Solicitation companies say they discourage deception, and some monitor phone calls to make sure the public is treated fairly. Michael Malone in Glenwood Springs said someone called his family in September and made it sound like he was an officer. It turns out he was a solicitor. To be soliciting money like this, to me it's ugly. Unless a solicitor misrepresents himself as a police officer, charity investigators across the country say, it's hard to prove the fundraiser is deceiving people.
People often are imprecise about what was said, making investigations difficult.
In 1992, Zavislan investigated the firm hired to raise funds for the Colorado Police Protective Association after people complained that solicitors misrepresented themselves as police officers. Merely mentioning the name of a police organization or some other badge group, Zavislan said, can be intimidating to people. What we learned was that consumers, when they're contacted by these groups, regardless of what is said, have this feeling that the police will know whether they're supporting them or not. Another reason people might think they're talking to the police is that solicitors sometimes create a company name that, experts say, gives the impression the caller is a member of a badge group. One of the more frequent users of soundalike company names is Callan Publishing of Minneapolis.