A string of complaints about bogus collections have been reported to VOC News over the past few days. On Tuesday, reporters learnt that the radio station’s name is also being used by a charlatan posing as an employee. The collector has targeted small businesses for money, in exchange for radio airtime.

The Gift of the Givers Cape Town office also received a call on Tuesday morning from one of their donors asking whether the organisation had deployed volunteers to go from door to door collecting donations on behalf of the aid agency. In response, Gift of the Givers said they have not given permission for collectors to collect on behalf of the organisation.

“Donors come to the offices where we issue them with a receipt,” said Gift of the Givers Western Cape representative, Ali Sablay.

VOC’s name is being used in the Paarl community. An email is being circulated looking for donations for the janazah of a young girl. The collector is known as ‘Ayesha’ and she also uses an FNB bank account for donations. This appears to be the same bogus collector using the same modus operandi VOC News reported on last year. However, there is no certainty that the same collector is also collecting on behalf on Gift of the Givers.

“If there is any emails going around, first contact our offices to verify if the email is false or not,” said Sablay.

Anyone found to be posing as a collector for VOC or Gift of the Givers should contact the police.

Also, if any emails are received on behalf of Gift of the Givers, do contact their offices on 021 638 0909.

Sablay concludes: “If there’s no official receipt, then it’s bogus.” VOC (Shanaaz Abrahams)