#dont fake gfms

[ak1w1i]

HELP THE MORTAJA FAMILY EVACUATE!

VETTED: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1yYkNp5U3ANwILl2MknJi9G7ArY4uVTEEQ1CVfzR8Ioo/htmlview?usp=gmail&pli=1

[wild-at-mind]

I used to have an idea that I could get an investigative podcast to look into the scam gofundmes and find out where they are all coming from, so that it could finally break the spell they have on tumblr's userbase and increase scam literacy. We all agree that money should be going to fundraisers with a high chance that the money will be sent by the trusted organiser to a person in Gaza. Right? So sifting out scams is a really good idea as it will increase donations to the legit ones. Right??

But recently I realised it wouldn't fucking work. They would just say it was a huge conspiracy. Look at what happened with the Russian bots. No one has ever heard from the 'activists' who were removed before or since...if you know anything about tumblr you know that when real people get removed for an unjust reason, they come right back with a new username, especially if they feel they have something important to say. But that never happened with these 'activists ' (in quotes because the blogs they ran weren't really about activism, it was social justice shitposting of the kind very popular on tumblr c2015). And despite that, plus the fact that actual investigative journalism work was done to identify them, a good portion of tumblr still thinks it was a huge injustice, a conspiracy to silence powerful and necessary activism work.

So I think that idea is a lost cause. I'm just going to keep telling people to look at the organiser and beneficiary section till I'm blue in the face.

[fussypaws]

Hey so. There's an ask I got from a Gazan looking for funds for their GFM, like I have been getting lately, but under the organizer's name it says "Pompano Beach, FL"... is that a red flag? The GFM is only three days old, and the blog that sent me the ask is only a few hours old... Should I be skeptical? I don't want to assume they're lying...

[fluttershyes]

Oh no now the bot accounts are raiding your ask box T_T

(the ones asking for money like c’mon bruh)

fuck off. if any of the gfms ive linked to are fake then lmk immediately w proof and ill take it down, but if ur just complaining you have to look at so many palestinians asking for donations than i hope you realize that 1 im doing that on purpose, right now my blog is getting a lot of traction for a couple different posts and that means a lot of eyes are on my page and 2 that also means that more palestinians who signed up to tumblr to try and crowdfund probably found my page for that reason. right now i feel like the least i can do is answer their asks and share their links but its going to fucking seem like spam if you dont take a second and think about just how many people there are in palestine being brutally martyred disabled poisoned raped and abused just for the crime of being palestinian. i really could care less if you find it annoying because maybe people who just followed me but dont know me can just block me rq or whatever…

[danlous]

please vet the gfm posts you post or reblog yourself and not blindly trust others, for every real one there are five fakes,, please dont give them a platform https://www.tumblr.com/pyrrhiccomedy/757724127189729280/i-am-amira-the-breadwinner-for-my-family-after-my

I do my best trying to verify that fundraisers are legit before i reblog/post anything but i'm not a best person to do that especially when i know only a little arabic and it's MSA and not palestinian dialect. I get on average 15-20 asks a day about boosting fundraisers and i don't post most of them even if they appear to be likely legit because i want to be sure. I don't trust others blindly but i've known and followed many of the people who're verifying fundraisers for several years and i don't have a reason not to trust them. Like the post you linked is complaining about how they don't know who these people vetting are why should we trust them, but they're well-known palestinian users who people generally consider trustworthy.

Aside from that post casually accusing palestinian users trying to help their people of running some massive scam which is frankly really offensive and pretty racist, I don't find the post very convincing in general. Criticizing the writing style of people asking for help is pretty stupid, these people aren't native english speakers and some of them don't really speak english at all, they're trying to express themselves the best they can, probably relying on google translate and other people's help. And of course the try to look and follow the example of what other askers have written in their messages, it doesn't mean it has to be the same person. Op clearly hasn't bothered to look into palestinian users' blogs any closer because even if some of them use the same formats in messages in most cases their actual writing styles/english skill levels etc. are clearly different. Using stock photos/news photos doesn't really mean anything either, they're easier to get access to not only for scammers but for real displaced palestinians. And their blogs often get deleted because people like op are constantly reporting them. And unlike op says iirc Amira actually has social media presence that includes more information like her university. Mohammed has been active on tumblr for months and i've talked with him too, if he's a scammer he's an extremely dedicated one.

I do hope that people notify me if i accidentally reblog a scam post, but i hope that there's more solid proof that it's fake. And i definitely don't buy that palestinian users doing vetting are participating in scams. The op of that post seems to have something specifically against palestinian users and i find op to be untrustworthy. Here's one reblog of the post that puts it much more succinctly than i can

[shidoutsukiomi]

Hi! saw your post about the donations asks - I received the same and I've been ambivalent about them as well - but two things I wanted to point out while reading your post: i feel like its not wild to imagine that people who are desperate for help, whose situation is an absolute emergency and for whom english isnt their first language, to copy paste or at least look at messages written by other people in their situation and write basically the same thing. And the second thing is if this kind of campaign is working, it would make sense to "invest" in this kind of bot to widen the reach instead of just donating the money for the bot directly (i think, i guess i dont know how much creating this kind of bot would cost). obviously not accusing you of anything, I just read your post and I recognized two points I've thought about too! I have no idea if these are real and i wouldnt even really know where to start trying to check fact them sadly

Under a read more cos brevity isn't my strong suit

On point one, I agree and also that vetters have said they handle multiple cases and write the posts for them, which explains why they're largely the same/similar cos copy/paste forms are easier than hand-crafted messages each time. but a fundraiser saying they're vetted also isn't really enough for me when I've seen these accounts say they're number ### on a sheet, you look at the sheet, and a different name/fundraiser is there. Like entirely different. Or link to fake spreadsheets, or have stolen names/stories from other, legitimate donation pages with different gfm links, etc. But the tl;dr of that is I don't find the same message suspect in its own right, just inconjunction with everything else, too.

