# New Phony Charity Scam? (No Caller ID) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 5, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phony-charity-scam-no-caller-id/556184 "2010-10-05T22:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phony-charity-scam-no-caller-id/556184/1 "2010-10-05T22:52:49Z")
I have been getting phone calls lately, from charities I’ve never heard from. Many of these calls have no call id displayed-most of the time, the display shows “Private Caller”. When this shows up, I don’t pick up-if the call is legitimate, I figure they will leave a message. So far no messages. Is this legal? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phony-charity-scam-no-caller-id/556184/2 "2010-10-05T23:00:17Z")
Some years ago: Caller: Hello, I’m calling from the Canadian Fund for Saving Children. I’m sure you’ve heard of us. Me: No, but I have heard of the organization called “Save The Children Canada” Caller: - click - ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phony-charity-scam-no-caller-id/556184/3 "2010-10-05T23:02:09Z")
How do you know they’re charities if you don’t pick up and they don’t leave a message? Or do you mean you don’t pick up any more now that you know they’re charities? Anyway, yes, it’s legal; charities are exempt from the do not call list. As are political calls. (Enjoy October.) You can ask them to stop calling, but my experience is that they stop calling for a while, and then some months later start up again. Dunno why they like to piss off people who they want to give them money, but I’m not running a large fundraising organization so I suppose pissing people off is profitable, because they keep doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phony-charity-scam-no-caller-id/556184/4 "2010-10-05T23:08:14Z")
I read your “phony” as “phone” and as such, misunderstood your post. As far as I understand, these operations can still technically be charities, but usually with a huge overhead and very little actual money going to the cause they purport to be collecting for. As **Euphonious Polemic** gave an example, they often piggy back off of similar sounding real charities to confuse people. Still technically legal. eta, and I have never had a real charity leave a message either, so there isn’t any indication of legitimacy or not in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phony-charity-scam-no-caller-id/556184/5 "2010-10-09T03:53:30Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > How do you know they’re charities if you don’t pick up and they don’t leave a message? Or do you mean you don’t pick up any more now that you know they’re charities? > > Anyway, yes, it’s legal; charities are exempt from the do not call list. As are political calls. (Enjoy October.) You can ask them to stop calling, but my experience is that they stop calling for a while, and then some months later start up again. Dunno why they like to piss off people who they want to give them money, but I’m not running a large fundraising organization so I suppose pissing people off is profitable, because they keep doing it. I assume a nontrivial amount of people have moved by the time they call back. Or maybe you just get a different person. Or maybe people’s memory for who has called them before isn’t that great.