Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Scam

In USA, we can donate our old or unwanted or unused cars to charity organizations.  They will sell the car and take the proceeds.  They use this for generating revenue.  Donors can use the value of the car for tax benefits.
 
I have an old unused car that is more than 10 years old.  I wanted to donate this car to a popular charity organization.  I had made all the arrangements for them to pick up my car along with the title certificate.  I gave them all the details including where I have parked my car.
 
Yesterday morning, I was surprised to find the following note in the windshield of the car:
 
“Hi, if you would like to sell this, plz call John Doe, (xxx)xxx-xxxx”.
 
I was surprised.  And, I was very angry.  This is a scam.  I wanted to donate this car to a charity.  Someone who came to know this information wanted to buy this car from me for a few dollars and profit themselves by reselling it.  Thus deprive revenue for this charity.  I have a feeling someone inside the charity organization is tipping of these scam artists.
 
Scam artists are there in every country.
 
I just ignored that note.  The charity people picked up the car this morning.
Posted by at

20 comments:

  1. SandhyaApril 25, 2013 at 12:30 AM

    Thank god, the charity people took the car! America or India...bad people try to fool us!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shilpa GargApril 25, 2013 at 1:15 AM

    It certainly might be a tip off from somebody from the Charity!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Who Posted This?April 25, 2013 at 9:54 AM

    I am from a Royal Family but have been exiled to another country.
    I need your help in collecting my net worth of $100,000,000 which is being held in a foreign bank account.
    I will route the money to you and you can keep 10% of the money for helping me.
    Interested? Thank you for your help.

    Regards,
    The Nigerian Prince
    (Prince of Scams)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Cagey BeeApril 25, 2013 at 9:56 AM

    So you finally got rid of that 11 year old Ferrari?
    Too bad – I always liked that car.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Destination InfinityApril 25, 2013 at 10:30 AM

    There is one trend I have observed with a few charity organizations in India. Some of them employ MLM technique - The person who refers/convinces a donor to donate, is given a commission by the organization without the knowledge of the donor.

    If it is disclosed, it will become brokerage and there is nothing much wrong about it. But it is not. Worse, it hurts to see that our friends/relatives (who are somewhat well-off) are involved in such schemes. People think that we can see through their intentions, but it is easily visible.

    Destination Infinity

    ReplyDelete
  6. rudraprayagaApril 25, 2013 at 11:16 AM

    Now the wheel of the life is made or scam.What to do! Anyway nice to understand the broadness of your heart.

    ReplyDelete
  7. SGApril 25, 2013 at 5:37 PM

    Thanks for your comments Sandhya. They were trying to cheat the charity organization.

    ReplyDelete
  8. SGApril 25, 2013 at 5:38 PM

    Thanks for your comments Shilpa. You are correct.

    ReplyDelete
  9. SGApril 25, 2013 at 5:44 PM

    Thanks for your comments The Nigerian Prince. I know you. You were the Director of Cultural Activities at the Haile Selassie Pavillion. I still remember that pavillion. We had a big fun there.

    ReplyDelete
  10. SGApril 25, 2013 at 5:46 PM

    Thanks for your comments The Cagey Bee. Thanks for reminding me. Now, I have to remove the bumper sticker from my car (My Other Car is a Ferrari.)

    ReplyDelete
  11. SGApril 25, 2013 at 5:51 PM

    Thanks for your comments Rajesh. Sneaking is bad. Why don't they do it openly? Nothing wrong with that. They have a prestigious title here in USA. Professional Fundraisers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. SGApril 25, 2013 at 5:52 PM

    Thanks for your comments Sarala. And, thank you for the complements.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Meera SundararajanApril 26, 2013 at 8:22 AM

    At the outset, great that people think of donating usable items for charity. Here in India people like to sell something as long as it is usable and rarely do they think of donating it a charity. Even charity organizations ( at least some of them) , I suspect sell items like clothes etc even though people are desparately in need of it. The money generated out of it may not be enough to to cover the cost of whatever they want to use it for. Whatever, I am sure there are dishonest people everywhere. Glad that you did not sell your car to the person who wanted to buy it!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Z@KickingKilosApril 28, 2013 at 5:33 AM

    Wow, that is a good way of charity. Thumbs up for that.
    I think you are a resident of SF? Well...I left my heart there too.

    (http://kickingkilos.blogspot.in/2012/11/i-left-my-heart-in-san-francisco.html)

    ReplyDelete
  15. SGApril 28, 2013 at 1:26 PM

    Thanks for your comments Meera. I agree with you.

    ReplyDelete
  16. SGApril 28, 2013 at 1:28 PM

    Thanks for your comments Z. And, welcome to my blog. Next time you come by this side, let us know.

    Z, please visit here as often as possible. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  17. SGApril 28, 2013 at 1:29 PM

    Thanks for your commens Ashwini. And, welcome to my blog. Yes, certainly someone has tipped off.

    Ashwini, please visit here as often as possible. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  18. PNAApril 28, 2013 at 11:40 PM

    At one level, it is a good deed to donate something that you are in possession of for so long, I don't know, I would like to part with something that is so integral to me.. on the other hand, scams are present everywhere.. high or low, people's need to make money just exceeds their love for others

    For some odd reason I thought you stopped blogging, was going thru an older post, saw your comment and clicked to see you..

    Ashes

    ReplyDelete
  19. RenuMay 2, 2013 at 10:03 PM

    scamsters are everywhere and developed countries have more of everything...

    ReplyDelete
  20. Privy TriflesMay 20, 2013 at 4:10 AM

    :)

    Some scamster that was!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)