Beware Fraudsters In Maynooth

I want to warn everyone about fraudulent door-to-door charity collectors who scammed me recently in Maynooth. A lady called to my door on Friday 18th August claiming to be collecting for a sponsored walk in the Phoenix park in support of Barnardos. I am normally cynical but she caught me in a trusting mood so I made a contribution. She claimed that I would receive a thank you card from the church on Sunday 20th. When the card failed to arrive I contacted Barnardos who have never heard of her or any sponsored walk in the phoenix park. For me, at €10 it was a relatively inexpensive lesson well learned but I want to warn everyone to be suspicious of anyone who calls to the door under such pretences. Take my advice, decline their request and donate only through channels which are known to be genuine.

Thats a very good warning, always best to ask people who say they on behalf of chartitys for their OFFICIAL ID and if they act funny refuse them.

An even better warning is to give to no stranger who calls to your house looking for money to support all sort of charities unless you recognise them as local people collecting for local charities.

The problem is that these days it can be next-to-impossible to differentiate between a legitimate ID and a forged one. Also the really skillful fraudsters are usually the ones that appear most genuine. Best to adopt a policy of directing ALL of your charitable contributions to those you KNOW to be genuine while giving all other door-to-door callers the cold shoulder.

yes I must say it seems these days to be and endless stream of people who
expect you to contribute to their particular cause-legitimate or otherwise.
Several years ago I decided to nominate a couple and stick with those.
Just yesterday I had -yet again a "poor young foreign artist" with his paintings all done by himself.
I almost fell for this first time-but I now believe that this is a scam.The paintings are not orginal-and the seller probably never had a paintbrush in his/her hand-they are factory produced.

I had a caller last week collecting for a sponsored walk in aid of a school in Clonsilla! We live on the southside!