I’m bombarded with calls – it’s taken all the joy out of giving

A CALL centre exposed by the Daily Mail’s investigation ‘bullied’ pensioners with endless cold calls.

The OAPs said being threatened in their homes had taken the joy out of their years of charitable giving.

‘I am sick of it,’ said Rosa Leonardi, 72. ‘You just sit down, then you have to answer another call.

‘I’ve sent back around 15 to 20 letters from charities, telling them to take my name off their list and stop contacting me. But still I get them.’

Mrs Leonardi was one of hundreds the Mail’s undercover reporter had to telephone during a charity cold-calling campaign.

During the call, she told the reporter, who she believed to be a genuine fundraiser: ‘Listen here, I support a lot of charities. But the more I support the more I get asked to support another one, and the more lists I seem to end up on. I am an old age pensioner – I can’t afford it.’

When contacted by the Mail afterwards, Mrs Leonardi said her life was being made a misery by the calls and she did not want any more.

She believes her details were passed on after she made a oneoff donation to charity several years ago. Since then, the 72-yearold gets several begging calls a week, as well as an endless stream of post. Despite repeatedly asking the charities to stop, the calls and letters continue to flood in.

Mrs Leonardi, a retired businesswoman who worked in catering with her husband, Primo, 80, and lives in West Finchley in North London, says she is constantly called by fundraisers ‘reading from the same script’.

She was telephoned by our undercover reporter last week on behalf of the children’s’ charity, Caudwell Children. She was appalled to learn she was on a list owned by a charity she had never even heard of – let alone agreed to be contacted by. During our investigation, the Mail’s undercover reporter was also told to contact a 91-year- old man on behalf of Macmillan, asking him to give more money.

He told the reporter: ‘ I’m inundated with charities calling me up.’ When contacted by the Mail afterwards he said that when his wife passed away he gave ‘ all her money’ to one age-related charity.

Soon after he began receiving regular calls from other, unrelated charities who had been passed his details.

The frail pensioner, from a village outside Norwich, and who did not wish to be named, said he is ‘fed up’ with the number of calls he gets. Another woman – who gives £8 a month to Macmillan Cancer Support – was also contacted by the undercover reporter asking her to increase her donation.

During the call, she said she felt she was being ‘bullied’ into giving more than she could afford.

When later contacted by the Mail, she said: ‘For me, I just say no and hang up. But if an old or vulnerable person answered, you can see how they would feel bullied. They are made to feel that no matter how much they give, it is not enough.’

The 65-year- old, who lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband, said: ‘It is threatening having people call you all the time.’

She said she often receives calls on behalf of Macmillan, as well as emails every month and regular post asking for more money.

‘They should be grateful that we are already giving quite a lot.’ She added: ‘I am contemplating stopping my donations.’