Agents working for two fundraising companies have been accused of deceptively signing up some of the least well-off people in the country to direct payment plans.

The companies were contracted to raise money on behalf of the Red Cross and Bush Heritage Australia.

Employees went door-knocking and set up a fundraising booth outside shops in the Indigenous community of Yarrabah, south of Cairns in far north Queensland.

Payments typically asked for ranged from around $15 to $50 a fortnight.

The two fundraising companies signed more than 50 people to contracts, a move community leaders say is highly inappropriate given the high unemployment rate in Yarrabah.

For two days in March, agents for the Gold Coast-based AIDA roamed the streets of Yarrabah canvassing for Bush Heritage Australia.

Rival fundraiser Cornucopia visited Yarrabah on behalf the Red Cross.

Cornucopia signed up about 40 people, including Tamara Connolly, who is raising six children and works at the local childcare centre.

She was asked for money to help Indigenous children and signed up to pay $50 a fortnight.

"They showed me some pamphlet about kids going hungry and that, and it had the Red Cross label and everything on it," she said.

"So I said OK then, because I had a premature baby and I stayed in Red Cross so I thought I'd sign up and give something back to Red Cross.

"I'd done like three or four payments and then I realised I couldn't keep up with it because I'm a single mum with six children."

Dustin Maloney and his partner, Justine, who have four children and are unemployed, were also approached.

Mr Maloney says he gave the organisation his bank details just to get rid of them.

"They just showed us this and just started talking, and talking, and talking constantly, talking... never give us a chance to say do we want to do it, you know?" he said.

Subcontractors need to 'check moral balance'

Community leader Elverina Johnson says many of the people who signed the contracts are on welfare and did not understand the terms of the document they were signing.

Ms Johnson says the charity subcontractors need to "check their moral balance" and stay away from communities where people are generous but have little capacity to sustain regular donations.

"It's unscrupulous that these organisations, they just seem to have no morals about them and they don't seem to have any conscience about what it is they're doing and don't seem to have made any connections to the issues that we already have," she told 7.30.

"It is frustrating because it's hard enough being an Indigenous community when we're struggling with a lot of issues and we have a high unemployment rate.

Tamara Connolly, a single mother raising six children, signed up to a direct payment plan. ( ABC )

"We don't have a lot of businesses here, and these organisations, these so-called charities are coming here and basically stealing money from our people by getting them to sign up without actually explaining to the locals what they're all about."

The Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (iCAN) has already worked with the Yarrabah community to fight issues such as door-to-door salespeople signing residents up to expensive deals on vacuum cleaners and water filters that they cannot afford.

Aaron Davis, the chief executive of iCAN, says his organisation acted quickly when it realised what the fundraisers were doing in Yarrabah.

"Generally what happens is that a lot of Indigenous people in these direct marketing situations will sort of be at the door just saying 'yeah, yeah, yeah' for the person that's trying to sell them something or get them to put money into their charity just to get them away from the door," he said.

"We've heard of situations where people get let into the house because they've been kind, saying come in and have a glass of water, and just stay there until they sign something.

"They're trying to get them out of the house but culturally they're too nice to be able to be that forceful and say 'get out of my house'.

"As soon as I find out something's going on like this, I contact the charity straight away and tell them it's not on, you're meant to be helping communities like this one as part of your vision and mission and here you are exploiting them financially, it's just not right."

Charities and companies apologise, cancel contracts

AIDA and Cornucopia say rogue employees were in Yarrabah and acted outside the direction of the businesses.

Both companies say the staff involved have been disciplined.

Red Cross and Bush Heritage Australia have also condemned the actions of the contractors.

"Clearly it shouldn't have happened within this particular community, and we are tightening up all processes and principles and practices to make sure it never occurs again," Kerry McGrath from Red Cross told 7.30.

Bush Heritage Australia says no fees were collected from donors and all contracts in Yarrabah have been cancelled.

"In this instance no money changed hands, the vetting process was appropriate and effective, and in any case we became aware that these people were in the wrong place, shouldn't have been there, and we're very sorry that this happened," Gerard O'Neill from Bush Heritage Australia said.

"The absolute majority of those funds always go to the conservation work which those funds are raised for, that's a central tenet.

"Naturally we would engage a contractor to do work on our behalf and we'll pay them out of our marketing budget to in fact undertake that work."

The conduct of AIDA and Cornucopia is now the subject of an investigation by Queensland's Office of Fair Trading to determine whether the representations made to people in Yarrabah to get them to sign up were misleading and breached Australian consumer law.

Do you know more? Email investigations@abc.net.au