Virtual Panhandling

I'd say that unless you know the person in real life...your farther ahead to donate to a regualar organization. Ppl need to remember that anyone can be anyone online. I can be a poor chinese woman with 12 kids and no home...it doesn't mean that I really am. There are alot of ppl in the world with a caring heart and they want to help those that need the help and sometimes ppl will purposely look for, as their called, suckers to play up a scam just to get money or gifts out of them. If someone asks me for help b/c their having financial problems, I tell them to contact their local churches...they are more able to help those that really need it. [b]MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! ~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG AND TRUST IN GOD**[/b]

Yea I saw that on Craiglist a lot too! They say they are "poor" and looking for "donations", but really they're just looking out for hand-outs. For some reason (I don't think it is related to craigslist as I've never donated anything like that) my friend and I got e-mails that someone sent to our paypal addresses. You know, on Paypal, you can send a "request" for money from another person. We didn't recognize the person's name & he was requesting 40 USD from each of it. I thought it might be a "scam" email (as those are popular sometimes) but we looked in our PayPal accounts & the request was "logged" in there. I thought that was pretty bad! Pablo

Virtual panhandling has been going on for a long time. It gained coverage after a woman asked for donations so she could pay off her credit card debts(!). She received more than what was needed. The copycats started appearing not long after that. The technique used in the real and virtual worlds is the same. I have 12 children, 11 healthy and 1 mentally challenged. Three are pursuing higher education (degree, diploma, matriculation), three in secondary school, three in primary school, and one will be 2 years old in March. Only the eldest is working. I am now doing freelance work because I have to look after the mentally challenged son who will be 25 soon. Panhandling to ease my burden? I believe if I can still do some work I will never beg for money, even when at times we had almost nothing to eat. But there are kind people who helped us without being asked. There are other official avenues which can be approached. So far people have given my family two laptops, two digital cameras, and three PCs (with peripherals). As for panhandlers I would donate if I have some spare money and I have done so in the past. If they are insincere or just plain lazy to do some hard work then let them live with their conscience.

I haven't run across that one yet but I would definitely be the wrong person to ask for a handout. Not because I don't sympathize with those who are up against hard times but I think most of us are feeling the pinch. I don't have two coins to rub together most of the time so I could not help even if I wanted to. I just can't understand how people can ask for money from total strangers. I would be ashamed to try it.