Depher

[BFTD]

18 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Oh, I can mind back in college - just remembered

woman went round the class (not staff but one of the students), a good 20 of us, took money off everyone to put in a card, as one of the guys had become a dad during the course after his mrs gave birth.

Later claimed she'd "lost the card" and rocked up to a lecture one of the days shortly thereafter, wearing a brand new pair of expensive trainers. Pretty much universally agreed that she'd just bumped everyone and treated herself to them.

Didn't help herself by pleading poverty to everyone wanting a refund either, promised she'd do it but went through the Big Book of Excuses for the rest of the term.

Another guy (on the same course) tapped £50 off a fellow student with a big sob story... then withdrew from the course and blocked him/ghosted him so he wouldn't have to pay it back. Edit: this wasn't me, thankfully, but I did get stung to the tune of a fiver for the baby gift.

 

It's genuinely a bit soul destroying to have to constantly be on your guard against these utter chancers that live life like they're complete goblins out of an Irvine Welsh novel or something.

@welshbairn, who was the Hibs boy that you held a whip-round for, only for him to disappear without trace?

[Rugster]

4 minutes ago, BFTD said:

@welshbairn, who was the Hibs boy that you held a whip-round for, only for him to disappear without trace?

@Bambino7

[welshbairn]

8 minutes ago, BFTD said:

@welshbairn, who was the Hibs boy that you held a whip-round for, only for him to disappear without trace?

I didn't organise anything, he was going through a hard time, nowhere to live and a few posters sent him a tenner or so. Never found out why he was kicked out of his house, but wasn't surprised he disappeared, a bit embarrassing taking money off strangers, and I don't think anyone expected their tenners back.

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

I didn't organise anything, he was going through a hard time, nowhere to live and a few posters sent him a tenner or so. Never found out why he was kicked out of his house, but wasn't surprised he disappeared, a bit embarrassing taking money off strangers, and I don't think anyone expected their tenners back.

I know, I was one of them  

I thought we'd sent it all to you to pass on, but maybe I'm just getting old.

[Rugster]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

I know, I was one of them  

I thought we'd sent it all to you to pass on, but maybe I'm just getting old.

Dindeleux organised a bit of it from memory @Sortmeout

[welshbairn]

6 minutes ago, BFTD said:

I know, I was one of them  

I thought we'd sent it all to you to pass on, but maybe I'm just getting old.

Nope, I think he pm'd his bank details individually. If I was organising it I'd have fled the country with the £87.50 that was probably raised.

Edited May 16 by welshbairn

[Richey Edwards]

5 hours ago, tamthebam said:

On a grifting scale this is hardly Captain Tom's daughter or George Gallo<CUT BY DIV'S NERVOUS LAWYERS>

As a student we raised money for Amnesty International by raffling a crate of beer. 

There was no crate. But we might have saved someone from summary execution. 

I hope so. Being made to wear a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops to your own execution would be shite.

[welshbairn]

6 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

One word:

Crispy pets. Baltic cruise. Slum landlord of fire traps. It had it all!

[Rugster]

Just now, welshbairn said:

Crispy pets. Baltic cruise. Slum landlord of fire traps. It had it all!

Did we ever find out if he started the fund?

[Bert Raccoon]

One man pub crawls don't come cheap you know 

[TxRover]

On 16/05/2024 at 13:23, Richey Edwards said:

I hope so. Being made to wear a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops to your own execution would be shite.

IDK, you could have a custom Hawaiian shirt made with P&B hamster’s face on it.

https://geckocustom.com/collections/custom-photo-print-on-apparel

P&B might even have a whip round to pay for it…

[Richey Edwards]

6 minutes ago, TxRover said:

IDK, you could have a custom Hawaiian shirt made with P&B hamster’s face on it.

https://geckocustom.com/collections/custom-photo-print-on-apparel

P&B might even have a whip round to pay for it…

[tinkerbelle]

On 16/05/2024 at 10:52, Michael W said:

There's a story on BBC news today about Depher. Not a name I'd heard of, but I recognised the premise - it was the social enterprise/company behind the viral social media stories "the hero plumber". Essentially, the premise was that the company/individual behind it would complete expensive plumbing jobs for people that didn't have much money, charging low/no fees for doing so. They also paid gas bills and bought food for customers.  Social media likes came in abundance and so did donations. Over £2m was received in donations. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3gxg4jd0ggo

 

However, not all was as it seemed. Numerous stories and pictures were recycled and proceeds (i.e. donations) were used to buy a house and car for its founder. Disturbingly, he also claimed his support had prevented an elderly woman from committing suicide. The lady pictured was already dead. 

James Anderson, the founder, put out what now seems to be a typical response to this sort of thing. He admitted he made mistakes, but claimed there's something he can do about it now. He then blamed "internet trolls" for his actions. A response we've all now seen a thousand times over when someone is exposed. 

Have any PnBers ever perpetrated fraud for some likes on social media? 

Have any PnBers trolled someone in a manner that induced them to commit fraud? 

Wham other recurring feel-good social media stories do PnBers think/know are fronts for fraud? 

BLM.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

On 16/05/2024 at 11:18, ICTChris said:

I don't have any evidence but I bet there are loads of things like this in the charity/social enterprise sector.

I can't really go into details but I know of at least one case where someone who was prominent in raising money for charity was pocketing the proceeds.  Then you will have genuine charities that become bloated and pay massive salaries to employees.

