It's hard to turn down a request for donations to help sick children.

But that's exactly what some scam artists are counting on as they go door to door in the Manor Park area of Dartmouth, N.S., with bogus requests to donate money to the IWK Hospital.

The IWK got a call from a resident to report that people wearing clothing with the hospital's logo showed up at her door asking for funds, either cash or a credit card number, said Liz LeClair, the hospital foundation's manager of community and corporate giving.

'We would never endorse that'

"We don't currently do door-to-door ... like the Heart and Stroke and other groups. We've never gone down that road as an organization," she said.

On occasion, LeClair said some of the hospital's third-party fundraisers will go door to door, but they have a letter of endorsement. These fundraising efforts will typically coincide with the IWK's annual telethon or radiothon.

The woman who called the IWK about the incident said one person had an iPad and asked her to enter her credit card information on it.

"For me, that's the largest concern. It would be the capture of people's confidential credit card information. We would never endorse that," said LeClair.

She said anyone looking to make a web donation could do so through the IWK Foundation's website. In this case, the iPad wasn't on the foundation's page.

Clothing with IWK lettering

LeClair said the people were wearing blue shirts, blue jackets and a blue hat.

She said fraudsters don't often use the IWK as a cover for their scams, but it happens periodically.

"Maybe once a year, we'll hear about something. The vast majority of people doing fundraising are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and legitimately," said LeClair.