[TheOldLady]

Bryan and I have stopped all donations except Free Republic and two local area animal shelters.

We are familiar with the owners and operators of the shelters, so we trust them to use our donations legally, all in for the animals.

We get a lot of calls from beggars trying to get donations. But we NEVER give money or financial information to a phone caller.

Now that we are so inundated with begging bowl calls, we finally realized that we are on many “sucker lists.” If you donate to just
anyone, especially someone you don’t know, they take your money and immediately sell your name and phone number to another
begging bowl crook. We were astounded to find how many times our number was sold.

We have caller ID, and if they’re not in our address book, they get hung up on.

[deoetdoctrinae]

I've thought about messing with the unknown callers when I see them on the caller ID screen. Something along the lines of "Federal witness protection program, what's your pass code?", or "City brush pickup services, what's your street address?".

Then I decide that's too much trouble, and just don't answer them at all. Free Republic is the only place I regularly support financially.