Irish police hunt bogus collectors
Howard Lake | 24 January 2010 | News
Gardaí are investigating bogus charity workers who took up a collection for the victims of Haiti’s earthquake last weekend, according to the Irish Times.
A group of women, claiming to be from the Red Cross, collected money in pubs in Limerick at the weekend.
There have also been reports in the UK that bogus collections have been undertaken for Haiti.
The bogus collectors told unsuspecting drinkers that they were from Laois and part of a nationwide collection for emergency disaster relief.
The scam was uncovered when a bona fide Red Cross volunteer confronted them in a Dublin pub and asked to see their permits.
Hilary Parkinson, spokeswoman for the charity in Limerick, told the Irish Times that the bogus collectors had printed off the main page from the Red Cross website to authenticate the collection and also showed a provisional driving licence.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.