UK charities warn of fake clothing bins

United Kingdom – Local and national charities in the UK are being cheated out of income by ambitious criminals who have started leaving fake clothing banks in towns and cities, according to UK waste management company Business Waste. Convincing-looking plastic charity bags are being pushed through people’s doors as proof that ‘the fraudsters are now thinking big’, it is stated.

According to Business Waste, a point has been reached ‘where local authorities are impounding dishonestly-placed ”charity” bins which only exist to make crooks richer’. Business Waste’s Mark Hall comments: ‘The people are a blight on decent society. They prey on people’s charitable instincts just for personal profit.’

Local charities are up against dishonest traders who ‘steal donations of clothing from literally under their noses’, states a BBC radio report. In Manchester, for example, ‘at least two recycling bins with no markings’ have been spotted. According to Hall, people are being bombarded with charity bags, making it difficult to tell the real from the fake. ‘Legitimate charities are finding their names on fake clothes bags when they’re not even collecting in the area,’ he notes.

Items collected dishonestly are sorted by ‘the gangs’ who sell the best on the internet. Other items are shipped to Eastern Europe, it is believed, where there has been a ‘boom’ in demand for the British style of clothing among local stores. But the remaining volumes create a problem, Business Waste points out. ‘These items – to put it mildly – are rubbish,’ says Hall, adding that the people involved ‘are not going to pay trade rates at the local rubbish tip’.