Clothing Collection by Seabeach Ltd

[Etoile]

Just really wanted to alert people to this scam. The company are offering to collect clothing and other 'unwanted goods' to provide for people in the third world, tomorrow, Saturday 10 March 07.

Please don't give them anything, but take your unwanted stuff to a charity shop instead. I live on the Thorpes and assume everyone there has had a leaflet and probably much of the rest of Sydenham. It makes me really angry that they can get away with this so please pass this on to others.

Thanks

[leaf]

How do you know its a scam?

*not doubting,just interested!

[raymondus]

I have received 2 or 3 leaflets over a period of 6 months. My first thought was that it seemed dodgy as the collector (in my case) was a limited company and not a registered charity. I really do not have any evidence bar a gut feeling and I really hope that my gut is wrong.

[castiron73]

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NewsAndEvent ... idents.htm

There's been a bit of press about it lately. Lots of local councils across the UK are warning residents to look out for these charity collection scams. You need to check that they are registered as a charity with the Charity Commision, otherwise they flog the stuff on eBay and at car boot sales.
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/re ... /first.asp

As Etioile says, if in doubt, donate it to a local shop instead

[admin]

Googling Seabeach does find a large number of warnings. So I guess we should consider this before giving Seabeach anything.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=seabeach

Thanks for this posting. But I do ask in future that anyone posting stuff that could be detrimental to an honest business or person does source the story.

PS I'll do a frontpage story to try and make more people aware.

Admin

[leaf]

I also googled 'seabeach' lots of warnings about them.

Thanks Etoile

[admin]

The news story is now here: http://www.sydenham.org.uk/news_seabeach.html.

Thanks to everyone for bringing the facts to my attention. I got the leaflet off the Lancing site. Is this similar to what is being circulated in the Thorpes?

Admin

[simon]

I used to collect clothing for the Sense (a charity for deaf and blind children) shop in Catford and these people are a real pain. All their leaflets are printed well and look convincing but if you read the small print you'll see they are pretty vague about where the stuff goes and they usually admit they are a private company. They always take bags left out for legitimate charities as well.
My advice would be to only leave stuff out for genuine charities, who can usually be indetified by the fact that they leave a plastic bag, within a printed bag. Or ring Sense or Scope and they will often collect.
Just a thought, but the reason why this activity has become so lucrative is because of the buy cheap disposable culture that has developed so people keep having to dispose of stuff to make way for more cheap replacements.