Door-to-door chocolate bar scam reported in Niagara Falls ON

A reader from Niagara Falls ON has responded to Ed.'s note appended to "Help Kids Canada - a scam or only half a scam?", reposted here on September 3rd. He writes:

Funny you should mention that! It's been years since I was button-holed at the mall or at my front door by a waif selling chocolate bars, but today I was awakened from my afternoon nap by the insistent (three times!) ring of the door bell. 

No, it wasn't the Avon lady, but a young woman -- mid- to late twenties, I'd say -- wearing long pants and a jacket, rather warm for the weather. "Hello, I'm Hanna, from the neighbourhood," she said, with a South American accent. "My sister broke her violin and I'm selling chocolate bars to help her."

She then opened the zipper on a canvas bag to show a couple of dozen of the familiar long chocolate, the same as I remembered seeing before. Still half-asleep, I didn't have the presence of mind to ask to see the product, or ask any questions. I just closed the door in her face. Yeah, I'm rude when you wake me up!

Thinking about it now, I'd give odds that this is the same old scam that's been on the go for years. As Pierre Berton wrote in The Big Sell, they sell the story, not the product, to appeal to good-hearted people who wouldn't refuse to support a charity. Too bad it's not a real charity.

Ed. found this photo (and many like it) on the Net and e-mailed it to our reader who confirms that the chcocalate bars he saw were long and thin, like these.

Have any other readers had similar experiences recently? Click on the headline to open the comments window and let us know about it.

Help Kids Canada - a scam or only half a scam?

NOTE FROM ED., added 3/9/25. More than 15 years after it was posted, this remains one of Walt's most-read posts, so we're adding this note and reposting it now. 

We assume this scam is still being played, as "Help Kids Canada" or "Kare for Kids", somewhere in Canada or possibly the US of A. If  any reader can give us some details or link to a news report or other source, we would really appreciate it. Click on the headline to open the comments box, and leave your tip there. Thank you! 

Agent 3 complains of being roused from his Saturday siesta by a knock at the door from a teenage boy who said he was "from Help Kids Canada". He was peddling chocolate bars (since the Girl Scouts have the monopoly on cookies) and suggested that Agent 3 was a bad bastard for not supporting this worthy charity.

Agent 3, being something of a cynic [When he's cooking, is he a kitchen cynic? ed.] asked the boy if he could prove that Help Kids Canada is in fact a registered charity. The boy appealed to his "supervisor", who just happened to be driving by in a white van, who said yes, it is so, and here's the registration number for all who want proof.

Now munching on his chocolate bar, Agent 3 asks Walt if this is true, and why a reputable charity would be selling candy bars door to door. Here is what Walt found out.

Help Kids Canada is a registered charity. Where the kid and his supervisor lie is when they say that they represent or work for HKC. They do not. Here's the truth of the relationship between the chocolate sellers and the charity, according to the latter's website as it existed in July of 2010, when Walt's report was first published.

The supervisors and the kids who are selling chocolates are not employed by our organization.Their connection to our charity is that they support our organization by donating the net proceeds from the chocolate sales to Help Kids Canada. By "net proceeds" we mean what is left after the cost of chocolates and the cost of distribution, including the cost of transportation, personal expenses and payments to the kids, are deducted from their gross proceeds.

So there you have it. Those poor scrawny kids who knock at your door are being paid, but the people really making the money are their supervisors. (Agent 3 says the gal in the van was absolutely porcine.) It's very much a for-profit business. If there happens to be anything left, they give a little to the charity, and get a tax receipt for so doing.

It's a nice cozy arrangement for all concerned...except Agent 3 and others who get conned into paying a high price for a rather mediocre chocolate bar, all because they thought they were helping some poor kids.

Chocolate for charity scam still operating?

Summer has come, yea, even to the Great Not-so-white North. During Ontario's summer season (July 20th through 27th), a particular pest crawls out of the woodwork to accost people at the shopping malls -- in front of the LCBO seems a likely spot -- and knock on their front doors.

Yes, dear Canajan readers, I refer to the waifs peddling chocolate bars (made in Poland) for Help Kids Canada, a questionable "charity" first exposed here in "Help Kids Canada - a scam or only half a scam?". That very short article has had more "hits" than just about anything Walt has posted, except maybe for the Swazi girls!

I mention it again because Agent 3 has just brought to my attention a much longer story which appeared in the Guelph Mercury four months later. The headline reads: "Unwrapping a charity's chocolate bar: Kare for Kids president says controversial agency benefits all stakeholders".

Some excellent work by the paper's investigative reporter reveals that Help Kids Canada and Kare for Kids are one and the same -- parts of "an Independent Chocolate Marketing Network" run out of a condo in downtown Toronto.

They wholesale the chocolate bars to distributors who recruit "managers" who recruit kids -- some apparently pre-teens -- to peddle the goods at the malls and door-to-door. If any money is left over after "expenses", it gets donated to charity. At least, that's what the promoter in charge told the Mercury.

If you've been pestered by the chocolate-pushers, or if you've worked for this "charity", we'd like to hear from you. Please post a comment!