Two suspected scams in Newmarket, Richmond Hill, two different outcomes

Front door and telephone fundraising efforts aren't always scams as two women realize

YorkRegion.com
Sept. 6, 2016
By Jeremy Grimaldi

Have you ever been left wondering if the fundraising efforts you experienced on your front doorstep or over the phone were real or fraudulent?

Well you're not alone.

Two York Region women were left asking similar questions during two recent interactions.

Rossana Dicenso from Richmond Hill and Mekmang Bravo from Newmarket discovered how varied the responses to that question can become.

Dicenso was walking her dog near her home at Bayview and 16th Avenues at around noon on Thursday when three boys approached her waving a Mackenzie Health flyer and carrying a plastic container half filled with coins.

One of them spoke up, explaining the boys, aged about 10, were raising money for the hospital’s heart and lung unit.

Dicenso, a monthly donor to the hospital and well-versed in how corporate charities raise money, was suspicious.

“I said, 'I don’t have any money,' with that it occurred to me, ‘No, this is not right’,” she said, explaining she had received the same flyer only days before. “They were going from house to house, they were on a mission and put thought into it.”

She said from her experience, corporate fundraising operations are more professional.
So, she took action.

“I just wanted to let everyone know, because it seemed they'd scammed more than a few people,” she added.

When reached, Debora Kelly, director of communications at Mackenzie Health Foundation, said the canvassers were not authorized representatives.

“The foundation does not use children to canvass door-to-door and cash is not accepted,” she said, noting the hospital’s fundraisers wear branded attire and carry appropriate identification. She added the foundation is raising $250 million for the new Vaughan hospital.

Bravo’s story, ended quite differently, after she discovered her healthy sense of skepticism was unfounded.

She wrote yorkregion.com to check on the legitimacy of an Ontario Police Association campaign to raise money for an event involving police officers fishing with children.

“I got a call two days in a row from this guy asking for donations,” she wrote via Facebook. “He said $25 would change the lives of the children.”

However, despite her suspicion about the telephone call, the charity is legitimate, but even Ottawa police appeared confused.

In 2015, the service put out a media release advising people that the calls were a fraud, although the force eventually retracted the release, as the charity was real.

The police association, an umbrella group for police unions across the province, runs a campaign called the Bob Izumi’s Kids and Cops and Canadian Tire Fishing Days. Stephen Reid, the executive director of the association, said the charity raises about $100,000 a year.

When it comes to these sorts of issues, it's better to be safe than sorry, York Regional Police Staff Sgt. David Mitchell said.

"If you are uncomfortable, please do not give that person money or cash," he said. "Most reputable charities have identification and photo identification. If there's any inkling or suspicion, it's often best to leave it alone."