The Company that is making these calls for the Shriners used to be called Cunningham and Moore, but it now goes by the name Agente Communications; even though many of the older callers still use the name Cunningham and Moore on the phone. Their main phone number is 972-702-8600. If you call that number, someone in the processing department will answer the phone and you can ask to speak to whoever you need to, and they will transfer you. They do call nationwide, raising money for many of the local Shriners. Some people may call this a Shriner scam, Shriners scam, or Shriners telemarketing scam. I'm just going to list some of the facts as they stand to the best of my knowledge in 2013 and let you be the judge as to how you feel about your donations to this company calling for the Shriners.

The actual truth is that they have "cold callers" and "tap callers". A cold caller is a person who starts out with the company or who has been there a while and hasn't proven their sales ability yet. A cold caller basically calls cold off from a lead list that is organized by zip code. Cold callers call people who have never donated before (however, some of the numbers may include those who have but just by chance) in the hopes that they can get a donation. Once a cold caller gets a person to commit to giving a donation that donor then becomes a tap. A tap is basically a lead of a person who has donated before, a prior donor for the company. These taps, leads, are stored in a different database from then on out, and on your receipt you will see your tap number in the upper left or upper right hand part of the receipt. All the older receipts used to end with either just a number, or the letters top or bull depending on how valuable a donor you were. now they took the letters of and they end with no letters or just the letter t or b so donors would stop asking what that meant. Now a tap caller is a caller who has proven their sales ability and only calls taps, which are prior donors. Again there are different levels of taps depending on how valuable a donor you are: there are "room taps", "top taps", "bull taps", and even taps in what is called "the premier database".

As far as pay for callers is concerned, all callers are guaranteed to get $10 and hour as a base or commission, whichever is higher at the end of the week. The caller gets 35% of every "cold sale" made. So that means that if you have never donated to this company before then you are a cold sale and the caller gets 35% of your donation. As far as taps are concerned, the caller gets 20% of every "tap sale" made. Again, that means that if you have donated to this company then you are a tap sale and the caller gets 20% of your donation. Unfortunately it gets much worse sounding than that though, because most callers are not good enough on the phones to commission at the end of the week, so they just make the $10 per hour. What that means to you is that if a person only raised $800 in donations for the whole week, and that person worked 40 hours, then that caller made a paycheck of $400; and, therefore, that caller alone got 50% of your donation. Keep in mind that that is just the pay to the individual caller and there is a whole office of staff, office rent, etc, etc,.

So you may be wondering how much the top callers at Agente communications make? Well, there are about 5 bulls at this time at Agente Communications. A "bull" is what they call their very top callers. A few of these bulls consistently pull paychecks of $4,000 to $7,000 each and every week. Yes, you read that correctly, and I did not typo and add an extra zero by accident. I have repeatedly and first hand seen their paychecks and seen their weekly tmr report, which is a report off the donations they brought in. So for you big donors out there, listen up: if you donate $1,000 to a shrine circus or hospitals, then that caller you are on the phone with is guaranteed top get 20% of your thousand; again, factually if you donate $1,000 to a shrine circus or hospital or even a shrine golf tournament, $200 of your $1,000 check is going right into the pocket of the caller that is on the phone with you. Believe me I know I have been that caller many times.

So there are some of the facts as far as pay is concerned with the company called Agente Communication, formerly called Cunningham and Moore. I am thinking about starting a website describing the full range of my knowledge of this company in the hopes of giving donors a more informed decision of where their money is going. I will do so if some of you who reply on here would think you would be interested in seeing a website fully detailing this company and how it is run to the best of my knowledge. just reply to this message with your opinion.

By as I said this company calls over many parts of the country for local Shrines, raising money for their circus' and also hospitals, as well as the shrine charity golf tournaments. Here is a short list of many of the local Shrines that we called for while i worked there, along with the local Shrine name, its location, and the caller ID number that may have been in use at that time (keep in mind they change these numbers frequently to keep donors on their feet:

Hella Shrine Ciircus  (Dallas) and Shriners Hopsitals 972-702-2955 (however they have a few more numbers and i don't have them written down.

Al Amin Shrine Circus (Kingsville, Victoria, Hidalgo, Beeville, Alice, and Corpus Christie, Texas) 361-225-2584

Abou Ben Adhem Shrine Circus (Springfield, MO) not sure of the caller id number

Alcazar Shrine Circus (Montgomery, AL) 334-264-1104

Al Chymia Shrine Circus (Memphis, TN) 901-387-0448

Alhambra Shrine Circus (Chattanooga, TN) 423-892-9266

Al Menah Shrine Circus (Nashville, TN) 615-262-2502

Alzafar Shrine Circus (San Antonio, Seguine, Laredo, Texas) 210-892-0006

Beja Shrine Circus (Green Bay, Neenah, Shawano, Waupaca, and other cities, WI) 920-497-0079 and 920-494-3401

