Fake cellphone recycling charity busted
Totally sleazy: a couple in Oklahoma City have been charged with running a cellphone recycling scam that involved collecting old handsets on behalf of a charity called Save a Life Give a Phone Foundation that supposedly benefited battered women's shelters, domestic violence victims, the elderly, and the disabled. They did a damn good job convincing people to hand over their cellphones, too bad only 300 of the 100,000 handsets they collected ended up being donated to those in need—apparently finding only 300 needy souls, they sold the other 99,700 for a cool $1.2 million (that's almost pure profit, since people gave them the phones for free). They're now facing 11 counts of violating the Oklahoma Solicitation of Charitable Contributions Act, one charge of violating the Oklahoma Securities Act, and one felony racketeering charge. Of course, the most frustrating thing about all this is that it's going to make it more difficult for legit charities to convince people to recycle their old handsets.
[Via Slashphone]
