Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
VSO fundraiser
Has anyone received the visit of a charming VSO fundraiser? Fair enough to raise a small amount for a worthy charity, fair enough to set up a direct debit or standing order for this, but I backed off after noticing that the form wanted my bank details as well as personal details (such as bank address, sort code, account number, date of birth).
I just emailed VSO as I'd really like to know whether this was a genuine call or a convincing fake. Any idea?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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CHUGGER on your doorstep!
Isabelle, I hope you get a convincing reply from VSO, though they may well refer you to their 'chugger of choice', www.homefundraising.com . First, I have the greatest admiration for VSO and particularly for VSO volunteers, young and old, having spent a decade working alongside them over forty years ago. I am not that greatly taken, however, by the organisation's more current approach to fundraising. It is most unlikely that the "charming VSO fundraiser" you met was ever a VSO volunteer or even spent time in a developing country. S/he may be earning more in a month than a VSO's allowance for a year or than, say, a Sierra Leonean headteacher would collect for his take-home annual salary, i.e. when his/her salary is actually paid.
Through "HOMEFundraising" VSO say they aim at getting you on board, and keeping you on board, through 15 minutes on your doorstep, "particularly effective with young professional couples and people with young families - generally situated in middle-income areas - targeted by HOMEFundraising using data from previous development charity campaigns. This method of identifying appropriate areas that had not been over-harvested by previous door-to-door activity ensured VSO had the maximum opportunity to access the target audience . . . raising the previous average donor age of 20-30 to a more dependable profile age of 42."
Don't get me wrong (Hol readers usually do!). I'm not suggesting you shouldn't support VSO. Just make sure that at least 14 of your charming HOMEchugger's 15 minutes is taken up by an in-depth discussion of VSO's work worldwide and particularly of the relationship between HOMEFundraising and their client VSO, and the exact proportion of your DD or STO to be creamed off towards keeping him/her & co-chuggers and HOMEFundraising.com on the income of, say, a small West African country.
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Permalink Reply by Isabelle on
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Interesting considerations. We certainly less spoke of VSO's work than of ourselves, being two foreigners from the same country (of course I was aware this was part of making me feel comfortable and wanting to donate). The fact that I know a little bit about VSO didn't incite me to ask questions, but she didn't know that and, you're right, she should have publicised their work a lot more if she was concerned at all; so perhaps she was from a third party that discreetly 'creams' most of the donations.
The scheme was to give 28p a day (or week, I'm not sure) by direct debit, which wouldn't start for another few weeks. She did discourage me when I offered to go to VSO website instead of signing up with her, by saying that the admin costs involved in doing that were not worth the donations, hence why they employed people like her to go from door to door instead.
I'm not exactly looking at ways to spend money at present, especially when there are so many charities of all sorts in need and I'm already donating now and then. However if there had been an alternative to sign up to that scheme, I would have taken it (on impulse – isn't this how they call it?).
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This is a scam. There is no reason they need your DOB.
If by any chance it is not, I would suggest that she discouraged you from using the website as this would impact her targets and probably some kind of bonus/commission. Cynical IMHO
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VSO wrote back to me a couple of days ago to request further details, but I haven't heard anything since.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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She was here yesterday - Seven Sisters. Or maybe a clone. I just sent her away saying I never buy things at the door, it's as annoying as those bloody scam phone calls which are up to about five a day.
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I'll be my usual self and keep sending people away too after this experience. Though I'd rather have VSO confirm that she was genuine.
For phone calls, you can register for free with TPS (tpsonline.org.uk), this makes it illegal for companies to make sales and marketing calls to you. It works for me.
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TPS sadly can't block calls from outside the UK. If I can be bothered I try to find out the company offering me PPI claims (the current lot) so I can shop them that way. I spent an amusing several minutes yesterday with one, saying how I would like my son to be able to get a job with his company, what was the pay like, nice indoor job etc. That my 'John' could meet my caller after work for a chat, and just where exactly in High Wycombe was he calling from?
I have now gone ex-directory, so hope that will eventually cut them down - as they always have my address as well as my number, I guess that's where they find me.
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I walked by a young man fundraising for VSO on a doorstep in Seven Sisters yesterday too.
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Just got a reply from a VSO staff:
"Apologies if you felt a bit put out or surprised by this activity. It is in fact one of our most successful and viable forms of fundraising - helping us bring in about 15,000 new donors each year. Upon whom we greatly depend in order to keep sending our volunteers overseas to places where they are needed the most. The fundraisers we use are highly trained and screened to make sure they get all messaging across and reassure people that signing up to a direct debit is a safe way to donate to us.
I completely understand though that some people would prefer not to part with their direct debit details on paper - although I can assure you we carry out the strictest safety and anti-fraud procedures to ensure nothing does go wrong. "
I'll accept this as a reply, though it doesn't say that there definitely was some fundraising activity in my area on that day, also it doesn't cover the possibility that my caller could have been a fake with fake forms etc. Good for VSO if this works for them.
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