Brother of Homeless Man in $130,000 Viral Video: "It's All a Scam"
In the video, YouTube prankster Josh Paler Lin gives a panhandler named "Thomas" $100. Expecting him to spend it on booze, Lin "secretly" films the man, who instead uses the money to buy food for others.
Since it was uploaded last week, the touching video has been watched almost 30 million times and raised over $130,000 on a donation page managed by Lin to help Thomas "get a fresh start." But according to a Huntington Beach man, nothing in the video is as it seems, down to its star's name.
Kevin Nickel told KCBS-TV that "Thomas" is actually his brother, Kenny Nickel, showing the station family photos of the sibling he reportedly fears is "being manipulated."
http://gawker.com/brother-of-homeless-man-in-130-000-viral-video-its-a-1676976706
Critics have already pointed out that Thomas would have had to have walked for at least 34 minutes to the Liquor Mart, passing cheaper supermarkets along the way. They also point out that a homeless and begging Thomas had a rather blase reaction for someone who had just received $100 from a stranger.
The eyewitness to the filming told Butler he knew Lin from his many prankster videos and said he definitely saw Thomas in Lin’s vehicle during set-ups.
“I was there,” says Taugan Kadalim, “they didn’t ‘follow’ him. They drove him there [to the liquor store.]
Kadalim believes Thomas, 56, is really homeless but that the entire video was staged.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/12/31/was-heart-tugging-viral-video-of-generous-homeless-man-all-a-hoax/
= new reply since forum marked as read
And unfortunately they tend to divert money (or build up a certain "reaction immunity"
from people who really need it. Unfortunately those people are messy, smelly, sick, dirty, mentally ill - just not pleasant and difficult to relate to. They are "hard to help" and outright repellent. It is hard to get help to the people who really need it even if you mean well.
Also the scammers seem to be hovering and looking for where generous people might be gathering. A few years ago I tried to write some welfare diaries for Daily Kos. Two people immediately swept in with very similar diaries, stated much more dramatically, but asking for money. One of them - the "Suddenly Homeless" guy turned out to be a pretty epic scammer. At the time I was resentful because I smelled BS, but people kept elevating his diaries to Recommended week after week. Drama does not always mean true - in fact it rarely is true!
I'm not sure what to do about this because I can personally vouch the welfare system isn't adequate: people do have reason to beg. This is also a hard thing to do with dignity: that's why you see so many people attempting to ask for help online, where they can hide their shame behind an avatar. But there are also scammers everywhere trying to exploit generous instincts or who are even executing grand schemes of social engineering. All I can advise is to do a little research before you give. In the end, perhaps it is best to give locally. It's become very easy to forget the people who are right next door.
Impressive.
If you get a really viral video (think Gangham Style by Psi) and monetize it, you can make millions. I'm still trying to find my viral concept so I can make some extra money. 
I've tried to think of some way to involve them but they apparently don't want to help contribute to their kibble fund.
