Working Around The Do-Not-Call List

Telemarketers are having a more difficult time reaching their victims.

Having been banned from phoning those who registered so that they wouldn't be bothered, there are fewer and fewer people left to plague.

So that means business owners are catching the brunt of the calls. There is no Do-Not-Call list.

"I'm calling from the Wishing Well Foundation," she said, and I wished I'd paid closer attention to the caller ID and not answered.

The woman on the other end of the line had a Southern accent, a syrupy sweet delivery and she was calling from Contract Co at 757-578-3500.

From there, the hard sell proceeded. The group wanted a donation to send a sick child to Disneyworld. So how much of the proceeds goes to the charity and how much to administrative costs? 70% to 80%, she says. But she doesn't say if it's the charity or the administration getting the bulk.

I'd like to vet your organization, I say, and before she can finish telling me about their website and their registration as a 501-3c, I mention Google and she gets all pissy before hanging up on me.

Little wonder.

Wishing Well Foundation is a scam organization that trolls for suckers using telemarketers. Money raised goes to pay the telemarketers and then the founder, Mr. Elwin LeBeau, gets his piece of the pie. In the end, there's next to nothing left to donate to sick children.

When you run a business, you can't be sure where your clients are calling from, and you end up fielding all sorts of idioc calls. It's part of the average day.

What irritates me, however, is the thought that this telemarketer will eventually hit on someone who'll fall for the smarmy sentiment of the pitch, and a person without access to Google will have their pocket picked.

You can prevent many crimes when your only weapon is knowledge. Spread the word, and make it harder for Wishing Well Foundation to steal again.