For those of you out of the loop, tumblr.com is a social media blogging site that has a healthy community of millennials meandering around pouring their souls and secrets out to the world. It's like a little bit of reddit, a little bit of Facebook, and a whole lot of old school Xzanga. It's fun. Anyway, a new thing I've been seeing rolling around the tumblrsphere is bloggers begging for PayPal donations. People posting long, exhaustive stories and then asking for money via PayPal or GoFundMe.
Now, I'm a charitable person, however, I don’t think you should be donating to these tumblr blogs. Ever. It doesn't take having a background in either advertising or psychology to see that these posts usually hit all the emotional and manipulative bullet points that a well crafted scamming email/tv ad/pop up would hit as well. Often, the posts include vague but severe handicaps that are often lethal (seriosuly) or at the very least extremely crippling without a steady influx of money (from you). More so, the posts often include vague yet exhaustive reasons as to why they have zero money as of now, why they aren’t on disability, why they have no one else helping them, etc. Basically, trying to hit all the “Well, why don’t you…” Before someone else brings it up.
You see, Tumblr is a culture where a person who doesn’t accept someone’s disability straight away (even if it’s defined vaguely to the point where no medical terms or diagnostic proof is used) they are chastised for ableism, a fear these posters are aware of and taking advantage of. But the reality is that on the Internet, you can say whatever you want. A person can be whoever they want. You’re hiding all the time on the Internet. That’s a good thing sometimes, but also a dangerous thing in this case.
The reality is that no matter how much you want to believe that person, you have no idea who’s behind that screen unless you actually know them. I saw a scam today with a link to “proof” of a person’s medical records and when I followed the link the medical “records” we’re literally just word docs that had basic formatting and basic fonts. They didn’t look anything like medical documents at all, not even watermarked, and were clearly self made. The language used as well was extremely amateur and not professional i.e. "doctor like" at all. Anyone who has ever been to a doctor would have recognized it as fraud immediately. However, he had a good story, and most people don’t click on external links anyway (he refrained from just including pics of his records right in his donation post, conveniently).
What I’m trying to say is that I have yet to come across a donation post that I haven’t found some kind of hole in. Whether it’s clearly doctored med records, shady info attached to Paypal accounts, or tumblr blogs that were obviously only made to push that post, I have found none that aren’t littered with red scam flags.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t help people, in fact, if you feel that you have excess money and time and want to use it to help others you absolutely should. In fact, even if you don’t want to you should help people anyway, because it’s an awesome and decent thing to do if you’re living with privilege. But please be smart and careful. You cannot insure that these people who post these PayPal donation posts are legit. In fact, an hour or two of basic internet sleuthing can typically reveal some very shady details, so do your homework. Most of these scammers are smart but not smart enough to erase an Internet presence. A lot of these posts are actually just able bodied scammers masquerading as extremely disabled people to get quick, easy money by manipulating a typically young, empathetic community.
The reality is that the best way to help is to pour your money and time into your local community. Find local homeless shelters and start there, donating and helping with their day to day upkeep. If you want to help the disabled, find volunteer clinics and volunteer and donate to them. Volunteer your time and donate your money to local organizations that need it desperately. The more we all pour into our local communities, the less people who are struggling in our communities will need to beg for help on tumblr.com. If you really are moved by one of these donation poster’s stories, rather than just blindly sending them money on PayPal, message them directly and ask if you can sponsor them through an organization near them, like a homeless shelter, a disabled resource center, a hospital, or even a church.
Just be smart and be careful. Don’t be manipulated into handing over your money to someone who is scamming when millions are genuinely in need. I see far too many people spreading these sketchy donation posts with sincere empathy and I wish we all took the time to do our homework because that empathy should be going to people who deserve it. So instead, go out and help, please, but do it on the local level. Change begins with you, in your community. If we all do that, it will become a global effort and PayPal donation posts will become obsolete.
