Who doesn’t want to support the local police force? There may be problems, but as a whole, we need the police and most of them are professionals.
So when you get this call, “This is Frank Wallace calling for the American Police Officers Alliance. Very quickly, we’re mailing out the envelopes to help fight for our officers who protect our nation’s citizens, just like yourself. Once you receive your card in the mail, you can send back whatever you think is fair this time. That’s all.”
Geez, you want to help, but the New York Times reported that such calls are scams and that the calls often come from bots.
“In reality, it is part of a group of five linked nonprofits that have exploited thousands of donors in ways that have been hidden until now by a blizzard of filings, lax oversight and a blind spot in the campaign finance system.
“The campaign-finance system is built to police who puts money into politics, legal experts say. These groups embodied a flaw: The system is poorly prepared to stop those who raise money and channel it somewhere other than candidates and causes.
“By minimizing their aid to candidates, the consultants who helped set up the five nonprofits avoided scrutiny from the Federal Election Commission and most state watchdogs, and put their groups under the jurisdiction of a distracted and underfunded regulator, the Internal Revenue Service. As a result, their spending records were posted not on the F.E.C.’s easily searchable site, but on a byzantine I.R.S. page written in bureaucratic jargon.”
I’ve gotten these scam calls for decades and I know they capture a huge amount of money as fund-raising costs and little goes to help police officers. Still, they defended their work to the Times.
“We have met, and in fact exceeded, in our mission to raise awareness of police issues, hold politicians accountable for shameful treatment of police officers, and activate grassroots supporters who demand change,” said Simon Lewis, one of the three Wisconsin consultants who helped establish the groups and who serves as president of one of them, the National Police Support Fund.”
What the scammers don’t tell you is that the money is only used for “awareness.” They want you to believe it’s for officers and their families.
If you get a call, ask about how much of a gift they keep for themselves as a fund-raising cost.
They don’t like to get that question.