Faux charity dupes UK's greek system
Organizations discovered fraud in time to stop payment on checks
By: Megan Boehnke
Issue date: 2/14/06 Section: Campus News
The Kentucky Kernel
(The University of Kentucky)
A man recently tricked two UK fraternities and four UK sororities into signing more than $1,500 in checks to a charity that doesn't exist.
The man went around to the Greek houses on campus on Jan. 31, soliciting money for a step program that he said he was putting on in Memphis. He told several of the organizations that they had donated in the past and he asked for the treasurers and presidents by name.
"I have no doubt he's done this around on other campuses. He'd done his research," said UK interim police chief Kevin Franklin. "I can't prove it, but that's my gut feeling. He'd done his research and he knew the inner workings of the fraternities."
Franklin said one woman in one UK sorority asked one of her sorority sisters - whom the man had referenced in his solicitation - if in fact she'd spoken with him before.
When she said she hadn't promised the man money for his organization, she became suspicious and tried to look up the charity the man referenced. After finding out it didn't exist, she called other sororities before calling UK police.
The fraternities and sororities cancelled the checks they had written before they were cashed.
"He came by and asked to speak with Adam (Johnson, education junior), the treasurer, and said we had given money in the past," said Lee Johnson, president of the Farmhouse Fraternity.
The man had come by with a flyer about a month before returning to collect the money a little over two weeks ago, Johnson said. The campus police came by later that evening asking about the man and informed the fraternity that they had reason to believe that the charity was a scam.
"He came by the house and I talked to him for a while. He asked for $250 for a step thing," said Sarah Burns, president of Delta Delta Delta sorority, who said she was suspicious from the beginning. In part because he had an envelope with checks from other fraternities and sororities, she decided to write him a check, but continued to look into it after he left.
"We were going through old files and couldn't find anything we wrote for more than $200," she said. "I got weirded out and called a couple other presidents from other sororities."
Since the man told her that he worked with Alpha Phi Alpha, who sponsors a step show on campus every year, she called the vice president of UK's chapter. When he said that they didn't know the man, she called the police.
"I've never heard of this happening before," Franklin said.
Officers spoke with every fraternity and sorority about the man as well as contacting other schools including Eastern Kentucky University and Transylvania University, neither of which had any encounters with him.
The police have descriptions of the man and a cell phone number that the man had given to the organizations, Franklin said.
"We've not had much luck so far," Franklin said about tracking the cell phone number. "You can buy those things in the grocery store now with 90 minutes on it."
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