HOUSEHOLDERS are being warned about a bogus charity appealing for unwanted clothes to send to the Third World.
Families across South Cheshire are advised to be on the lookout for leaflets issued by 'cloned' charity Help and Support Ltd, which claims to collect second-hand clothes, shoes, blankets and sheets.
Suspicions were raised after Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council community development officer Dawn Clark received a series of leaflets asking for unwanted items to be left in black bin bags for collection and distribution in Eastern Europe.
When Mrs Clark traced the company by its registration number, she found the firm had been quoting a number which related to a genuine charity, the Mary Anne Fryer Charity for Fish-ermen's Widows, who said they had nothing to do with the collections and that police and Trading Standards officers in the Midlands were investigating the company after a similar scam had been operating there.
Mrs Clark said: 'I was suspicious because they asked that people left unwanted items in black bin bags, where normally charities provide their own bags for collections.
'When I looked up the company by its charity number, I rang up and spoke to a gentleman who was very distressed that a false charity was operating under their registration number.
'They told me police were aware of this scam operating in Worcester, but now it has begun in Cheshire.'
Neither the email address or the phone number cited on the leaflet are genuine, and although there is a company trading under the name Help and Support Ltd, it is a screen printing firm which has nothing to do with the bogus charity.
Mrs Clark said: 'I'm absolutely appalled. I work with charities and these collections are the backbone of their funding, but things like this can make you think twice about putting things out to be collected.'
A spokesman for Cheshire Trading Standards said they would investigate the matter.
