Collection Scam - Clothes collection

[Leeds Hippo]

I received a leaflet in the post today – delivered very early – asking for clothes collections on behalf of the charity "Breakthrough Breast Cancer" from a (notorious) company called Clothman Ltd. . I checked Google which suggested it was a scam.http://breakthrough.org.uk/media_centre ... hing.htmlI passed the details onto the charity who are passing details on to the trading standards. If they are quick they may catch them in the act - collection day Thursday.Anyone else recieved these leaflets - I'm in Wortley

[Reginal Perrin]

Scam maybe but I see most charities as a scam to provide incomes for fragrant ladies of leisure.If these mobs sell the clothes, take an income and make some kind of donation then it's not too far removed from chuggers int he street needing 8 months of £3 direct debits to break even is it?

[Lilysmum]

This is the scam I mentioned last week on the "all new rag and bone men" thread. Apparently operated by a Lithuanian gang.

[Brandy]

I will keep my eye out for them. ive a bag full of horse Manure round the back i will leave them that out lol.

[Leeds Hippo]

Does anyone know if these guys are actually breaking any law? There seems to be a number of systemic failures in the process for reporting (non-emergency) crimes.For example:I received a reply from the charity saying that I would need to contact the local trading standards myself since trading standards can only take complaints from "local" residents. When I try email the local police or crimestoppers I don't get a reply (how often are the emails read - once a week?). There is a distinct lack of urgency on display. No doubt the crooks will be well away by this time next week.I've been looking round the web and the company operates all over and the one thing that strikes me is that the authorities seem unable or unwilling to do anything - they just give advice to not put any clothes out!

[Croggy2]

We had these leaflets a week or two ago.Mine and my mum's (who is dealing with breast cancer for the third time!) went straight in the bin.

[Phill_dvsn]

If there falsely claiming to be donating a percentage of the proceeds to charity. Then i would say they are breaking the law. Isn't obtaining money by deception an offence? It's certainly morally wrong!    

[Lilysmum]

According to the news report last week this scam has been operating countrywide and no money has been donated to the charity.A reporter questioned a man collecting bags for the "company" and also swiping any other bags left out for collection on behalf of other charities. He spoke very little english but said all the clothing went to Lithuania for poor people! Scams like this are costing charities millions.

[Leeds Hippo]

Just seen this - so they have been on the go since at least June and no (Mr Big) has had their collar felt yet!http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 6363649.jp

[Crazy Jane]

Kirkstall/Burley Road area, i've seen these coming through maybe once a month for the last year or two. For some reason, most of them have some variation of the (totally unrelated) cat photograph on them.Edit: I suspect Hippo it's an unfortunate case of watching the small print, they may look a lot like charity flyers but if they say on (as they do) what they are and what they're going to do with it then there's no deception per se in a criminal sense... i guess.Fairly sure i have heard of some businesses like this whipping bags left out for collection by actual charitites, even purposely doing the run earlier the same day they know a charity does theirs to clean up, but couldn;t say that this has actually happened with any of the ones we have discussed here.