Topic: [CLOSED] NSW Bush fire Appeal Donations (Read 2515 times)

As an active bitcointalk poster, day trader at both btc-e and mcxnow, and co-owner of cryptothrift.com I can vouch for the sincerity of this donation appeal.  I live in Sydney too and found my apartment covered in soot and debris from the fires in the surrounding areas.  One of my close friends is firefighter and has spent the last week stationed in the Blue Mountains working 24x7. 

When Duetschpire came up with the idea of a collection in bitcoins, I thought it was excellent and hoped that we could use our circle of "friends" in the community to raise some money.  It worked, and we raised a little, as you can see from the screenshots.  It's a shame that people in the bitcoin community have such little faith, and I'm utterly disappointed to have had to close the appeal so soon due to the negative comments here.  At least we raised something for them.

If any btc-e / mcxnow regulars that know Duetshpire and myself (paulscreen on both exchanges) or anyone else would still like to contribute, please PM us and we will let you know the best way to do this directly to the local council, fire service, or red cross site.

Many thanks for those who donated.

Paul

True! I read the news yesterday and all the sites were talking about a victims appeal as seen here. So I did the best I could to find the actual appeal and when I though I found (due to the lack of knowledge in country NSW), I posted the link. In the original post, all donations were meant to go to the red cross as I knew they were collecting donations, but after speaking with someone from BitcoinSyd they advised me that donations are better of sent to the local council instead, hence the search for the council appeal started.
I think my biggest mistake was jumping the gun and posting the actual donation address after changing the donations destination from the Red Cross to the local council.
Because of such, I will be suspending the appeal and all donations will be sent to the Salvation Army's appeal (check Bitcoin address and below screen shots)

the OP's original thread was not about sydney it was about another county a couple hundred miles away, that had no disaster.. but as soon as we highlighted the flaw to his story, he re googled some info and edited it all to now say blue mountain council. as admitted here:

What do you mean no current disaster news?

with past history of fraud and scams. and especially with bitcoins being irriversable, doing some due diligence and learning about the people we hand money to should be something everyone does.

bitcoin is not like a credit card, where you can easily just hand out money and then if something went wrong, simply asking for a refund or a chargeback.

bitcoin is new and should be treated as such, with people realising its fully in their control and fully owned and backed by them. so it is not scammer until proven innocent, but investigated until trusted.

i have an open mind and things like seans outpost and many other things that i have invested in or donated to based purely on the merits of what was posted. i do not have a scammer first, investigate to remove scammer tag second mindset.

all i know is that i seen a story, that had an article that was 10 months out of date linked, referencing a county that had no current disaster news, and then on reproach the OP suggested another county to which he personally was not accustomed to or knew very much info. this raised flags for me, as it did others.

please remember that bitcoin is not like FIAT which gets printed aimlessly, there is a finite amount and the costs both equipment and electrically, make bitcoin a sacred and scarse asset, which should not just be handed over simply by a cry for help on a forum.

the story needs to hold weight, be provocative and thought out. show detail to how the funds will be spent and the actual people it will support. seans outpost is an excellent example of this, which is why its had so much success.

also to add, i personally do not like donating to mainstream international charities because through my own volunteer work i have done and charities i have spoken to, i have came to see how sometimes these funds never reach the intended 'victims' i prefer seeing direct donations to the frontline of disaster area's/those in need. and as an example anyone from the UK who is reading this and thinking about UK foodbank donations. don't donate to the HQ website of Trussel Trust they are a franchise organiser for the local town charities. thus penny pinching weasels. instead donate directly to the foodbank in the actual town you live in.

I think this is an awesome idea! I'm sure we can arrange to pick up cans of food and supplies as well as blankets if that what's needed. I was listening to fitzy and wippa this morning on my way to work and they urging people to "come forward and pick up what's been donated and stop being so proud as donation centres are full and are not accepting donations until the current ones have been picked up".

Thanks for the supportive comment. And yes, I am in Sydney, Liverpool area to be more specific. Our problem in this community is that everybody is guilty/scammer until proven otherwise.. But I hope this won't effect the ultimate goal which is to help those in need through this OP or others that might come along.

Apparently not. I certainly hope this isn't a scam.

I strongly believe that the OP does live in Australia, namely Sydney.

giving out a donation adress before even researching the charity or cause or what actual benefit it will give is worse then burning bank notes on a BBQ

we all know bitcoin is more precious then a bank note so if your the kind of person that would never burn $200 of FIAT, dont donate until your sure of the facts..

i did start suggesting before that there were flaws in the OP's scheme. and even now he does not even know what county actually needs help, he is simply google searching a disaster, mentioning it and then hoping we pay into the address.

he doesnt seem to have passion for donating, else he would know enough details up front about the topic to not have made so many flaws.

and if you do provifde proof of donating. lets not see a glamorised screen shot which basically shows this

---

+
Red cross

please fill in the form below
amount : [$200]
bank details : [xx-xx-xx xxxxxxxx]

thank you for your kind donation

---

what would be better is photo's of you carrying blankets or food or water or anything the people need to the evacuation centres with a name or bitcoin logo in view to prove it aint a google image or photoshopped screenshot..

bitcoins are worth more then FIAT so dont assume donations are given out easier then FIAT simply because the payments are faster. we do scrutinise these schemes..

I'm beyond arguing with you at this point... When you have your evidence that I'm scamming people, please update your post. Otherwise, wait for my proof of donating and you can apologise then

True, donate directly. Nobody's holding anyone by the throat. Regardless how much the campaign will raise, I'll be donating to the Blue Mountains Council. And if I find that somebody else is running a campaign with more success, I'll gladly send the coins across and forward all donations to their address.

