Impersonating a Charity

[Kanalah]

BG: Quilter with online store and it's almost craft show time again *shudder*

Love waking up to scam emails.

C/P from email:
Hi, my name is *redacted* and I'm the president of a non profit organization called *redacted*. We help out children with life threatening illnesses. We will be holding a fundraiser the beginning of September and I would like to know if you would kindly donate *uber fancy and expensive quilt* for our silent auction. It will be a great opportunity to advertise your business. I personally shop on Etsy quite frequently. I hope you will consider helping us make children's dreams come true!

Thank you,
*name redacted*


Now I love helping out charities, but I get so many emails asking for free stuff that if I automatically gave them whatever they were asking for I'd have nothing to sell! So sadly I have to research everything. So here's what I found:

1: It's actually a real charity. That's good at least.

2: She's not the president. I even checked if she was a president of one of the small local chapters. No dice.

3: The only link she has with the charity is that her daughter volunteers there.

4: She opened her Etsy account last week and has no favorites listed or any feedback.

Yeah I'm thinking no. But I'm not totally heartless, I contacted my local office of the charity and arranged a donation for their fundraiser myself. I'm not going to let the kids lose out after all

[EricKei]

Be sure to pass her email and email address on to the actual charity. They may not appreciate someone trying to "act on their behalf" like that. It may turn out that she's using their name to get a nice pricey quilt for *herself*....Either way, let them deal with her.

[Kittish]

Hah, the sadistic side of me says to send her an email (after you've given her info to the actual charity, and informed Etsy of her attempt at fraud as well, she'll probably lose her account there) along the lines of:

*Name*,
Thank you for bringing *charity* to my attention. In response to your kind solicitation I have donated *item, specific as you want to be* to the local office of *charity*, and informed them of your kind actions on their behalf.
Best regards,

[Evannah]

As someone who actually does do voluntary work for a charity caring for life-limited children, that lady can fuck off trying to impersonate one. Thank you for donating to the charity, that was nice of you

[notalwaysright]

It's disturbing to hear stories like that. You wonder if those people are walking husks containing no emotions other than greed. Like they're broken or missing something really essential to being a human.

When charity work is in full swing (closer to the holidays) I get some... Uncomfortable customers. I mean, we ask what people are making, right? And I really can't describe exactly what it is, but sometimes when a person replies that they're donated whatever to charity they give off an icky vibe. Like they're doing it to show off? This is just SOME people, most seem really nice! There is a certain charity popular around here, (the lady who founded it is local, but it is nationwide) and some ladies are so embarrassed about it! It's making reusable feminine pads to send to developing countries. Specifically places where girls end up dropping out of school because they have literally no access to anything. Anyway, they need to stop being embarrassed, because it's awesome and very practical. But I digress!

This is why I don't give to anything I can't verify. Sorry, I don't give to people standing outside the grocery store, or post office. Also, I have been yelled at for saying no to these people, and I bet REAL charity workers wouldn't do that.

[RealUnimportant]

...but sometimes when a person replies that they're donated whatever to charity they give off an icky vibe. Like they're doing it to show off?

"Look at me, I'm doing something worthy for the little people!"

As opposed to true altruism, where you knowing you've helped out another is reward enough?

Yeah, that's always a bit off.

[Captain Trips]

Yeah, true altruism would be "I'd like to BUY one of your awesome quilts to donate to..."

[Kanalah]

I had a friend of mine ask about buying a quilt from me so her chapter of the VFW could raffle it off to raise money for veterans.

I told her that was very kind of her and that since it was for veterans and she is an extremely trustworthy person, that I'd be happy to make a quilt and donate it.

That my friends, is how it works.