The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has long been a client of InfoCision, an industry gorilla among commercial fundraisers. No one has said if the client name is instead a copycat. My remarks apply regardless.
Charity calls are commonly placed by a commercial fundraiser, such as Associated Community Services, Dial America, Donor Care Center, Donor Services Group, Harris Direct, Horizon Marketing, InfoCision, Insight Teleservices, MDS, and TeleFund. Like all non-sales calls, these are exempt from federal and most state no-call registries, even though the call centers executing the recurring campaigns are very much for-profit and pocket most of what is collected.
At times the ''charity'' client is itself a closet profit enterprise, compounding the deception. Never forget that "nonprofit" is a tax category, not an indicator of actual earnings and not a guarantee that anyone who deserves your generosity will benefit.
As commercial entities, the hired call centers are expected to honor an internal no-call list and add any number upon request. Break that order, the FTC declares, and ''the telemarketer may be subject to a fine of up to $16,000.'' They can also be spanked for excess call abandonment, transmitting inaccurate Caller ID, and calling outside default hours.
Because the amounts collected are rather small, these call centers are quite motivated to repeatedly hassle you. The worst of the industry will "reload" a donor multiple times a year, preferring forgetful and easily confused victims. Most if not all such phone farms assume that your no-call order, when given verbally or by keypress, conveniently expires when a client's campaign ends.
In comments from November 2012 and June 2013 linked below, I've discussed simple steps I took to rid myself of a major pain fundraising boiler room by politely rubbing its face in federal laws. You will note that I never rely on verbal cease-communication demands.
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has long been a client of InfoCision, an industry gorilla among commercial fundraisers. No one has said if the client name is instead a copycat. My remarks apply regardless.
Charity calls are commonly placed by a commercial fundraiser, such as Associated Community Services, Dial America, Donor Care Center, Donor Services Group, Harris Direct, Horizon Marketing, InfoCision, Insight Teleservices, MDS, and TeleFund. Like all non-sales calls, these are exempt from federal and most state no-call registries, even though the call centers executing the recurring campaigns are very much for-profit and pocket most of what is collected.
At times the ''charity'' client is itself a closet profit enterprise, compounding the deception. Never forget that "nonprofit" is a tax category, not an indicator of actual earnings and not a guarantee that anyone who deserves your generosity will benefit.
As commercial entities, the hired call centers are expected to honor an internal no-call list and add any number upon request. Break that order, the FTC declares, and ''the telemarketer may be subject to a fine of up to $16,000.'' They can also be spanked for excess call abandonment, transmitting inaccurate Caller ID, and calling outside default hours.
Because the amounts collected are rather small, these call centers are quite motivated to repeatedly hassle you. The worst of the industry will "reload" a donor multiple times a year, preferring forgetful and easily confused victims. Most if not all such phone farms assume that your no-call order, when given verbally or by keypress, conveniently expires when a client's campaign ends.
In comments from November 2012 and June 2013 linked below, I've discussed simple steps I took to rid myself of a major pain fundraising boiler room by politely rubbing its face in federal laws. You will note that I never rely on verbal cease-communication demands.
This number called my DNC-listed landline yesterday at 1942 hours. I wasn't around to answer it and wouldn't have engaged them anyway because 98% of all calls I get on my landline are scam artists. I see that some are reporting this number as an alleged leukemia fundraiser and yet someone else was told it was for disabled vets. I wonder if it's the same scamming idiots who have recently been calling constantly from some alleged police fund. Why would a legitimate fund-raiser change the purpose of their fund-raiser from call to call? Methinks I smell a rat. Even if it was a legitimate charity, I would NEVER donate over the phone and never do business with a VoIP phone number because VoIP is the favorite tool of scam artists world-wide. It allows them to pretend to be whatever phone number they want from all over the world and hide from the law. If anyone wants to do business with me, they better have a real phone system, with a real, traceable phone number.
Called my cell phone earlier today but I was driving and I don't answer calls from unknowns while I'm driving. They didn't leave a message. There should be a stronger law against these people calling mobile phones. I can imagine how many accidents/near accidents are being caused because someone, who had to leave their phone on for a legitimate reason (sick child, etc.) was looking at the screen trying to figure out if they recognized the number.
Southern guy, asked for William...told him he had the wrong number..."Well, maybe you can help me then." Claimed to be an organization to assist veterans and asked if I'd be willing to give an address to be sent a package to donate.