webdude Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Hi, any of you receive calls from police soliciting for donations?I have receive three already and they can be really nice at first, but if you ask them to mail you something, they get really aggressive and if you say no, they get rude and then hang up on you.I suspect they are not really the police, maybe someone on staff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 This is also a known scam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston1stWordOnTheMoon Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Those are not cops. They are an independent fundraiser usually employed by various police unions to get donation for the unions. Tell them you are not interested and add thier numbers to the National Do Not Call List if you are already registered. If you are not registered, it would be a good thing to get registered www.donotcall.gov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RunSilent Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 I always tell them I gave to the 100 Club (fund for the families of fallen police officers and firefighters). If they persist, I say I gave to the 100 Club, please stop calling, and hang up on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nativehou Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Each of the past five years on my job I've received a phone call from the SAME guy who says he's an HPD officer and who is soliciting advertisements in some police-related newsletter. Each year I ask him to fax me the information -- he takes my fax number, says he'll go do it, and he never does. It's gotten to be quite funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 This used to really bug me. Where do they get off? I don't call up strangers and ask them to contribute to my retirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2fatcats Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 Hi, any of you receive calls from police soliciting for donations?I have receive three already and they can be really nice at first, but if you ask them to mail you something, they get really aggressive and if you say no, they get rude and then hang up on you.I suspect they are not really the police, maybe someone on staff.<<webdudeA few of them might be legit, but most of them are scams. They come under a lot of names like Texas Police Officers Association or some such thing. What they are is some guy working out of an office who solicits either outright donations or asks you to put an ad in their newspaper and in return they will send you a sticker to put on your car. The deal is, they might print the paper, but it only goes to the people who bought ads and sometimes it's nonexistant all together. When I first moved to Houston eons ago I worked for a guy who did just that thing. He sold the ads/collected donations and I went out and picked up the checks. I have to shake my head whenever I see those stickers on people's cars because I know they've been had and people wanted the stickers because they believed the urban myth that if you had one you wouldn't get a ticket. LOL Just like some folks think you won't with a 100 club sticker. What's even worse is I also knew of a man who prints up a little newletter called the Missing Children's Bulletin and was running the same type of scam out of a little apartment on Fountainview. But I believe he finally got shut down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icanluv2 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Hi, any of you receive calls from police soliciting for donations?I have receive three already and they can be really nice at first, but if you ask them to mail you something, they get really aggressive and if you say no, they get rude and then hang up on you.I suspect they are not really the police, maybe someone on staff.I knew it was a scam, so one time when i got a call, i told him that HPD can f*** off. The guy seemed more upset about it than the fact that i also told him i didn't have any money. It was amusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo58 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Hi, any of you receive calls from police soliciting for donations?I have receive three already and they can be really nice at first, but if you ask them to mail you something, they get really aggressive and if you say no, they get rude and then hang up on you. I suspect they are not really the police, maybe someone on staff. This is still going on. Especially this time of year! They love taking advantage of senior citizens. Everyone, warn your elders, please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porchman Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Public Safety Services is the firm making the calls. I just ignore the phone when their name comes on the caller I.D. at home. They first called me about 3 or 4 years ago. It was around the time the Sherriff's union was embroiled in to Toys for Tots scam, so I was already a bit wary about fundraising and cops. I became more suspicious when they refused to send literature out to me and became evasive about how the funds were used. When I finally got them to disclose that they are not a 501©(3) organization, (a query which involved a more aggressive supervisor joining the call), I chastised them for their guile (in so many words), and hung up. If you want to give to a legitimate organization that helps public safety personnel and their families, I think the Houston 100 Club is a good channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 I never give out anything out to callers. If they want my money, it has to come by mail. And even then I'm a pretty tough sell.Which leads to a stupidism I've run into: Every now and then Washington Mutual's automated "fraud alert" system would call my home phone because of some purchase I'd made in some Godforsaken corner of the Earth. But the automated system won't tell you why it's calling until you punch in some personal information (SSN and DoB, as I recall). Well, I don't give out personal information on the phone to callers. It took four trips to the local branch for them to figure out why I was getting the calls, but they couldn't make them stop. Since I wouldn't enter the information the automated system just put me back on the list to re-call later. After a couple of weeks, it was just the final straw (and just another in a long line of WaMu horror stories), so I closed my accounts. That was the only way I could get it to stop calling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firebird65 Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Which leads to a stupidism I've run into: Every now and then Washington Mutual's automated "fraud alert" system would call my home phone because of some purchase I'd made in some Godforsaken corner of the Earth.Even though it was unwanted, AT LEAST you got a call. You ought to be thankful, if only a little.I have a Chase card which I seldom use (I'm cash and carry). A few years back, I had to go to a business conference in Memphis which required me to use my card. The conference was held in the Peabody, a swanky and expensive hotel. I hadn't used that card in months and all of the sudden it's being used in another town in a fancy hotel and at a fancy restaurant or two. That should have been an obvious red flag to Chase. But I got no calls whatsoever. I was pretty miffed and told the card company about it in not very pleasant terms.Yes, I was the card holder and yes I was using the card, but in this case I was very disappointed no one ever challenged me considering the circumstances, even if it would have caused me an inconvenience and perhaps even a little embarrasment to have to prove who I was. After all, what if it hadn't been me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 I get occasional calls from my credit union after I've been out of town, but not always. There doesn't seem to be an exact pattern.Regarding police telemarketing, a couple years back I received a call asking for a donation - I didn't recognize the name of the organization, but I don't give money over the phone either. I told them I don't make donations over the phone and asked if they had a web address or print materials.The guy then said something like "so I'll put you down for $30?"I repeated what I said, and he said an expletive and hung up the phone. Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo58 Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 This is still going on. Especially this time of year!They love taking advantage of senior citizens. Everyone, warn your elders, please! Again, It's the gall these crooks have to take advantage of the older age groups. We younger ones get more "alerts" and notices (like this one) and seniors don't unless a son or daughter or relative tells them. The other day my mom said Oh by the way I got a call from HPD wanting $. She sounded as if she thought it was real and told me she was about to ask where to go to give to them. Needless to say I got alarmed at her "good faith" assumption that this was an honest request for $. Even though we kids constantly advise/coach her to be aware, it scared me to think if she had really sent it in. Funny when your a child your parents warn you of the crooked ones, but now as the years have passed the tables have turned. Those of you with elderly parent/s know what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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