Mithcoriel
Member
This curiosity is still nagging me. I gotta play a big devil's advocate here.
Basically the question is: when someone does a "24 hour blogtv charity drive" or whatever: how do we know it's not a scam?
Now, chill out peeps, I don't seriously think it is one. Dprjones etc. have my complete trust. But you know: we're supposed to be the sceptic community. We're supposed to question everything and get confirmation. I want to be better than a follower of VFX who just donates their money without double-checking. You have to admit: "These guys on youtube I like are collecting money and they really promise to give it to the charity" isn't a very impressive argument.
Also, I want to have a rebuttal to shut my parents up, who are saying: "Well, you can donate, but just be aware that it could be a scam. You don't know if the money will really go to Doctors Without Borders (or whatever)". Not that it matters what they think. They wouldn't stop me from donating, nor could they. But I'd really like to have a clear rebuttal.
So here are some issues, partly based on convos we had.
Now, I haven't done extensive research, I could easily have missed something, but maybe some of you have easy answers to them.
- What do I lose by simply donating to the charity directly?
- Can I see confirmation on the side of the charity, that the money really arrived? Like a note on their website, thanking the youtubers? In the most recent charity event, the head of MSF UK, Marc Dubois, was on the show. That's not bad for a proof. I googled his name and was able to confirm that he really works at MSF. But I didn't find his picture on the MSF website, so how do I know that really was him?
- I pointed out to my parents that the people involved in these blog events were tons of youtubers who had channels independent of each other. Surely they wouldn't all be in on the same hoax. But they pointed out that they didn't have to be. Suppose one guy was a con, the one who owned the account, the others could all have fallen for it.
- For most charity drives, people use the JustGiving website or something similar as a middle-man. They assure us that this website will ensure that the money goes directly to the charity and the person doing the charity drive can't touch the money. So....
How do we know that's true? How do we know the site is legit, and the money made really can't be pocketed by the host? (Or the JustGiving website itself). So I guess this is a separate question asking for the legitimacy of JustGiving.
Would be cool if people could help me with this.
Basically the question is: when someone does a "24 hour blogtv charity drive" or whatever: how do we know it's not a scam?
Now, chill out peeps, I don't seriously think it is one. Dprjones etc. have my complete trust. But you know: we're supposed to be the sceptic community. We're supposed to question everything and get confirmation. I want to be better than a follower of VFX who just donates their money without double-checking. You have to admit: "These guys on youtube I like are collecting money and they really promise to give it to the charity" isn't a very impressive argument.
Also, I want to have a rebuttal to shut my parents up, who are saying: "Well, you can donate, but just be aware that it could be a scam. You don't know if the money will really go to Doctors Without Borders (or whatever)". Not that it matters what they think. They wouldn't stop me from donating, nor could they. But I'd really like to have a clear rebuttal.
So here are some issues, partly based on convos we had.
Now, I haven't done extensive research, I could easily have missed something, but maybe some of you have easy answers to them.
- What do I lose by simply donating to the charity directly?
- Can I see confirmation on the side of the charity, that the money really arrived? Like a note on their website, thanking the youtubers? In the most recent charity event, the head of MSF UK, Marc Dubois, was on the show. That's not bad for a proof. I googled his name and was able to confirm that he really works at MSF. But I didn't find his picture on the MSF website, so how do I know that really was him?
- I pointed out to my parents that the people involved in these blog events were tons of youtubers who had channels independent of each other. Surely they wouldn't all be in on the same hoax. But they pointed out that they didn't have to be. Suppose one guy was a con, the one who owned the account, the others could all have fallen for it.
- For most charity drives, people use the JustGiving website or something similar as a middle-man. They assure us that this website will ensure that the money goes directly to the charity and the person doing the charity drive can't touch the money. So....
How do we know that's true? How do we know the site is legit, and the money made really can't be pocketed by the host? (Or the JustGiving website itself). So I guess this is a separate question asking for the legitimacy of JustGiving.
Would be cool if people could help me with this.
