Is this a scam? Breast Cancer Society phone solicitation

[hutchibk]

I received a donation solicitation call today (Sunday, holiday weekend, 6:15pm!) from The Breast Cancer Society. They claim to raise money to help breast cancer patients with nutritional advice, to get mammograms, and financial assistance. Huh? I have never heard of them. I told them that I could not donate as I was a patient. I then hung up, I googled them and here's some of what a found: (which is not much, their website is very vague, seems kinda sketchy...
http://www.nationalbreastcancersociety.org/
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8663117847
http://whocalled.us/lookup/8663117847

[Gerri]

Hey Brenda,

I got a call from them a few weeks ago. I had never heard of them and I told the caller that I am a survivor and already have favorite organizations I donate to. She then asked if I could give something to them for the "victims" - I told her I was one and hung up. I also looked at their website and thought it was a bit vague.

[chrisy]

Well, if that is a scam, and it sure bears all the signs, I think that is despicable. Not only that, but people who would scam breast cancer donations are a bunch of cow-hearted yeasty codpiece-s.

One of the many reasons I NEVER give money to people who call me on the phone asking for money...unless it's my inlaws.

[hutchibk]

I never donate over the phone either, Chrisy. I choose my charities very wisely... tend to volunteer time and effort instead of money.

I think it seems pretty despicable, too. That's why I wanted to bring attention to it and see if anyone knows anything about it...

[madubois63]

With only 566 hits on the counter, I'd be weary of the site. It may be legit, but like most people, I pick my charities and don't let them pick me! This site just doesn't seem to legit. I think I could set up a better site than this given an hour or two...

[Jean]

Brenda,
I received a call from them also! Did not donate as I am not trusting anymore on phone calls asking for donations.

I went on the web and tried to check them out on the Charity Navigator and they are NOT listed.

There are sites they will show and report what the group is spending on the chairty (the % of each donation and how much truly goes to the chairty)
For instance, St. Jude give 100% of the donation to the
children.

I will bet they have collected alot of Dollars from good
and innocent people. It is a shame that a group can
use the word cancer etc. set up a charity and use most of the money to pay themselves a salary.

Thanks for the heads up Brenda.
jean

[goops]

There are so many real and deserving organizations - that when in doubt don't give. I highly suspect this one is a scam.

[ElaineM]

I don't give money to anyone who calls me. There is a federal no call list you can put your number on if you don't want to receive calls from those kinds of people.
I think there is a list of all charities on the internet that even tells us what percentage of the money goes to actually helping people. I would give to the ones that spend most of the money to help people and don't use too much for administrative costs.

[BonnieR]

I don't know about this particular organization. But there was once a thrift shop where we used to live that had the word "cancer" in their name. They were not a non-profit but gave a tiny percent of profit to cancer charities. It was a big operation and, sadly, were often confused with the legit Amercian Cancer Society who also operated a thrift shop that was manned by volunteers.

[hutchibk]

Oh believe me, I have been on the No Call lists (both federal and state) since they were invented! But, most charities are exempt. However, this seems like an org that has registered as a valid charity but is really just a scam.

[Unregistered]

After receiving a call from this org. I checked with Charity Watch and this org. is rated F with only 10% of their funds going to Breast Cancer activities. It's a scam.

[Laurel]

Anyone call their state's respective Attorney General Office to report the calls/scam? They will follow up.

[CoolBreeze]

It's a scam, I read an article about it in the paper.

I would never, ever donate money to anybody who called and asked me to. I am very capable of finding deserving charities, researching their legitimacy, and then donating all on my own. My policy is if you ever call me, you never get a dollar.

[mschwab]

Below is a link to the CT Better Business Bureau and an article about The Breast Cancer Society. Absolutely a scam.

http://ct.bbb.org/article/connecticut-bbb-helps-donors-avoid-scams-related-to-breast-cancer-awareness-month-30098

[rhondalea]

It's the "James T. Reynolds" scam. Here's the page from Charity Navigator about another of his operations, the Cancer Fund of America:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.comments&orgid=3416

And here's an old Democratic Underground thread with more information:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x49021

These clowns called me right around the time I was being diagnosed, and thinking they were a different organization entirely, I promised them money. When I received the materials in the mail, I knew I'd been had, and I did some googling. I called them and told them I wouldn't be sending them anything after all. They still call me from time to time.

IIRC, these aren't his only two misleading business ventures. It's amazing what some people will do to make money.