COUNTYWIDE : Precautions for Would-Be Donors

Each holiday season, bogus charities prey on Orange County’s generous souls who seek to open their hearts and wallets to the less fortunate.

Scam artists, fraudulent phone solicitors and phony charity groups descend on the county’s residents year-round, but the holiday season--when money flows freer and even suspicious donors lower their guard--is their most lucrative season.

“This is the time of year where we see this the most, and Orange County is one of the extremely high target areas for this type of thing,” said Maureen Williams, an official with the Charities for Truth in Giving coalition.

Unlike many other areas, Orange County has no charity registration system, making it a hotbed for con artists, Williams said. In Los Angeles, for example, groups seeking donations must register before they begin soliciting, and report afterward.

Typically, the groups work via phone. They often fabricate a tragic event or worthy cause and then ask for money from the unsuspecting. Others will actually stage a small charitable occasion, using only a minor percentage of the collected donations, leaving the profit for their own pockets.

Charities for Truth in Giving is a 6-year-old federation of some of the county’s larger philanthropies. The coalition’s goal, Williams said, is to educate the community about the pitfalls of donating, without discouraging the public from being supportive of authentic good causes.

“The last thing we want is for people to hear about these things and assume that every group is bogus,” she said. “There are a lot of groups that really need people’s help. We just want people to make sure they know who they’re dealing with.”

The Charities for Truth group will soon move under the umbrella of the United Way of Orange County, a move that Williams said will provide new resources for the group’s work.

Attempts to get the county’s 31 cities to independently adopt ordinances creating a charity-group monitoring mechanism have met with little success, so the group is now pushing for creation of an independent consumer clearinghouse, Williams said.

Even without a local directory of legitimate groups, would-be donors can help protect themselves by following a few guidelines when fielding calls seeking donations:

* Be particularly wary of groups that insist on sending someone over in a few hours or days to pick up the check. Hold on to your money until you have time to confirm the organization’s legitimacy. Do not succumb to pressure to act quickly--any legitimate organization will be willing to wait a day.

* Ask callers for the name, address and telephone number of the charity organization. Also ask for their tax-exempt status and number. Request something in writing, whether it be group literature, an introductory letter or a reply envelope. Use checks instead of cash.

* Get details about the exact contribution percentage that will reach the charity’s beneficiaries and the expected fund-raising expenses.

* If a charity solicitor refuses to give any of the above information, which is required by the state Charitable Solicitation Act, record as much information as possible, and call the consumer protection unit of the district attorney’s office at (714) 834-3600.

Suspicious callers can also be reported to Charities for Truth in Giving through the Ronald McDonald House of Orange County at (714) 639-3600.