For several years now we get regular calls at our door from a couple of guys in a white van collecting for a children's charity. We checked their credentials (as best we could given the language) and initially gave cash for what we thought was a deserving cause.
In September 2013 some friends of ours staying in our villa advised us that they too had given and felt sure that the collectors visited weekly hoping to find a new guest and informing them that the owners (us) always gave cash to support the charity.

I decided to stop donating, initially just not answering the door (they only call at holiday rentals & never bother the locals) but as they became suspicious it became more and more difficult to avoid them.

Today, they called at 1300hrs & I politely told them that I no longer wanted to donate. The verbal abuse I received leads me to believe these guys are bogus and I may well have been duped over the years.

Am I the only one?

No, but they probably only bother with the rich people in Sesmarias

This is the posh side of town you know Bruce !

I know that Widge....you never stop reminding me of that

It's cos you're getting forgetful in your senior years

I have had them call a few times, the first time I gave them a donation but then I was told it was a scam. So I tell them no thank you politely now and I also get a lot of verbal abuse, so they now get the same back.

Widge

Ask them for their Portuguese ID (must carry at all times) if they do not give you it they are bogus.

Pickwick

Agree with Pickwick, ID is usually produced. We have been approached at the apartment by a young lad from Lagoa for a couple of years (missed him last year as we weren't out at our usual times) He always carried ID, certainly appeared to be genuine but agree he appeared to be targeting visitiors. As far as I can remember he was collecting for the equivalent of the Simon Community at home.(basically people down on their luck, homeless etc )He always left a leaflet from the charity.

Thank's Pickwick, they had a photo ID card around their neck but i wouldn't know a real one from a fake,

Hi Widge

Not the "ID" around their neck but their Portuguese ID card - credit card size and carried in lieu of passport.

Pickwick

In Feb we quite often saw 3 guys dressed in red at the roundabout between Ping Doce and Aldi, stopping all cars and " collecting for the Bombeiros"...they had i/d of sorts, but I suspect they were scammers.

I still think the best scam of all was the guy who ran the car park outside Bristol zoo. This is TRUE - a man dressed as a car park attendant was on duty at Bristol zoo every day for I believe 17 years - charge was £1.40/car and you could pay him or put the money in a machine. One day in 2008 he never turned up and the machine had gone. The Zoo rang Bristol council and said he hadn't turned up so could they send another man - some time later the council rang back and told the Zoo that they didn't supply a car park man as the land was theirs! They calculate he made over £7,000,000 in the time he was there - presumably he's bought his own zoo in the Bahamas by now.

We used to park in a free municipal car park in Albufeira, often used by tourists. One day we parked and this woman came over and said we had to pay her to park the car there. I told here in portuguese that it was a free car park. She replied that it was no longer free. I got my phone out and said to my group " It is 112 isn't it?" and she promptly walked off and no damage to car on our return.

"BRISTOL ZOO SCAM

Analysis: If ever there was a story too good to be true, this is one. Not only has a crack team of journalists from the Bristol Evening Post conducted a thorough investigation and found the tale of the phantom car park attendant to be "nothing more than an urban myth," they have also succeeded in pinning down its exact point of origin: the Bristol Evening Post!

And I quote: "A version of the story did appear in the Evening Post two years ago," explained an article in the June 13, 2009 edition of the paper, "in a feature on urban myths published to coincide with April Fools' Day."

I.e., as of this writing it's a five-year-old April Fools' prank gone viral; nothing more to it than that. For the record, the Evening Post article further stated that Bristol Zoo actually has more than one car park — several, in fact, none of which are open to coaches (buses) — and a comparable number of duly-hired attendants on the job."

If it sounds unbelievable rubbish that's because it is.

Many of the zoo's visitors like to park outside my house !

We're close but not so close that I'd miss my front gate for the monkey enclosure !