The root cause of the problem is that parents and children need to raise funds for cancer treatment in the first place.
Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
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Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#42A simple way to solve this would be to have some kind of gov certification process.
Which could also include a QR code going to a gov website with details why this org was given the certification.
This isn't perfect but would certainly lower such incidents.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always donate to the random homeless people stopping me on the street. Doesn't really matter to me what they do with it, whatever keeps them warm.
Unfortunately in Europe these can also be scams, there are some people who will dress up homeless but are actually just begging for profit. They're easy to recognize, because they're very forceful in their begging, relying more on intimidation than compassion. There really is no level people won't sink to for some money.
The trick is donate at the park where they camp out, not on the street.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#44I have reported these ads to YouTube multiple times, because I tracked down their scam websites, but YouTube didn't delete them anyway. Common pattern they had was: - similar or same domains - same messaging on their website YouTube could have taken action, but it choose not to
They also had a pattern of loudly crying kids in the beginning of the video, I thought they were faking, after a month they changed the style of start.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#45I am not religious. But if there is hell…
There is not in the religion of the alleged key player in the scam.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
The guy was begging in a McDonald's...
Because fast food restaurants get a lot of foot traffic and they’re less likely to be aggressively thrown out. Another popular place to beg are subway stations, but that doesn’t mean they need a ticket. Did anyone ask what the money was for? Did anyone offer to buy whatever it was they needed, even if a meal at a better place? Or was the interaction to simply offer fries (probably the least filling, cheapest, far fro…
> Because fast food restaurants get a lot of foot traffic
Which isn't their strategy because the beggar spent probably 2 minutes in the restaurant.
It's not rare to see a beggar ask for money to "get food", get offered food and then decline.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#47I have reported these ads to YouTube multiple times, because I tracked down their scam websites, but YouTube didn't delete them anyway. Common pattern they had was: - similar or same domains - same messaging on their website YouTube could have taken action, but it choose not to
There was a period when I was constantly showered with these ads whenever I visited YouTube. It quickly became clear that it was some kind of scam, but YouTube didn't do anything about it for years.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#48Great journalism. I hope the authorities bring this person to justice and arrest them for fraud. I saw this ad a few months ago on YouTube and flagged it as a scam when I couldn’t find much information about the company. Never donate money through random sites. If you use platforms like https://www.gofundme.com/ , at least you have the option to file a complaint if you find something suspicious.
> I hope the authorities bring this person to justice and arrest them for fraud.
They haven’t scammed nor inconvenienced a rich, well-connected person, so unlikely anything will happen. Remember that online fraud is effectively legal (10% of Meta’s revenue is from scam ads by their own estimates) as long as you only target the poor.
These scam campaigns have been going for years with people operating in the field across many countries - if there was an incentive to stop this it would’ve been done already, but since everyone’s making money why bother?
> file a complaint if you find something suspicious
Which will be piped to /dev/null, just like reporting scams on social media.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least not when some rando stops you on the street.
I always donate to the random homeless people stopping me on the street. Doesn't really matter to me what they do with it, whatever keeps them warm.
In some American cities I’ve noticed a lot of seemingly homeless women with kids standing on street corners, that are actually Romanian scammers (“gypsies”). People have caught them drugging their babies to make them compliant with sitting under the hot sun all day. And at the end of the day they climb into a Benz because they aren’t actually in need. It really sucks for the people who are truly in need.
Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always donate to the random homeless people stopping me on the street. Doesn't really matter to me what they do with it, whatever keeps them warm.
I think parent commenter was talking about random people "working"[1] for charities and stopping you on the street. If one wanted to donate, why would they do it through a stranger on the street and not directly to their website? However, if you give a homeless person money and they go buy drugs, I think you effectively made them poorer. I would advise giving them food instead.[2] [1]: Word in quotes because there is…
Let them buy what they need I think. They dont have the ability to stop being addicted in 60 seconds because logic. If that were possible we could collapse the entire weight loss industry, gambling, need for AA and NA meetings, entire narco infrastructure at the click of a finger.