Clothing: the doorstep rip-off

Legitimate clothes collections are beginning suffer

We're all being told to reduce, reuse and recycle, so when a leaflet pops on your mat asking for old clothes, many of us would be happy to donate a bag or two.

Some are from legitimate, long established charities.

But an increasing number are actually from commercial companies, which will take your old clothes and them sell them on at a profit, in Eastern Europe or the developing world.

If you read the small print, they're careful not to claim to be a charity - but many of those who get the leaflets feel they've been misled.

But Trading Standards officers are getting an increasing number of complaints about their tactics - and now they've organised their own leaflet drops to warn householders to be careful.

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Tuesday August 8

What you told Breakfast If you read the small print you can see that they are indeed business and not charities. While they are unethical they doing nothing illegal. I always have the last laugh by putting my old worn out useless clothes in the bin bag. Hector Cameron Read more viewers' comments on our Your Say page

We had so many e-mails and text messages following yesteday's report that we're following it this morning with a look at how the bogus doorstep collections are damaging legitimate charity operations.

Monday 7 August

There have been so many complaints about bogus door to door collections in South Wales that Trading Standards have begun their own leafleting campaign.

Susannah Streeter went to investigate.

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Who's collecting your donations?

Many well-known national charities organise door-to-door collections, to raise money for their work.

But if you've had a leaflet from an appeal you don't recognise, you can check whether it's legitimate.

Look out for this logo

You can ring the Charity Commission: 0845 300 0218

Charity Commission website

In Scotland, you'll need to ring the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator: 01382 220446

Scottish Charity Regulator

You can also look for the Association of Charity Shops' official logo, or visit their website

Association of Charity Shops

And you can check whether the collection is being organised by a Community Interest Company, or CIC.They're usually small organisations which use the profits they make towards local good causes.

CIC: official register

To report suspicious collections, call: Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06