important discussion we all need to have

[EcoSafe]

we are all painfully aware of the donate your car adds, it is now to the point I hear at least 10 a day, with several different "cherities" sponsoring these programs. The truth is the cherities DON'T sponsor any of them, or at leas none I have been able to find. I have done a little investigation on my own, and have found some disturbing info, but we all need to dig into this, i cant do it all on my own.



yester day I heard 3 different adds, now also including house hold appliences, which Im sure actually includes all scrap once they get to the donator.

here is the rub. many of these are franchises. in it self a brilliant Idea, if it wasent perpitrating fraud in the process. I have talked to 3 different cherities who are supposed to be the benificiaries in my area. two of them were vagely aware of the program even though they were mentioned in the adds as the benificiary. I convinced one administrator at one cherity to do sone digging and here is what she found.

the actual money recieved from the donation of a car was as little as $13 some were higher in years past, but administration and other fees from the program provider has grown to the point of eating any donations to the cherity. the success of the program is due to several factors. huge advertising budgets deducted of course from the receipts to the cherity. the benivalent thinking of those who actually believe most or all of the procieds go to the cherity , and the tax scam. the allowences for tax write off have been in the thousands for a single car, a junk car, in many cases the allowence was based on car lot prices. and heres another shocker, half or more of those donating wernt even in a tax bracket and paid no tax there fore a worthless value.

here is what i see as a probable senario. those with full pockets and empty morals, will, as scrap prices continue to rise, jump into this scam with both feet and will include all scrap. what will happen is just like wal mart moving into the outskirts of a small community, with in a year or so the mom and pops are out of business and main street becomes a gost town. we have all seen that happen time after time. it can and will hapen to us if we dont put up some sort of fight. what I need here is discussion of this subject, info on like operations in your area, and Ideas on how to combat it. as these "cherity operations grow larger and larger, they will lobby local, state and u.s. government to pass regulations freezing you and me out.

[Mechanic688]

Well done olddude; good point, first thing might be to do a little more digging and read between the lines of these "charities" that are doing the advertising. You mentioned possible fraud involved so dig a little deeper and get some proof then you can write letters to the newspaper or even the local tv channels; but you need the proof to back you up.

[Re-cycler]

I always figure those ads were about what you dug up.......the problem with trying to slow or stop them probly ends with butting heads with their political ties which I bet are far better than ours.(we all know how honest politicians are)
But lead on!! I'll step up as best I can. These guys are just as bad as any other thief and should be cut off at the knees and peed on in public.
Grab your torches and pitchforks!!
;?)

[Re-cycler]

Since most of those creeps lurk these boards for tips......... we should all run CL ads like this.
DON"T DONATE YOUR OLD CAR, SELL IT TO YOUR NEAREST SCRAP DEALER AND DONATE TO THE CHARITY OF YOUR CHOICE. and then go on to break down the scams in whatever way works.
or you flag the hell outa the scammers.
;?)

[KzScrapper]

Since most of those creeps lurk these boards for tips......... we should all run CL ads like this.
DON"T DONATE YOUR OLD CAR, SELL IT TO YOUR NEAREST SCRAP DEALER AND DONATE TO THE CHARITY OF YOUR CHOICE. and then go on to break down the scams in whatever way works.
or you flag the hell outa the scammers.
;?)

+1 on that idea, also could drop a call or email to local news stations and see if a investigative reporter(if there is such a thing anymore) needs a story.

[KzScrapper]

I Would bet they operate as a Non Profit Operation. Funny how Non Profit makes no Money huh?

Tough to make money when the executives are making 6 figures.

[Re-cycler]

Outfits like that are the "good" guys to Joe Q Public and the media, we are not.
"when we do right no one notices, but when we do wrong no on forgets"
;?)

[Re-cycler]

Members
5,625
Active Members
343
Out of these numbers I see about twenty of us who post here daily, Most contributing good advice and profitable tips
If the admin would take a check or USPS money order I would go private on this forum and post only a few jokes now and then for the lurkers.
;?)

[Re-cycler]

I did
He did
They don't, won't or can't
At this time.
;?)

[Re-cycler]

Nope,
Like I said before, no big deal. this is free, I,m here til I leave or someone asks me to.
I'm grown up just enough to know that the world goes round whether I'm on it or not.
I'm not afraid to say what I think on a public forum, yet I use enough discretion to stay within most bounds.
I do wonder about a percentage of the lurkers though.............it's all take and no give
How many of them are reason this thread was started?
;?)
;?)

[fiat128]

That's interesting. I've seen a website to donate your car that's national. You can select your city and enter in your info and they come get your car. As a guy who restores old cars, I hate the "charity" donation thing because most of the cars going to these places are abandoned restoration projects. Old cars that are a good source of parts get scrapped and the owner is duped into thinking they helped someone.

As for the other question, I've never understood lurkers. Why lurk if you are interested in the subject of the forum? I never lurk, you'll find "fiat128" on half the old car forums on the net.

[Mick]

One way to tell if the site is a legitimate charity is by the website address. A registered charity will usually have an .org designation. Scams will usually be .com or .net

[miked]

NPR is a .org

I personally don't consider NPR a legit charity, Mike.

[Mick]

Not all .org(s) are charities. Just one way to start deciding if it might be; if it claims to be a charity.

[zakmattingly]

I had never heard of this before. I live in a small town so it wouldn't be as hard to keep people supporting their local scrappers. It's an everybody-knows-everybody type of place. These scrap charity people would of course thrive in larger areas first and spread from there, as would any large organization. Maybe if we get the communities in smaller areas to know of the scams we could end up with more than just scrappers backing us up. Keep trying to get at the press, papers and TV alike, both small towns and cities, and the small towns should follow first. Get with your local competitors, make some truces, and ban together. Send e-mails, make phone calls, write letters, post your Facebook pages, make Youtube videos. Anything and everything you can think of. Spread the word. The only way to fight something like this would be to get proactive about it.