broken this order, and could be brought to account on this point?
While researching this, I get the impression of "birds of a feather flock together" in that I turn up links to other suspect charities. The Canadian Association of the Blind was canvassed for by "Courtesy Call" [5] who also collected for The Parkinson's Support & Research Society [9] which is another suspect organisation [8] [9].
It seems quite a co-incidence that the old address for Community Fundraising Consultants is "Wellington St Ottawa" [6] when David Waldron gave a possibly fake "Wellington Rd, London" address for the Parkinson Society's Ontario head quarters [9] - did he make this up on the spur of the moment?
I don't know where you go from here, except to draw Officer Bond's attention to all this information, and to try to have the charitable status of these organisations revoked.
[1] http://www.carters.ca/pub/bulletin/charity/2002/chylb13.htm
[2] http://www.phonebusters.com/Eng/Charges_Arrests/February_6_2002_1a.html
[3] http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/archive/anew/anew99/anew9910.html
[4] http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/newsroom/releases/2002/dec/charity-e.html
[5] http://www.somaliawatch.org/archivejun02/021114202.htm
[6] http://www.finditinottawa.com/app/obj/?oid=992896
[7]
http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/hansard/han57-1/h99apr08.htm#[Page%205587]
[8] http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/05/24/Consumers/Parkinsons_020524
[9] "Bogus Parkinson's group..."
[10] http://www.google.com/search?q=senior-association-of-canada
[11] http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=ncbscharity.org
[12] http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=aladdincharity.org