Always ask:
(a) What percentage of your money goes to the charity?
(b) Are you being paid to collect money?
The answers to these questions explain themselves. Give local, & NEVER give out financial information on the phone. Due diligence - check them before you give.
Same as "Mel" above, but would like to add that this sounds like a real man but it's definitely a voice prompted robot. You can say any silly thing to it and it responds as if you said something normal. Also find it funny that he specifically stated OHIO police officers (my home state) when the call is coming from California. How bogus is that????
Robo guy from Cali again wanting donations for families of fallen Ohio police officers. In response to his (It's) question about my willingness to donate I stated "give me the name and address of the widow of a fallen police officer and I will personally give her help...but I will not do it through a scam from California". Will be interesting to see if they ever call here again.