Nyssa School District warns of poster solicitations
‘School Booster Company’ at center of concerns
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Monday, October 27, 2008 11:02 AM PDT
NYSSA — The Nyssa School District is asking area businesses to be aware it is not sponsoring any sports posters or programs and not to contribute any companies advertising such.
Nyssa School District Activities Director Rollie Marshall said the warning comes after an Ontario business and past sponsor for high school athletics sent a check and invoice for $199 for an ad that would be placed on a Nyssa High School winter sports poster by “School Booster Company.”
Rather than mailing it to the address listed for the company in Kennewick, Wash., the would-be sponsor instead sent the check to the Nyssa High School, which sent up a red flag to district officials of the problem because, not only was a sports poster not planned, but the district does not hire companies to solicit funds.
Marshall said the school district received warnings of a company soliciting sponsors for high school posters about a month ago, but didn’t hear anything more after that until recently.
“We tried to warn our chamber here, but we never had a name, we never had a contact, we never really had anything to go on,” he said.
Marshall said that changed when the would-be sponsor sent the check and invoice to the school district, and Marshall followed up with the “company.”
He said, when he called the number of the company to tell whomever to stop using Nyssa High School in their promotion a couple weeks ago, he reached somebody acting as a company secretary in Boston, not Kennewick, Wash., who told Marshall she would have the company’s marketing manager get back with him. That person never returned a phone call.
Neither did Nyssa Police Chief Lennie Elfering receive any return phone calls when he called to follow up on the school district’s report. Elfering said he also contacted the Kennewick Police Department regarding a possible fraud and was told the address listed by “School Booster Company” was to a private residence. Elfering also said KPD also didn’t have a record of the business or the “boosters.”
Nyssa High School isn’t the only school district that has been the subject of these supposed posters from “Sports Booster Company.” Oct. 18, the Mukilteo (Wash.) Beacon reported a “scam” involving the company trying to collect on a poster for Kamiak High School. The article mentioned similar scams in Michigan and Connecticut. Elfering said, when he did the same Internet search using the “Google” search engine, he found the same things.
Marshall said, while the school district isn’t going so far as to call the posters a “scam,” he said the school district officials decided other businesses should be warned. He said, when the district puts out a poster or program benefiting school athletics, coaches and students solicit for them, and the checks go directly to the school district. In this instance, the school district is not benefiting at all.
“Well, without contacting our legal department, we feel like they’re using our name without authorization, and that in and of itself was the reason we started pursuing it as far as a cease and desist-type phone call to the business,” he said. “The bottom line of it is ... the kids don’t benefit from it, and it hurts the businesses and it hurts the kids both, and we’re trying to protect both sides.
Elfering said he is not certain the “Sports Booster Company” solicitations are actually fraud, but he added he would be surprised if a poster was actually produced. Unfortunately, he said, scams and fraud schemes are more and more common, and range from local and Internet commercial transactions to fake companies and organizations soliciting money for a cause. He warned people to be cautious of entering into transactions that “sound too good to be true” such as those that promise individual, unanticipated financial gain, as well as any solicitations from companies asking for contributions that would supposedly benefit another agency or organization.
“This is strictly me, but if you want to give money to help an organization, do it, but do it directly to that organization,” Elfering said.
That way, he said, people know the all the money contributed is going to directly benefit the intended beneficiary.
“We’re a very caring society, and, because of that, people are taking advantage of us,” Elfering said.
