HOW THEY PREY ON KIND-HEARTED
Charities pass on your personal details to data firms who sell it to cold callers
MILLIONS of older people are having their personal details collected and sold by firms who market them as premium targets for charity cold-callers.
The companies claim to offer contact information for those most ‘responsive’ to cold calls, stating online that those on their data lists are ‘generous’, ‘charity-minded’ and have a ‘prime credit rating’.
One firm boasts that it ‘ trades over 45million charity names a year’ – while another sells information of donors to armed forces charities for 15p per person.
Individuals are even sorted into categories which show whether they are ‘interested in religion, environment, lotteries, concerts, collectables, reading, wildlife, pets’ or ‘visiting stately homes’.
Some charities not only buy such data for marketing purposes, but actually pass on the details of their own donors in ‘reciprocal deals’. They share data with marketing firms, who then offer names for sale to companies looking to sell products to the elderly.
These charity donors – some of whom are in their nineties – are then bombarded with phone calls and letters demanding cash from both companies and charities they have never shown any interest in.
Some charities have passed on huge databases of personal details to a private firm called Alchemy Direct Media (UK) Ltd. A previous Mail investigation revealed that this company also sells on details of NHS patients.
Now it has emerged that Alchemy – having obtained data from charities – is boasting it can offer the records of hundreds of thousands of charity donors ‘ aged 50- 100’ who will be ‘ highly responsive’ to marketing calls.
The company sells contact information for those who have given to charities including the Blue Cross animal charity, Royal Voluntary Service and the Animal Rescue Fund. Many of these organisations’ donors will have no idea that their most personal details are being traded.
Names and addresses of 57,106 donors to Action on Hearing Loss – formerly the Royal National Institute for the Deaf – are sold as a socalled ‘Gold File’.
Those on the list are said to be more likely to be homeowners, over the age of 45, holders of a prime credit rating and ‘ responsive’ to direct marketing.
This database, of those who have donated between £1 and £20, is touted to other charities. The list even offers ‘ wealth indicators’, so the richest donors can be targeted more precisely.
Alchemy also says it has added the donors to its own ‘in-house marketing database’ – meaning their information is being sold to commercial salesmen too. Other databases advertised by Alchemy includes a list of 5,000 who have donated to charities which help the armed forces. Their details can be bought for £150 per thousand – or 15 pence each.
Those in this database are likely to be over 55 and are therefore prime targets for those selling ‘grey market products’, Alchemy claims.
It also offers a list of those who either donate to Royal Voluntary Service or who have ‘responded with positivity’ to campaigns. It specifies that the information for sale relates to women who are aged 50 and over with a prime credit rating who donate to elderly causes. This is, apparently, premium information as these women are likely to be taken in by ‘grey market promotions’.
Advertising this data, Alchemy confirms: ‘Individuals on the file have either donated a cash sum to Royal Voluntary Service’s cold direct marketing campaigns or have responded with positivity; showing strong i ndication that they are charity-minded, respon- sive and would contribute to both prize draws and raffle campaigns, as well as mail order, financial orders and other grey market promotions.
‘Data is sourced from reciprocal deals as well as data rentals with charities and other direct mail responsive sources.’
Charity donors have apparently proved to be such lucrative targets that some companies now specialise in selling their personal details.
One, EDM Media, claims to be a firm of ‘charity data experts’ selling 45million donors’ names every year. It claims it is working with more t han 200 not- f or- profit organisations, and its website lists the hundreds of different databases it is selling to charities who want to solicit donations.
EDM asks potential clients: ‘Are you a military/veteran charity looking for new donors? Then these lists are ideal.’ It also claims to offer ‘the best data for your animal charity campaigns’.
Some of its meticulously sorted lists on offer include ‘charitable bingo players’, ‘UK over-50s’ and ‘charity mail order buyers’.
Charities whose donors appear on EDM’s lists include Save the Children and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
‘Charitable bingo players’