Paris: Driver stung "Meshulach". Rabbis threatened to publish his name

The "drivers" phenomenon, those drivers who are well versed in issues of "Gvirim" in the different money collecting destinies around the globe, and serve as drivers of any meshulach, Rav or public figure who travels overseas to collect money, is well known. Mostly, it is customary to give the driver a certain percentage of the sum of donations.

Yesterday (Tuesday) two drivers took a group of meshulachim around Paris, on one of the checks which were collected, a sum of 26 Euro appeared. But one of the drivers added a few digits to the check, and increased the sum considerably.

The driver (whose name is in the editorial) gave the check to one of the meshulachim, asked him to cash it for him, and to take his share of the money. The innocent meshulach, who did not think for a moment that he is dealing with a swindler, gave the driver a large sum of money which he collected from the homes of the rich, as change for the large check.

"Only after a while, he noticed that the sum of the check was changed and forged, and thereby a whole day's hard work of travelling and collecting money, went down the drain. Not knowing what to do, he turned to the local Rabbonim.

As a result, the Rabbonim of Paris decided to inform that they will publish the swindler driver's name if he will not return the money, and in addition one should inform every meshulach who comes to the city – that he should first find out at the Rabbonim about the "driver" he wants to take, and the photographs of "drivers" who are involved in deceit – will be disseminated all over France, with a warning.

This is not the first case of deceit of meshulachim by drivers, about six months ago, two drivers in Paris were involved in a long line of cases in which they cheated meshulachim in different ways, among them taking higher than normal percentages, concealing money, and in one especially severe case - drivers drugged a meshulach by means of a drink and stole the moneys he had collected.

A week beforehand, an Israeli meshulach who travelled to London to recruit money for his severely ill father, fell in the net of a man who presented himself as a famous driver, and who took advantage of his innocence and managed to steal from him the entire sum of 40,000 NIS he had collected.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!