Really hard to tell if the giveaway is legit or not. I'm not sure either. That's why I haven't given merit yet. In november last year there was a $25 giveaway from a new user and the win was paid out,
see here. So all we can really do is wait and see what will happen.
As with most things, time will tell. Unless there is compelling evidence there is not much that can be said but the OP has made a case that presents suspicions and I thank him for his efforts.
I found it odd especially as the number of forum members jumped on to participate without asking any questions.
Asking questions (such as "escrow?") only discourages Newbies. I've seen genuine giveaways, and I've seen fakes. If it's real, it deserves Merit because it's worth reading. The fact that it only earned 1 Merit already shows people have their doubts. If it's fake, we'll see soon enough and nothing is lost.
I never mentioned merits, the first to mention merits was the OP followed by DaveF.
Though not mandatory, if the OP of the giveaway thread had mentioned using escrow as an option himself without being prompted then maybe that would have given more credibility. If he already used a respected escrow then started the giveaway thread then this thread would not have been created.
As for questions, something such as these should have been asked:
"what do you do on the other forums you mentioned"
"how much have you given away on other forums"
"Why are you giving away money on other forums and now here"
as well as the all-important question "how do you in intend to pick a winner and why did you not announce the method of selecting the winner in the OP"
In regards to the @Rbah account, while the writing style and giveaway topic discussed are similar to the previous account, I believe that the evidence is still not conclusive enough. However, the coincidence of matching registration and last activity dates with ArabianFella should not be ignored.
Yes you are right it is not conclusive but 24th January is not far away. Even if $25 is given away in that thread there needs a tamper proof and transparent method of selecting the winner.
Of course, these are not direct accusations, as circumstantial evidence is presented, just some thoughts for reflection. In addition, Rbah has written very few posts in order to conduct a full-fledged posting analytics, but the account is extremely suspicious and already has several similarities with the previous organizer of such a lottery.
You did nothing wrong by creating this thread. To a degree we can negate the problems created by lack of information in that giveaway thread because the creator is a newbie but to not make it clear in the OP how a winner will be selected is not good. What is worse is that most members lined up to participate without even asking for clarity and many of them were here a long time.
For those that do not know, I am running a free lottery and you can enter there if you are interested:
JollyGood Free Lottery #1: FURY vs USYKI have added $25 to the prize and Ratimov has kindly donated $25 to the prize therefore $50 will be given to the winner. There is 1 in 58 chance to win. You can select a free slot/number or ask for one to be given at random.
FREE SLOTS ALLOCATED: 20
FREE SLOTS AVAILABLE: 38Welcome to 2023