Ballard High School says they’ve received several calls in the last few days from neighbors and businesses asking about a donation drive for a sports calendar. BHS says someone — or a group of people — are claiming to be students and calling around soliciting donations for the calendar, but it appears to be a scam. Kristina Anderson, the Athletic Director and Activity Director at Ballard High School, sent us an email with details:
They are asking for credit card numbers or check routing numbers. No such fundraiser is currently happening in this manner. Another neighbor just reported that she was approached today at her door by someone “who looked much older than a high school student” asking for a donation for a fundraiser to clean up 15th Ave NW. When she refused to donate he left in a very rude and inappropriate manner calling her some choice names. This is all a scam. Do not give these people any information.
If Ballard HS students or family members are engaged in any fundraising efforts on behalf of the school, they should be properly identifying themselves and be able to provide literature as to their cause. Please do not give any type of donation to anyone who looks suspicious or cannot produce additional information when prompted. Feel free to call the school with any concerns or questions.
This is why I love MyBallard.com. Within an hour of someone posting a concern on the forum, here's no only an answer, but a warning to the rest of the community not to fall for it.
My Grandfather worked for the Hearst Corporation for 50 years, and while I'm sad to see papers go, there is no way they can compete locally with this type of community activated journalism. Thanks!
I've had 2 people try to sell me this item. I asked for proper ID and asked a few questions and didn't think it was real for some reason. Follow yer intuition! Thanks for this info folks. Newspapers are/were old news. Although, I miss my 8-track a lot.
What we need is for someone approached by these scammers to take a cell phone picture, and post it in the forum.
I think that would violate the forum rule of “Do not accuse someone, with identifying information, of a crime.” I would say posting a link to a picture would definitely be identifying information. The best thing is to call the police and give them the picture and any other info.
Not really. Posting a pic with the comment “this person asked me for a donation to Ballard High School” is not an accusation of any sort. It's a statement of fact.
Calling police is great. Warning neighbors is great, too.
If you are dumb enough to fall for this you deserve to lose money.
The Hearst Corporation, that great bastin of fairness and journalistic integrity. Gimme a break, companies like the Hearst Corp were nothing more than propaganda machines for Right Winge American business interests.