Instead of being a grammar Nazi, why don't you launch your own campaign? I promise to send traffic and donations (current and future ones) across

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nsw+mayor

I'm sorry you feel like that, and I don't blame you with all the scams which have been encountered lately. It's becoming rather impossible for people to trust each other regardless what facts you bring to them.

Donate directly? Hell yeah! I support this 100% and I did send some items across to my friend in Penrith who's collecting clothes and other stuff to be donated to people she knows.

I'm not Australian, well, I'm not hiding any of my details, a 2 sec google search of my username call tell a lot.

I'm a member of BitcoinSyd and I've been in talk with few people here who have suggested that I share the private key with a higher authority to be on the safe side. I'm also in talk with other "high authority" Bitcoin organisations in Australia (they prefer not to be mentioned yet) to sponsor the campaign and take care of issuing a cheque.

Again, I'm sorry you feel this way, but calling me and the campaign a scam with no evidence what-so-ever is fairly inappropriate

I live an hour and a half drive from the fires, less bushes and more buildings, so we're lucky the fires aren't close


At this moment no, they're not aware as we're taking steps to confirm whether the funds will be sent in Bitcion or actual fiat. Since after speaking with few contact in Australia they advised that raising FIAT donations can be a bit tricky tax wise and we're looking into an alternative now.


No, i wish we do, but if you have any suggestions/recommendations or know of any local charities that can assure us the funds will be released directly to effected victims, I'm all ears and would appreciate your help


That true, and my reply would be the same as above.

You're right! I do apologise for the mistake, I've read on multiple sites that the NSW mayor has flagged appeal for fire victims. When I searched Google for donation to the fire victims (account number and details), the only link I found was the above link. I missed the date, and I'm not very familiar with country NSW so the name wouldn't have rang a bell. I have removed the URL and will be updating with the correct information once found since all I can find is the Salvation Army and the Red Cross donations. But as you mentioned, most of these donations end up going to pay office staff and for office stationary, so would rather donate directly to the councils or local charities...

Thanks for the heads up though

i take it you don't live in the area.

i take it the red cross / "Warrumbungle Shire Mayor's Bushfire Appeal" don't officially know they are receiving funds as this would be better to have them showing the BTC address

i take it you have no control that the funds once entering red cross / WSMBA (if they even get to them) do or dont help fire victims and not used to supply red cross HQ with more pens and executive leather chairs.

that being said, im all for helping those in need.. but the FIAT system has for decades been feeding charities where the funds never reach the front line. we need to go one step further and ensure our hard earned bitcoins get to the actual desired end users in need.

but thanks for the link showing Warrumbungle county website dated january and the website showing current incidents, very informative of the actual area's hundreds of miles from Warrumbungle that have current actual fires, that need support

I've been listening to radio ads and two of the major banks have been advertising that all their insurance levels cover bush fires. But I'm not I intirely sure if that goes across all insurance companies/levels of cover.
I'd say if I live in an area which has risk of bush fires, I'd want to make sure that my insurance level covers that. In saying so, not all insurances will cover contents and other losses which may occurs during the fire, and not all people are insured. Hence is the appeal

Thanks for your kind words, I hope this campaign will reach some people with influence in the Bitcoin community so we can raise a generous amount.

NSW Fires Appeal and Donations

UPDATE

I would like to thank every single person who has donated or even thought about it. The appeal has been closed due to unfortunate reasons including but not limited to the lack or research on my behalf.
I do apologize if this caused any stress to any one or put doubts in any body's mind. This appeal was launched from the bottom of my heart to help those in need, but unfortunately it had to come to an end rather quickly.

All fund collected (~$310 AUD) over 24 hours were sent to the Salvation Army's appeal and the proof is below.

(Blockchain Address and below screen shots)

Salvation Army receipt:




coinjar.io Order:


A payment of 0.015 was received after the funds were converted, this will be send to the sender with my utmost appreciation.

Thanks again, and may those in need get all the help you need!

---

The hot season has just started in Australia, yet the effect of the heat and the very little rain that fell this winter has already taken its toll on NSW bush land areas with firefighters fighting the worst fires in over 50 years to it the Blue Mountains and New Castle area.



With over 56 fire burning across New South Wales and 12 being out of control, and despite the courageous efforts from our firefighters, the fire still managed to claim one life and destroy over 200 homes,  kill thousands of animals and burn through 40,000 hectares of bushland in the Blue Mountains and Lithgow area alone.



As the fire ban continues, a state emergency service has been declared as the conditions are expected to worsen over the next 24 hours due to high temperature and winds of +50km/h are expected to hit.



As a Bitcoin community members, we urge every one who can help in any way to send whatever help they can to the victims via the Red Cross,  or donate to the Bitcoin address below to help us raise as much funds as possible to be donated to the Blue Mountains council (details to be added soon) under the Name of BitCoin Sydney and BitCoin Foundation. The Bitcoins raised will be converted using coinjar.io and sent directly to the Bushfire Appeal via a direct transfer or a bank cheque depending on the level of funding.

For more information about the current state of the fires, please visit the NSW Rural Fire Service website


If you know any fire victims who need donations or you know of any other organizations who are collecting clothes, material and equipment, please drop us a line and we'll add their details here for direct donations.

For more images, check news.com.au

In case of emergency, please call (000).

You can track the received funds via the blockchain on blockchain.info

Edit: We apologise we had the wrong link for the donations, we will be updating the URL as the mayor launches his official appeal page.

Thanks for all your support

The cryptothrift Team