Police and firefighters, as everyone knows, put their lives on the line every day. They are there to serve and protect the public and they’ve earned broad public support.

Who wouldn’t want to help their local police or fire department with a charitable contribution? And more and more, telemarketers extend that offer to help.

But the sad message these days is — donor beware.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office last week announced a $10.8 million settlement with two Youngstown-based telemarketing companies that solicited funds in Pennsylvania, including the Butler area. The companies’ employees made cold calls to households selling concert tickets that would benefit local fire and police unions. The trouble was that only a small percentage of the money raised through ticket sales ever made it to the police or firefighters’ unions.

The fundraising calls also targeted people in New Castle, Sharon and McKeesport.

The settlement states that the telemarketing companies, Phil’s Productions and MVP Productions, cannot do business in Pennsylvania until the $10.8 million fine is paid. What seems most likely is that the companies will just go to some other state and walk away from Pennsylvania, never paying the fine.

The attorney general’s settlement also fined the Butler Local 114 and the other fire department unions for not registering as a charity with the state. Butler Local 114 paid $1,800 in 2014 as its part of the settlement.

Investigators discovered that the people making the calls falsely claimed to be firefighters or police officers themselves. The callers also lied when they said 100 percent of the donation would go to the fire or police unions.

Fundraising calls such as these are sadly common. They are not unique to this area and are not a recent phenomenon. They typically claim to benefit a group that people have strong feelings for, such as police, firefighters or wounded veterans. They prey on the goodness and compassion of people, often elderly people, who lived through a time when such solicitations were not scams.

National charity watchdog groups have found that in many cases, the professional fundraising companies making the calls keep most of the money raised for themselves.

In New York state, a financial report from the Police Conference of New York covering 2013 showed that only 24 percent of these types of fundraising efforts went to the police.

A larger survey by the New York state attorney general looked at 589 professional fundraising efforts for police and firefighters and found that only 39 percent of the money raised went to police and firefighters. In dollars, that meant that of the $249 million raised, only $94 million went to firefighters and police. Telemarketing companies kept most of the money.

People considering donating to any charity need to be careful and do some research. Groups such as Charity Watch and Charity Navigator examine the operations of many charities to discover how much of every dollar goes to the charities. An Internet search reveals news articles warning of this sort of fundraising effort. Law enforcement groups also put out press releases warning about the shady calls.

Telemarketing calls on behalf of local police and firefighters hurt these organizations as news reports reveal that most of the efforts are scams, or at least fundraising efforts that raise more money for the telemarketers than for the police or firefighter unions.

Sad to say, but “donors beware.”