Scammers pretending to be Palestinian v6
(Scammers pretending to be Palestinian v6)
This guide is meant to inform you on some ways to differentiate legitimate fundraisers from those created by scammers who have been impersonating Palestinians for several months now. While originally I tried to list the scam blogs in these posts, Im just making this now a general overall method to spot scams.
Disclaimer: This guide is not to say all Palestine based asks are from bots or a scammer. Rather, it is meant to explain the reasoning why something is legitimate or not. Do not use this guide as an excuse to claim every single Palestine fundraiser is a scam.
TL;DR: In the span of you saying someoneās bot, you could be using tumblr search instead of telling me your reporting every ask you get as a scam without looking at the account. Being listed as spam/bot on a list of vetted accounts does not automatically classify something as a scam either.
One of the first things to keep in mind is that most asks you get will come from accounts who check the notes of a post. Meaning they saw you and decided to send you the ask or DM to share their fundraising post. This is not bot behavior and often is done by those is unfortunate situations that desperately need funding and as a result is a common occurrence across the internet. If this bothers you, it is suggested to turn off your askbox or limit DMs to mutuals instead of the posting in the scam tag that every ask you get is from a scammer when itās a gfm account that has been vetted by a well known blog that may even be on a list of verified fundraisers if you bothered to look it up.
Secondly, while originally a non-gfm fundraiser may have been suspicious (such as PayPal or gogetfunding) it has since been decided and clarified that such fundraisers are now used when a gfm is shut down unexpectedly and the original creator informs the donors that they will need to resend it their support to a new fundraiser. If you do not see any mention of a previous gfm in a PayPal/gogetfunding post there is a possibility that searching parts of the post may show that the content is from someone else and the source may still be active with no mention of tumblr itself indicating the tumblr post is impersonating the real gfm.
Thirdly, due to language barriers legitimate accounts may use asks from other vetted fundraiser blogs with only minor edits. While this isnāt something Iād suggest doing, itās understandable the situation unfortunately relies on copying someone elseās words to ask for support. However, please donāt reuse the post content unless you were given permission or are related to the original fundraiser such as being a family member. Images may be borrowed from other accounts, though they may be stolen from offsite places. This is not full proof of a scam, as itās suggested to search around for proof of who originally posted the images. Please understand not everyone is natively an English speaker and Google translate isnāt always accurate. Some may reuse someone elseās posts unaware that itās suspicious behavior.
Fourthly, most scam accounts have reused a certain style of ask often mentioning needing insulin (Humalog) for a relative, having nose freezes due to asthma, being down to their last pen and asking for ānt muchā, or referring to their family being in the ruins of a church. The frequency of these asks is so common searching them in tumblr search should bring up plenty of posts. Additionally, the names used by these accounts generally appear across multiple blogs that have been seen running different kinds of scams later on. A majority of their posts are almost always stolen off a real fundraiser they donāt link to.
Fifthly, in regards to verification it is very easy to search a username and see who vetted an account. Scammers will often say theyāre verified but donāt list who or even paste a username that has never existed at all when you go to check. If asked about it, they generally will opt to block you without responding. There are people who will take time out of their day to ensure someoneās legitimate just be patient.
Lastly, donāt just assume every Palestinian gfm is a scam and stop acting like sharing a scam is fine because you donāt want to accidentally ignore someone in need. If you regularly see the posts from legitimate blogs and share them you would eventually be able to tell the day old private PayPal account asking for insulin funds is suspiciously asking for a low amount of funds compared to everyone else.
Please read this post for other info;
There's this really cool thing that a handful of diaspora Palestinians have committed a lot of time and effort to called vetting (maybe you'
If Iāve missed anything, please let me know.
