One of the newest online rages is “cyber begging” or “cyberbegging” (or heck, even “cyber-begging”, for those who are sticklers for proper hyphenation). Whatever you call it, it boils down to cyber panhandling – Internet begging. The way it works is that, instead of standing on a street corner, down and out people do their panhandling online, through a site such as CyberBeg.com. Unfortunately, for those who really are in need, Internet panhandling is more likely to lead them to lose what little they have, and to be scammed for their trouble.
“Help Me So I Can Help My Mom…” reads one cyber beg. The cyber panhandler goes on to say that “One week ago my Mom (72 years old) lost one of her legs to diabetes. All of our savings have been taken by hospital bills and treatments to try and save the leg before the amputation.”
Now, this may or may not be true. It’s a good story. But, a peek under the hood at CyberBeg.org reveals that this poster, like all CyberBeg members, had to first pay $20.00 for a six-month membership. $20.00 may not seem like a lot to you, but to someone who truly is in desparate need of funds, it may mean the difference between their next meal, their next medicine, or a roof over their head for the night.
That $20.00 is paid via a Paypal automatically recurring subscription, which means that six months later, when a truly desparate person may have given up on cyber begging and forgotten all about the subscription, they will get hit for another $20.00.
Then there’s the fact that every new post that’s made bumps the previous posts down a notch, and eventually on to a page buried behind the home page, so who is going to even see the plea for help?
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But!.. you can pay extra to have your cyber beg listing moved back up to the top of the first page – $3.00 each time.
But this isn’t really even the tip of the iceberg.
The real issue starts with the fact that in order to donate to any one of these people, you simply click on their Paypal link in their beg listing which, far more often than not, reveals their email address.
Which means, obviously, that their email addresses are ripe for harvesting, and being spammed and scammed.
(It is possible to change your Paypal settings so that your name is shown instead of your email address, but the vast majority of people don’t do that – or even know how to do it.)
More to the point, however, their stories of why they are so desperate are there for all to see – including the scammers, who now can custom tailor a scam guaranteed to pull on the heartstrings and strike home for any one of these desparate cyber beggers.
Is your minor son wrongfully charged with homicide?
A scammer would easily cherry-pick this family by sending an email offering to get him off scot-free for just $500.00 (up front, of course).
Need help evicting your ex? A scammer will send them a note offering to teach them how to evict their ex on their own for just $25.00.
Every single one of these cyber-beggers are perfect targets, like a gift to the scammers all wrapped up with a bow, complete with sob story, request for help, and an email address – which also happens to be their Paypal address – ideal for identity theft.
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
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Psh… what a rip off. CyberBeg took my money and I didn’t get a single donation! Don’t waste your money!!