Phone spam, charities and trust

In the New York Times, an editorial talks about a study that reveals rampant abuses in certain charitable causes (or organizations passing themselves as such)

"The public has rightly shown its empathy with wounded and troubled war veterans, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to private charities that claim to have the veterans’ best interests at heart. A new study details rampant abuses of the money flow." (from New York Times)

The study referenced is from a very reputable outfit, Charity Watch.

I haven't done a careful comparison, as the names of charities that call my house have many very similar sounding names. But my experience in dealing with them on the phone has been almost uniformly unpleasant: strange hard-sell tactics, rudeness, accusations and so on. I had my suspicions and this new study kind of corroborates them.