Charities ditch street 'chuggers' after Sunday Telegraph investigation The Sunday Telegraph launched its investigation into Tag Campaigns after former staff members raised concerns about the conduct of some street fund-raisers. An undercover reporter obtained a job at the company and spent 12 days working as a chugger, on a campaign to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. Tag agrees to abide by the Institute of Fundraising code, which is intended to protect the public from harassment or exploitation, through its membership of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA). But our reporter witnessed a series of apparent breaches of these rules, as well as a failure to disclose to donors - in contravention of charity law - that the campaign was costing Marie Curie £367,000. Following the revelations, the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) - which investigates complaints about charities - began an inquiry, and Tag announced it would be working with the regulator to introduce a new training programme for its operatives. Oxfam said it had halted its campaign and will only consider restarting it when the training has been introduced and approved by the PFRA. The charity started its campaign with Tag on June 18, a week before The Sunday Telegraph's revelations. As with the Marie Curie project, paid staff stopped people in the street and encouraged them to send a text message donation. Donors would then be telephoned by staff from Listen - Tag's call centre sister company, to persuade them to set up a direct debit. Tag operatives were on the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne and London and the campaign was due to last for six months. However, it was stopped once the results of our investigations emerged. An Oxfam spokesman said: "We are working with Tag to try and address the issues revealed by The Sunday Telegraph as a matter of priority. The PFRA will be reviewing Tag's revamped training for fund-raisers. Oxfam will be closely monitoring the situation. Tag Campaigns said that it was now undertaking a "fundamental reform of training" to remedy "alleged shortcomings" in its fund-raising techniques. It has taken disciplinary action against several staff members. The firm says all fund-raising staff will be retrained and it will increase training, particularly on the PFRA rules and on how people should be approached in the street. It will also introduce a compliance form, which new staff must sign. Tony Charalambides, the managing director at Tag, said: "Whilst we are certain these were isolated incidents, we are very disappointed at the paper's disclosures, and immediately realised that firm action had to be taken in order to reassure both our clients and the public at large that everything is being done to prevent unethical behaviour." He added: "We are proud of our role in helping so many of the UK's leading charities ... but on this occasion we are not proud of the shortcomings the paper exposed, and are determined to do everything we can to put them right."