April 6, 2006
Charities sound alert after their logos appear on lucky draw tickets
FIVE well-known charities are sounding the alert on a possible scam after seeing their logos reproduced on tickets to a lucky draw of which they were not even aware. The logos of the Community Chest (ComChest), the Singapore Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Singapore Children's Society, all appear on the company Great Concepts' 'Crack the Safe' National Lucky Draw tickets. The troubling thing is, that they are not involved in the draw, nor had they even heard of it until tip-offs arrived via concerned and suspicious members of the public. The draw offers a Chevrolet Aveo and $10,000 in cash as prizes. Worried that people may take part in the lucky draw thinking they were helping the charities, ComChest, SPCA and the Singapore Red Cross went to the police last week. The police told The Straits Times they were looking into the matter. The charities say they have not been able to reach the people behind the draw for the past week. The Straits Times also drew a blank. Staff at Great Concepts' Shaw Centre office, who appeared to be doing telemarketing, said the manager was out. By press-time last night, no one was available for comment. An address in a Great Concepts mailer obtained by The Straits Times was found to be that of Oriental Travel, against which about 160 complaints were filed last year with the Consumers Association of Singapore, by people upset at how it was pushing the sale of memberships of a travel club. The National Council of Social Service (NCSS), for which ComChest is the fund-raising arm, is concerned. Its chief, Mr Benedict Cheong, said: 'Community Chest is a known and trusted charity. If people misuse our good name or logo, we have to take action.' The charities note that Great Concepts does not seem to be selling the tickets to raise funds. Instead, it is approaching people on the street and inviting them to take part in a survey, at the end of which they are given lucky draw tickets. Participants - who do not have to pay anything - are informed by Great Concepts a few days later that they have won a prize in the draw. But the catch is, that they have to sit through a two-hour 'presentation' in order to claim it, said the Red Cross, Salvation Army and ComChest, who have handled public queries on this matter. The letter and lucky draw tickets state that unclaimed prizes are donated to charity, adding that an unclaimed Toyota Corolla has already gone to ComChest. But ComChest knows of no such donation. The SPCA has also smelled a rat: The logo on the tickets is not even the correct one, said spokesman Deirdre Moss. For one thing, it does not include Chinese characters. Last year, 15 reports of donation scams were filed with the police. Seven arrests came from this. And just last month, the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) heard that two men were going around raising money for it. Home, which looks into the welfare of maids and foreign workers, said it had not asked anyone to raise funds.
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