Slightly off topic but here we go,  This is quite an emotive issue since as soon as the word charity appears there is the assumption that everyone and everything involved is free gratis and people taking a wage, especially a large CEO's wage are greedy c***s with no morals . But that will only get you very little, charities essentially have to operate like businesses but instead of distributing the profits to shareholders it  gets spent on the charities support cause.  To do this you need to employ people with the right skills and experience to maximize your revenue. Think of cancer research or macmillan with their large scale stuff like race for life, tickled pink or getting supermarkets to add the donation function at self scan. Stuff on that scale comes at a cost, which is taken from the charities revenue but that revenue is many multiples of what it would have been if the organisation was run by Susan from the council in her spare time. if you just stand outside Asda rattling tins then you will get f**k all. you can't pay for stuff with the moral high ground.

Those employees have mortages, wives and kids to pay for like everyone else and they won't be putting in the work for f**k all when they can make good money elsewhere.  welcome to the real world

[TxRover]

28 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Slightly off topic but here we go,  This is quite an emotive issue since as soon as the word charity appears there is the assumption that everyone and everything involved is free gratis and people taking a wage, especially a large CEO's wage are greedy c***s with no morals . But that will only get you very little, charities essentially have to operate like businesses but instead of distributing the profits to shareholders it  gets spent on the charities support cause.  To do this you need to employ people with the right skills and experience to maximize your revenue. Think of cancer research or macmillan with their large scale stuff like race for life, tickled pink or getting supermarkets to add the donation function at self scan. Stuff on that scale comes at a cost, which is taken from the charities revenue but that revenue is many multiples of what it would have been if the organisation was run by Susan from the council in her spare time. if you just stand outside Asda rattling tins then you will get f**k all. you can't pay for stuff with the moral high ground.

Those employees have mortages, wives and kids to pay for like everyone else and they won't be putting in the work for f**k all when they can make good money elsewhere.  welcome to the real world

While your point is valid, it doesn’t invalidate the other point that far too many “charities” have obscenely inflated overhead costs, and thus pass a far smaller percentage of their donations on to the cause. It is, sadly, incumbent upon donors to do due diligence before donating.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, tinkerbelle said:

BLM.

Bacon, Lettuce, Mayonnaise?

[Sergeant Wilson]

18 hours ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Slightly off topic but here we go,  This is quite an emotive issue since as soon as the word charity appears there is the assumption that everyone and everything involved is free gratis and people taking a wage, especially a large CEO's wage are greedy c***s with no morals . But that will only get you very little, charities essentially have to operate like businesses but instead of distributing the profits to shareholders it  gets spent on the charities support cause.  To do this you need to employ people with the right skills and experience to maximize your revenue. Think of cancer research or macmillan with their large scale stuff like race for life, tickled pink or getting supermarkets to add the donation function at self scan. Stuff on that scale comes at a cost, which is taken from the charities revenue but that revenue is many multiples of what it would have been if the organisation was run by Susan from the council in her spare time. if you just stand outside Asda rattling tins then you will get f**k all. you can't pay for stuff with the moral high ground.

Those employees have mortages, wives and kids to pay for like everyone else and they won't be putting in the work for f**k all when they can make good money elsewhere.  welcome to the real world

I heard all the money goes to the IRA.

[hk blues]

20 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

I've seen a lot worse -

[hk blues]

18 hours ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Slightly off topic but here we go,  This is quite an emotive issue since as soon as the word charity appears there is the assumption that everyone and everything involved is free gratis and people taking a wage, especially a large CEO's wage are greedy c***s with no morals . But that will only get you very little, charities essentially have to operate like businesses but instead of distributing the profits to shareholders it  gets spent on the charities support cause.  To do this you need to employ people with the right skills and experience to maximize your revenue. Think of cancer research or macmillan with their large scale stuff like race for life, tickled pink or getting supermarkets to add the donation function at self scan. Stuff on that scale comes at a cost, which is taken from the charities revenue but that revenue is many multiples of what it would have been if the organisation was run by Susan from the council in her spare time. if you just stand outside Asda rattling tins then you will get f**k all. you can't pay for stuff with the moral high ground.

Those employees have mortages, wives and kids to pay for like everyone else and they won't be putting in the work for f**k all when they can make good money elsewhere.  welcome to the real world

I'm not sure what you've written really answers the point in ICT Chris's post i,e, Then you will have genuine charities that become bloated and pay massive salaries to employees.  

[BFTD]

17 hours ago, TxRover said:

While your point is valid, it doesn’t invalidate the other point that far too many “charities” have obscenely inflated overhead costs, and thus pass a far smaller percentage of their donations on to the cause. It is, sadly, incumbent upon donors to do due diligence before donating.

I've mentioned this before, but there's an apocryphal tale goes round charities about one of the big names being donated a six-figure sum by an elderly wealthy man who told them he was leaving an even larger sum to them in his will. The High Heid Yins were delighted and wanted to come up with a way of demonstrating their appreciation, so they had their conference facilities renovated and named after him. They had an opening ceremony and invited the auld boy back in as a surprise. When they explained what they'd done, the donor was livid and wanted to know how much it had cost - he didn't like the answer, so they lost their bequeathment.

Rather than a tale about wasteful charities, it's used more as a warning about finding out what your donors want; there are plenty of folk who just want their name stuck on something, but some people want the money to go towards the cause. They have to balance the wishes of both.