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Behind every glorious facade there is always hidden something ugly. That is how best to describe those nicely decorated charity booths you often see in public places like malls and airports.
Strategically, they’re placed at entrances where you can’t escape the volunteers’ loud, cheery calls to “make a difference” and “be the change” for the underprivileged or the voiceless.
I’ve always avoided such booths, but it seems these ‘charity ambassadors’ will always find a way to you.
I was approached by an NGO during my lunch break
One lunch hour, I was just minding my own business around my workplace’s lepak area when I was approached by a lady in hot pink.
With a sunny smile, she buttered me up, saying, “Hello miss, you look young for your age! What’s your name?”
She asked if I was employed. I thought about lying to her and saying I was a student, but I was wearing my staff lanyard at that time.
Almost immediately, she began pitching to me in rapid-fire speed about her charity organisation, disease statistics, pictures of sick children – the works.
“This minimum donation you make could go to a few bottles of water, medicine, etc. to make them better or give them comfort!” She said, beaming expectantly.
I should’ve just excused myself and walked away. But being a people pleaser, I agreed to contribute just a little bit.
The first red flag was how she then pushed me to fill up a digital donation form with my debit/credit card details.
The second red flag was when she said: “No need to read the terms and conditions, just tick it”.
There was no taking no for an answer, for she wouldn’t leave until I complied. She was very happy with her catch of the day, thanking me endlessly.
Not sure if it was circumstantial or if I was seeing things, but I saw the exact same lady in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, wearing the same hot pink dress not long after…
RM600 was taken out of my account
Within a week, RM600 was siphoned from my bank account to the charity. I was shocked to see the amount removed from my account, and it took me a long and arduous process to replace my bank cards.
4 months later, I stumbled upon a viral, anonymous confession on Instagram. It was shared by someone who worked for a similar charity NGO under a fundraising agency.
In his post, he revealed the truth behind these NGOs: “The charities hire middleman companies to hard-sell people on the street into signing up to donate with the charities.”
He revealed that during his time with the middleman company, he had received no compensation or wages, just commissions.
Sounds familiar??? If you don’t get it yet, the payment structure is comparable to MLMs/pyramid schemes, where they exploit labour at the lowest possible rate, incentivising these small frys to be really pushy with their sign ups.
Your donations go to these small fry’s salaries and the charities’ ‘administration, marketing or management fees’.
Many charity NGOs/third party agencies use this very tactic to solicit donations, according to the comments under that post.
Those who walked out of the job described the shadiness of the job interview. Other commenters shared about how hard it was to opt out once they were sucked into their subscription plans or harassed/insulted if they refused.
Upon reading every comment, the alarm bells rang in my head.
I realised I had been sucked into a charity racket!
Image: An anonymous confession on Malaysian Pay Gap detailing the job scope of a NGO sales exec.
I went back to check on the NGO who I was donating to. I reviewed the terms and conditions in the NGO’s donation form in my phone.
Turns out, she was from the middleman company hinted at in that Instagram post! To put it simply, the poor children she mentioned likely never got a cent from me!
Now I understand why these so-called NGO staff keep persuading and sweet-talking you to no end. Bottom line: If you really wanted to help the needy or marginalised, why turn it into a profiteering business???
My friend was livid to hear about this. “You were cheated of your hard earned money by deceitful people!” She exclaimed angrily, and pressed me to lodge a police report for theft.
But when I googled this, I found out that MLM/pyramid-like schemes aren’t a crime in Malaysia, even if they are under the guise of charity. I also found out the NGO was listed under Malaysia’s Registrar of Societies, so it was not a strong case for me.
When I called the NGO to stop my donation plan, I couldn’t get through to the PIC. Instead, I got someone else who asked for my number to ‘follow-up’ with them. He got my number wrong four times despite me repeating myself over and over.
I’ve heard nightmares of former donors being guilt-tripped over the phone, bargained to stay with a lesser donation fee or outright being refused requests to stop donating.
The Takeaway
After all that’s happened, I’m not asking anyone to hold onto their wallets too tightly from charities in general, just do your due diligence before donating.
There are smaller, local NGOs like animal shelters and disability support groups which need far more help but despite that, they DON’T coerce you for money through fancy roadshows.
Here are 15 local Malaysian charities you can support.
Maybe the NGO ‘volunteers’ genuinely believe they’re contributing to a good cause or that’s their only way to make a living. But if I were them, once I knew I was being exploited into making money for what’s essentially an MLM, I would leave.
Moving on, I’ll just have to take this sham donation experience as one of life’s adulting lessons and put this behind me.
How to tell if a sales rep is part of a legitimate charity:
If you want to avoid the same thing from happening to you, here’s what you can do:
1) Ask if you can donate through their website:
Ask the NGO politely if you may donate directly through their website and watch if they still insist on your details.
Do they know where the donation money goes or who really receives it?
Can they draw up the financial statement for the last year?
If they’re stumped to answer all those queries, your suspicions about the ‘charity’ are legit.
2) Email the charity to find out more:
I found out some charities don’t publicly list an email specific for donation inquiries, so you can use their general email instead. It’s worth a shot, trust me.
This way, it’s also harder for them to guilt trip you, or claim they didn’t receive your request to cancel when they have a digital trail.
3) Plan C – Change your cards:
If liaising with them didn’t work, the only way to stop the charity from withdrawing more money is to change your card IN PERSON, as per bank SOP.
According to my bank’s customer service officer, the bank can’t stop the auto-deductions unless the charity pulls the plug from their end.
Hence, I sacrificed my lunch hour to change a piece of plastic (card replacement fee was RM12) – the last bit of damage inflicted from this ordeal.
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