The State Collection Control issued a warning advising people to check a register of 'serious' organizations.
"We get a steady stream of phone calls. If an organization collects money and is not registered, we inform the caller and tell the donor to give the matter serious consideration," said SCC manager Øyvind Fegth Knutsen.
Knutsen emphasized that non-registered groups can be just as legitimate and that spontaneous collection actions with the best intentions are not necessarily on their books. But Knutsen warned that it was only natural that some people tried to pick up money under false pretences.
Norway's economic crime unit Økokrim has already cracked down on phony collectors and e-mail and SMS schemes.
Nordlandsbanken closed the account of a Lofoten man who ran an ad in a newspaper giving his private bank account as the target for a fundraising action, not wanting even to be associated with something that could be associated with fraud.
Two teenaged boys in Asker were brought in after posing as Red Cross volunteers and two collection boxes were stolen from kiosks in Oslo.