On point two, I do agree that investing in bots for this is fine contextually?? It makes sense for reach reasons, but they often cost anywhere from tens to hundreds to employ and the sheer scale means it has to be kind of expensive? Unless they're using free scripts. That aside, with all of them saying 'even $5 goes a long way!' I just can't help but feel the money would be better spent going into the pockets of those who need it, rather than on bots, anyway. If every little helps then surely every little helps. It feels like it can't be a both-ways thing (Plus, some vetters actually add to their lists a warning when someone uses bots/spam, implying it's on the individual/someone close to them for that to happen, not the vetters. So... using the money donated to you for bots doesn't seem smart, either. But I guess the point about reach still stands).

Then, if these big vetters have spreadsheets full of these (complete with links to donation pages) I don't see why they need the bots in the first place when, like, the spreadsheets can be posted around en masse. These people don't need individual accounts when you can just go and see a spreadsheet full of them, pick a few, donate if you can/want to. There's no need to have an individual account for all of them to then bot-send tonnes of messages, DMs, replies, reblogs, posts, a day which will cost money on this scale if not in paying for the bots then server space or... whatever to run it, like, IDK, I just think surely that money has a better use...? One that's right in front of the botter if it's truly not a scam. On the vetters' account they can post the stories, links, etc that they've already made for these individual accounts for people to reblog from the vetters' account. You know what I mean??

I'm not even really sure how to advise people to look into messages and fundraisers they receive better, it's just that like... I think people should look into them better, don't immediately post, reblog, or give money just cos someone asks you to. Like actually look into it. Likesaid I don't need to look into them cos I simply cannot donate anyway, but the handful of times I have looked into it, maybe eight out of ten times there's been something highly suspicious about it (mismatched name on account w/ gfm, 'gfm' link that goes straight to a paypal, 'I've been vetted' with no indication of who, mismatch name with spreadsheet number, stolen images/stories/whatever from other gfm, etc).

[I feel this thread is a good crash course, though].

I think to be clear I am not in the camp of 'all of these' or even 'most of these' are scams, but I think there are a good few that are scams and money going to scammers helps no one but the scammer feel more incentivised to do it again. So you should be careful about it, as much as possible.

[gaysamurai]

i saw that fundraiser where one of the photos on the gfm page is from a 2015 article again on a list of fundraisers but i dont know what to do with this information.. because i guess there could be a scenario where someone legitimate just looked up some photo of the destruction to use on their page even if it's kinda far-fetched but i dont want to falsely accuse someone in such a dire situation... but if it's fake i also dont want donations to go to a fake page instead of the people who need them. i also dont trust ppl enough to not take the suggestion that one of the fundraisers might not be legitimate as a way to claim they're all fake..

[ak1w1i]

Some humans disgust me. The fact I have to cross-check gfms to see if they're scammers is fucking foul. Why would anyone think faking to be victim of GENOCIDE is an okay way to get money??? I understand some people feel embarrassed asking for financial help, but pretending to be Palestinian to get money from people is gross and unforgivable.

For all the people who verify gfms, thank you, but the fact you even have to do that is just sad.

It infuriates me.

[ak1w1i]

Hello,

I hope you and your family are well and in good health😃.

I am writing to kindly ask for your support in reblogging my pinned post on my page❤🙏.

It details my struggle and the hardships we face in Gaza😥, especially the dire conditions we are enduring in the hospital where I work as a doctor😣💔.

Your assistance in spreading this message is crucial to raise awareness and garner support for our cause✌💚.

I sincerely appreciate your help and look forward to your continued support🥺❤🙏.

Thank you very much.

Dr.mohammed aldeeb from gaza

HELP DR.MOHAMMED ALDEEB EVACUATE!

[ak1w1i]

HELP THE ABU RAMADAN FAMILY EVACUATE!

VETTED: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1yYkNp5U3ANwILl2MknJi9G7ArY4uVTEEQ1CVfzR8Ioo/htmlview?usp=gmail&pli=1

[ak1w1i]

HELP IHAB'S FAMILY EVACUATE

VETTED: @nabulsi @sayruq @90-ghost @palestinecharitycommissionsassoc @palestinegenocide

[ak1w1i]

HELP MOHAMMED FAREED EVACUATE!

VETTED: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1yYkNp5U3ANwILl2MknJi9G7ArY4uVTEEQ1CVfzR8Ioo/htmlview?usp=gmail&pli=1

[ak1w1i]

HELP AHMED EVACUATE!

[ak1w1i]

Lovely supporter ,🌹

Thank you for your continuous support for the Palestinian cause until freedom is achieved🇵🇸 🕊♥️.

I hope you can help me spread my message to the whole world by reblogging my story🥹🙏🏻♥️.

It's vetted campaign 😁.

Best regards and love💚.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Deeb from Gaza-palestine.

HELP DR MOHAMMED EVACUATE!

VETTED: @90-ghost : the verification

[ak1w1i]

HELP YAZAN KHALAF EVACUATE!

VETTED: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1yYkNp5U3ANwILl2MknJi9G7ArY4uVTEEQ1CVfzR8Ioo/htmlview?usp=gmail&pli=1

[ak1w1i]

HELP YOUSEFF ABU SAEED EVACUATE!

VETTED: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1yYkNp5U3ANwILl2MknJi9G7ArY4uVTEEQ1CVfzR8Ioo/htmlview?usp=gmail&pli=1