Gofundme or Gofraudme?

[MineralMan]

As you might expect, the gofundme.com crowdfunding website is sometimes misuded by people to scam money from willing and well-meaning people.

As you also might expect, a website has popped up that details those scams. It doesn't catch them all, of course, but looking at it is sort of a clue about why you should investigate gofundme campaigns before making donations. Here's a link you can visit that gets you to gofraudme.com

http://gofraudme.com/

Before I make any donations to any online fundraiser, I try to do my homework. I look up the person who is asking for money. If there's something newsworthy about their request, I check to see if there actually is reported news in a real news source. I'm careful to try to discover information about the actual person making the request. That can be difficult, because there are few unique names out there. Generally, there is more than one person with the same name, so making sure you're looking at info on the actual person requesting donations can take some extra work.

The bottom line is that I rarely donate to individual gofundme pleas. There's always someone in my own area who needs help, and I learn about those through my local news outlets. I'm much more likely to donate to someone local than someone I don't know who is not local. Occasionally a DUer requests donations, or someone requests donations for a DUer. If I'm not personally involved with that DUer, I treat those requests as I do all other requests for donations. I investigate as well as I can. If I can't verify the situation, I just can't justify a donation.

Anyhow, the site at the link above is worth looking at, just to see some of the ways people have created fraudulent gofundme fundraising campaigns.

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. I apply the same principles. We have similar perspectives on this.

Thanks for the link.

[boston bean]

3. People need to be responsible for themselves. Give from ur heart or don't.

Recognize you don't have a say over how the $$ is spent. Under stand you may be scammed. I believe it helps many more than it hurts. So I am willing to support the idea and the purpose.

[MineralMan]

7. I give from both my heart and my head.

There are far more in need than I can possibly help. So, I am selective with my giving. Mostly, I donate to a homeless shelter which has an excellent program that goes beyond just food and a temporary bed. I also donate to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and an animal rescue organization I know well. Beyond that, I donate to individuals in need, based on individual situations. In every case, both my heart and head are involved. My resources are limited.

[Hekate]

4. The world is a very big place, and a few take advantage of the goodness of others' hearts

My personal guidelines are similar to yours. I never give or pledge over the phone, for example. I tell all of them the same thing: send your request to me via US Mail and I will give it my consideration. If they say they are from PP or the Dems I say exactly the same thing, with the addition of "Thank you so much for doing this work." Planned Parenthood, by the way, gets at least $300/year from me, up from the $5 I used to give them in college and the $25 I used to give them as a single mother. Someday when we are on a fixed income, it will go down again, but you get the point --

As for DU, it is now so large that we really cannot know all our members. I have no recollection of a certain person whose "brother" has set up a gofundme account and is spinning a sad tale with lots of exclamation marks. I said I would say a prayer ("Please send good vibes&quot and I have. I do have very clear recollections of at least two rather unstable DUers who took others for a lengthy roller coaster ride and then (metaphorically) spit in their eye after actual personal contact, in one case threatening legal action.

I don't think you're being mean-spirited at all. Just cautious.

[LeftInTX]

8. I have a funny story about the DNC

They called me in the summer of 2014 regarding mid-term elections. They called me from Los Angeles and I am in San Antonio. I'm Armenian (my married name isn't) and I hear the guys name. He's giving me the talk and I interrupt him with, "Can you repeat your name?". He tells me his name. (There aren't many of us in the world. Duplicate names are very rare) I said, "I think I know you". Actually, I knew him well. So, we talked for about 20 minutes, catching up on things. I figured that this coincidence was some "cosmic sign" that I should donate to the DNC. Not only did I donate, I allowed them to take $35/month.

My husband was pizzed that I allowed them a monthly donation. He didn't think it would be easy for me to "cancel at anytime". Despite my monthly donation, the senate was lost.

After the election, I called and cancelled.

I had never done anything like that in my life. I usually slam the phone on telemarketers and feel that all of them are scammers. On this particular call, the caller ID indicated DNC, so I decided to take the call.

[greytdemocrat]

5. Caution is key

Thanks for the link MineralMan.

[madinmaryland]

6. What got me about that donation request, is that I do live in Dayton, and

I was curious who this guy was. If it was real I would have seen it in the local news on Sunday or Monday. Not much else to report about here. I then googled and only found a person in Rochester NY who had died in an auto accident about six months ago. Just seemed odd. I have never donated to one of these things. Had I not seen the Dayton reference, I probably would have just not bothered reading any further.