Scam going around as a charity -from your friends at the SGU

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Master Baiter Joined: 28 Sep 2009 Posts: 100

http://kony2012.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

What do you think?

If he's nonsense then please have at him!

Courtesy of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe Forums.

Thanks Guys

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:24 pm

Hi,
Anyone can set up charity for any reason but they do need to register their charity for tax. It seems these guys intentions are to get enough petitioner signatures to convince governments to arrest a war criminal. This may be a legitimate cause!
However they do take donations on that site.

You can search them out on the charity navigator website.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429 which states they are registered.

However the sub-site is not on the same hosting as their other site so perhaps contact them to suggest that.

Scammers can quite easily replicate real charity websites!!

ALSO just because a charity is legitimate it doesn't mean to say that they are going to do something proper with your money.

Here is quote from that charity website.

"I am a former employee of Invisible Children. The ratings you provided for invisible Children inc is not correct. Invisible Children Inc, does not have an external and independent Auditor. The Data you have used to compile this statististics are false. First of all because over 40% of Invisible children's donation income is cash, it makes it very difficult for accuracy. The salaries of the directors as show is false. That is only the basic salary. The directors of invisible children, also have allowances and bonuses added to their salary. the only way your ratings for invisible children to be meaning full is if the data was provided by an external auditor. In Uganda, were this charity is suppoised to operate, an over roll assay of their programs and projects to not even come close to $2,000,000 worth, and yet they claim to spend over 80% of their donations on programs. These directors of invisible children are crroks that ought to be charged. sources from visibiblechildren.tumblr.com and http://www.kony2012-is-a-scam.org"

So you see it does pay to do some research. That took me about 5 minutes.
Perhaps this is one charity to avoid I'm afraid.

If anyone has any concerns about this sub-site, having given money, they can get in touch with Amazon or the Register of Charities.

Legal Department
Amazon.com, Inc.
PO BOX 81226
Seattle WA 98108-1226
US
[email protected] +1.2062664064 Fax: +1.2062667010

They also have a contact

CONTACT
GENERAL QUESTIONS:
[email protected] // 619.562.2799
MEDIA INQUIRIES:
[email protected]

Administrative Contact:
Sarette, Chris [email protected]
Invisible Children
1620 5th Ave
San Diego, California 92101
United States
+1.6195622799 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Shanaver, Bryan [email protected]
Fifty and Fifty
629 J St.
Unit 207
San Diego, California 92101
United States
+1.6194502549

Here are my charity rules:
CHOOSE A LARGER ESTABLISHED CHARITY OR A LOCAL CHARITY THAT YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT.

ALWAYS RESEARCH A CHARITY ONLINE/WITH THE LOCAL AUTHORITY
BEFORE YOU GIVE ANY MONEY.

CALL THEM AND TALK TO THEM ABOUT WHAT THEY DO AND HOW THEY DISTRIBUTE THE MONEY.

DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO COLLECTORS ON THE STREET OR DOORSTEP NO MATTER HOW GUILTY YOU MAY FEEL.

PAY TO A CHARITY VIA YOUR BANK/CHECK/VISA AND NEVER WITH CASH, THAT WAY THERE IS A PAPER TRAIL.

ALWAYS REGISTER YOUR DONATION FOR TAX RELIEF IF POSSIBLE.

YOU DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE TO GIVE MONEY TO A CHARITY TO HELP, SOMETIMES JUST GIVING YOUR TIME TO VOLUNTEER IN THEIR ACTIVITIES IS JUST AS HELPFUL.

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:41 pm

There is also the argument 'for' the charity here.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

Master Baiter Joined: 28 Sep 2009 Posts: 100

Hi ,

Thanks - something about this stinks to high heaven!

Khawk

Not quite a Newb Joined: 07 Mar 2012 Posts: 45

Link to a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

Not quite a scam, but still sort of stinky

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:02 pm

The following article just came up on line less than one hour ago which just advises to do your research before donating to any charity and discusses the Kony 2012 Invisible Children.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/311401/20120308/donate-kony-2012-invisible-children-avoid-problem.htm

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