Ben Hur Shrine Circus (Austin, TX) 512-646-0025

Elf Khurafeh Shrine Circus (Lansing, Flint, and Saginaw, MI) 810-686-7411

El Kahir Shrine Circus ( Cedar rapid, Iowa City, Mason City, IA) 319-804-1750

El Karubah Shrine Circus (Shreeveport, LA)  not sure of the number off hand

El Maida Shrine Circus (El Paso and Odessa, TX) 915-351-3794 and 915-351-3566

Jerusalem Shrine Circus (Thibodeaux and New Oleans, LA) 985-725-9333

Kaaba Shrine Circus (Davenport, IA) 563-359-6354

Maskat Shrine Circus (Wichita Falls, TX) 940-766-3700

Karem Shrine Circus (Waco, TX) 254-420-0091

Orak Shrine Circus (Richton Park, IL) 219-886-9650

Rizpah Shrine Circus (Bowling Green, Owensboro, Hopkinsville, KY) 270-843-0340

Suez Shrine Circus (Midland, San Angelo, and many other cities, TX) 325-949-0009

Tripoli Shrine Circus (Milwaukee, Antigo, Fond Du Lac, Sheboygan, Union Grove, West Bend, WI) 414-443-0441, 920-497-0079

Zelzah Shrine Circus (Las Vegas, NV) 702-366-9150

Zuhrah Shrine Circus (Minneapolis, MN) 612-379-1011

OK that is a list of most of the Shrine Circus' that this company has called for while i worked there. Oh and by the way they also call for the AMVETS over many parts of the country, and the Dallas Sherifs posse (which they are currently using as a sponsor for Christmas supplies since they lost the Jaycees contract for it). So if you donate to the Shrine Circus or hospitals through this company then you will become a tap, and you will be called for the AMVETS or any other charity that this company holds a contrat for in your area. And, yes, the pay structure is the same for these other charities also.

So there you have it. That is the facts as I know them to the best of my knowledge at the time of this writing. I still want to make a free website that exposes all the rest of this company as well as the lifestyle of the top callers there and how your precious donations are spent (Such as the one who feels that it is necessary to wear several thousands of dollards worth of clothes every day and has multiple expensive vehicles that are all customized). I hope this message on this board proves valuable to those who are thinking about making donations to the Shriners through this telemarking company.

Caller said they were with Shriner circus looking for donations to take sick kids to circus. Seems like a scam

3 calls at my business today from a woman named Esther who refuses to disclose on behalf of what organization she is soliciting funds.

I received a phone call from 210-892-0005 for a donation to AMVETS.  I was told that a they really appreciated the donation I had given to AMVETS last July when I left a check under my doormat.
I have not EVER written a check to AMVETS.  However, 2 years ago, I wrote a check for Shriner's Circus and left it under the doormat.   How would the AMVETS telephone solicitor even know this unless the Shriner's Circus records had been given/sold to them!!!
I let the current telephone solicitor continue to talk and I asked for their mailing address.  I was given the address of  1533 Austin Highway, Suite 102, San Antonio, TX.
Today I went to that address and discovered that it is a UPS store where a mailbox can be rented.

IF this telephone solicitation is on the up and up, they obviously need a better marketing program.
I now suspect that both the Shriner's Circus phone call as well as the AMVETS phone call is some sort of scam.  The telephone numbers that both use are only one digit off and they both use the same address on Austin Highway.   Both have the telephone ID name as "L Hansin"

I had previously requested on 3 different occasions for the Shriner's Circus phone callers to take my name and phone number off their list but they continued to call.     I have now made the same request of the AMVETS phone caller... it remains to be seen if this will be honoroed.

Received a voice mail today at work with a call back number of 210.892.0006, said this is Candice, I'm working on a project and please call me.
I attempted to call from my cell phone, which is not a Texas number, it rang a lot of times, the picked up and they hung up.  
If this really is the Shriners, I'd be happy to give to their cause, but they need better people asking for donations.

Please stop calling

I called main Temple in San Antonio on 1604- # 210-496-1625 and this is a call center for them to do telemarketing donations because they do not have equipment to do from Temple. Not a scam-just need better program,I guess.

Received a voice mail from Robert South who said he has a project going on and really would like my assistance on it.  This has got to be a scam. I am not going to call this person back at 210-892-0006.

Belongs to "Sistema Technologies"

solicitation

received solicitation

a lady named shelby called asking for donations.  this may be a legit organizations working for alzafar shrine.

I called the main Alzafar Shrine and they verified they are working with the people at the Austin Highway address.

Calls Twice

I got the same message from Jonathan Ensel stating it was about a community project ...I also did not call back.

I received a call. They left a message saying this is Jonathan Ensel and I'm working on a community project.  We need your help, please call us back at 210-892-0006.  I did not call back

I Recieved a call asking for a donation to the Alzafar Shrine Circus at the Freeman Coliseum 1533 Austin, TExas  78212-1708
Tax ID #74-0485585...Not listed in the yellow pages.
This may be a scam...

this number belongs to the shriners asking for donations