how do people fall for this?
I figured this guy would be a scammer, got a PM from him earlier asking for donations. Any new user that solicits donations for charity via PM is probably always scamming.
This is the most disgusting type of scam, makes me sick thinking about it.
People always want to believe in the good, hard to blame them for that.. He PM'd us too, here's how we went about it..
"It is very unfortunate for legitimate charities that there is so much charity related scam already on the forums.
You and your cause both sound legit to us, but unfortunately so did others that were later proven to be scams. This would be much easier if you were a well respected Hero Member with high trust ratings, but that, at least for now, doesn't seem to be the case. The best we can do is this- If a reputable member of the forum with positive trust score vouches for you, or if a few reputable members or companies we know donate to your charity, we will gladly follow suit."
We suggest taking a similar approach before donating. Also, we feel something needs to be done to bring about a standard process through which charities could be legitimised and vouched for by trusted members. It would go a long way for the community if we could redirect the coin towards real causes that otherwise might've gone to scammers (and the most despicable ones at that).
I think the time has come for BitcoinTalk to have a Charities section with one subsection entitled Charity Announcements, of which no bitcoin wallet address is submitted and is used solely as a vetting process. Not until the NPO passes muster by its peers, read us, fellow bitcoiners, does it get moved to the Charities section only by a mod/admin, upon only then a bitcoin wallet address can be added to the thread. This act should clean up the rest of this forum at least in this regard.
We can start by adding the following venerable causes to the hopefully new section:
Bitcoin 100
Sean's Outpost
My mega thread that feeds people
Dab's two main causes, based in the Philippines
Apologies for not adding any other ongoing noble causes above.
Somebody quote this post and start a thread in Meta for theymos' attention if you feel such course of action is warranted. PM me if such occurs.
Thanks, in advance.
~Bruno Kucinskas
