Community Magazine February 2003

50 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE T he police call your home or business asking for you by name. The initial fear and panic grips you as the gruff voice on the other end of the phone leads you through a carefully scripted sales pitch. In the shadow of your relief over not being in trouble with the law, the sizable donation that the officer asked you for seems a trivial sum. You want to help New York’s finest, and their families certainly deserve it. But a nagging doubt lingers in your mind, something about the abrupt tone of the caller, the deliberate intimidation, the clearly uneth- ical promise of special consideration and favors by police officers. It all smells of deception and has the telltale signs of a scam. Odds are it is. Most of these calls are from a profit-making company that will keep 90% or more of the money you send them. Case in point, Justin Patrick White 57, of New York City, who was indicted on charges of defrauding hundreds of businesses and individuals of half a million dollars through a fake charity that he claimed would benefit families of police officers killed in the line of duty. Unfortunately, White is not alone; dozens of scammers in the New York area prey on the generosity, fear and guilt that many of us feel towards our men in blue. In the case of White’s supposed charity, the Police Survivors’ Fund, a regis- tered not-for-profit corporation, less than three percent of the col- lections or about $14,500 ever made it to the actual families. White allegedly trained telemarketers in techniques to solicit maximum donations giving them scripts to read, urging potential donors to “go all out for the widows and the children,” and direct- ing them to state that “surely you can do that for the widows and the children.” A donor could become a “lifetime member” of the fund with a $1,000 donation or a one-year member with a $395 donation, and would receive a certificate to display to indicate the donation. White instructed telemarketers not to volunteer infor- mation about the percentage of the donations that would go to the families, and that a prospective donor who asked how much would be transferred to the families was unlikely to contribute and that the telemarketer “should not waste time but move on to the next call,” the indictment alleges. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, White modified the telemarketer script to read, “A lot of people who feel very strongly about what happened at the World Trade Center ... are donating $911 to commemorate the day of terrorism.” The script con- tinued that if a donor could not afford the sum, he or she should “save face in the community with $50.” Typical Police Charity Scams target Business owners and executives offering plaques, cards or pins that can purportedly help the donor avoid a ticket. Sometimes the scammer will try appear legiti- mate by saying that they don’t condone using the “gifts” for get- ting favors from police officers. PROTECTING YOURSELF There certainly are a number of legitimate police charities. Before pledging any money to a telemarketer check out exactly where the money is going. Ask for the caller’s name, company name, address and telephone number. Ask the caller to send you information in writing so you can examine it. SKETCHING THE SCAMS Police Charity Scam CM

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