Mutual aid spam is becoming a problem on the Fediverse.
And to be sure, I’m not against mutual aid. What I am against is spam.
This person has not verified who she is – or even if the profile picture is hers. Additional research on her name states she is a scammer with a record of grifting. I am therefore skeptical that any donations will help anyone in need.
Folks, please be cautious with mutual aid requests. Yes, people sometimes need help. But people also lie.
Isn’t asthma medication pretty cheap and long lasting? From what little I know an inhaler can last many months. Also if they can’t afford that, surely they have state medical insurance to help with it? Just seems so scammy.
depends on how often you have to use it. also, most states won’t give you insurance if you aren’t below the poverty level. if you have a full-time job, even if you’re barely making it paycheck to paycheck, you’re probably ineligible for medicaid.
Also if they can’t afford that, surely they have state medical insurance
Ha! No, depending on the state, there are tons of barriers, means-testing, work requirements, mandated classes they might not be able to attend (due to childcare/lack of transportation), etc.
Even after the ACA, ER visits are still all the healthcare many people get.
my inhaler is $70 per month with insurance. though it’s a bit different from an albuterol inhaler, mine is a dry powder steroid thing, and it has a VERY short 30 day shelf life once opened.
was $10 last year with insurance, but of course that shit changes every year…
Wow that’s awful.
Who is seriously stupid enough to fall for this?
My cat just died chewing through the power cable on my graphics card so I need a new 5090, please help brother
I can mail you a brand new cat. Good enough?
Careful! Might be a bobcat.
Ssssshhhh…
Dear brother in Christ I appreciate your generosity, is it a Siamese cat? I have allergies and the graphics card helps to clear the hair.
No Siamese. Just some mongrel off the streets.
May you be blessed for your generosity on this day! I would love to receive your cat, however in my village there is a small fee for the postage of the animals. I am, of course, willing to cover the fee - however it must be sent to the village post centre by Western Union transfer by the sender. If you send the $3500 I will reimburse you.
Dear comrade Laser, ✊★🚩
the fascist Melon Muskrat needs to be destroyed. The last couple of weeks I have been practicing propaganda of the deed and marked Tesla swasticars appropriately all over my state. Here’s a photo with proof of a recent artwork of mine.
Fighting this essential antifascist fight in these times of techno-feudal-nazi takeover costs me a lot of time and also money for supplies like spray cans, bus tickets, burner phones, and now also legal costs.
Last week the fucking pigs (ACAB) caught me when a petit bourgeois snitch reported me and now I’m in legal trouble. The class traitors now want to squeeze 3500 $ from me.
Your solidarity and mutual aid is essential for me and my comrades to continue the fight against tyranny. Every little thing helps.
Revolutionary thanks and Antifascist greetings
Secure Monero XMR transfer:
monero:83XjbrEebhaZjgyVYZUjsZ4cF43UhQNHKBd6UUqPwmEuGLEoDGs67ebMg7nDLnj65bCsqKfPwGzuR3a1318u4fQbMWV8U4xYou can send it using https://stealthex.io/ or https://changenow.io/ for example with a credit card or if you own other crypto.
no pasarán. hasta la victoria siempre. ✊
Whoa, is this from Mastodon?
@Feathercrown@lemmy.world No, this account is specifically from Akkoma. I have also submitted posts from my Pixelfed account.
I can submit a post to Lemmy by mentioning the community handle in my post. Such is the magic of the Fediverse.
I can submit a post to Lemmy by mentioning the community handle in my post
That’s why I thought you came from Mastodon; they have the same feature.
@Feathercrown Actually, you can do that with any Fediverse service, not just Mastodon.
Yes…
Personally only seen one asking for help and it was just a fella in my instance (super small) saying hey if u live in ___ my friend needs a place to crash at, retoot if possible (sounds super legit)
i had helped 2 people through Mastodon who seemed to genuinely need it on Mastodon a few months ago. I think it is nice to know that I can help people who need and they might help in my time of need.It is functional.
Lol, comments in this thread forgot the ‘mutual’ part of ‘mutual aid’ and miss the point of this post (scams in mutual aid groups)
If you think mutual aid is a one-way street (/ don’t benefit from it), is not for you, block and move on
I don’t think mutual aid can work well like that on the internet. Works great in person, works OK for GoFundMe-type stuff like “I had something happen to me that will take a lot of money to fix”. Too easy to scam and grift for small stuff like this though, where for all you know they’re just a very clever dog on the internet.
Charity is not the same as mutual aid anyways, even though I have also seen “mutual aid” requests on the Fediverse that were clearly asking for charity.
How would you differentiate the two?
Can you just tell me lmao i dont wanna read an essay
Mutual aid is a form of [collaborative] political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.
Charity comes with eligibility requirements that relate to these moral frameworks of deservingness, such as sobriety, piety, curfews, participation in job training or parenting courses, cooperation with the police, or identifying the paternity of children.
Nonprofitization has reproduced antidemocratic, racist, and colonial relationships between the winners and losers of extractive, exploitative economic arrangements.Mutual aide is mutual
The title already gives it away 😜
it doesnt and its why i asked lol then i opened the link and saw its over 10 paragraphs
Well you asked a question with a complicated answer. Dean Spade is a prolific and respected writer and organizer, and his thoughts on the matter are relatively concise compared to the volumes upon volumes written by his predecessors in anarchist thought.
im curious about they differentiate it themselves as a person not how an academic defines it.
I don’t think mutual aid can work well like that on the internet. Works great in person,
That can be an incredibly privileged position to be in to say. Some people are in situations so bad in their meatspace life that “the random internet” is actually more trustworthy.
It might be better for them but it’s not better for the internet strangers, now there is an unknown beggar in their space.
I for one am not willing to feed a milk-bone addiction, no matter how good a boy he is.
“Mutual aid”? Is that what scammers are calling it now? What exactly is “mutual” about this interaction?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with creating a community where people who are struggling financially can ask for help or plug their GoFundMe or whatever, but allowing these guys to essentially cold call individuals with DMs/Mentions is unacceptable.
Yep I’ve already gotten a couple messages like this with an image of a random lady attached:
Hi, I’m Nicole! I’m a proud Polish girl from Toronto (29 y/o)
I’m currently taking the pre-health sciences program at George Brown College hoping to get into the medical field someday!
You can add me on Friendica: [REDACTED]
and join my discord here: [REDACTED]
Hi, I’m
Nicolewizardbeard! I’m aproudaromaticPolishAbyssalgirltube sock with googly eyes fromTorontothe space between your walls (29 y/o50 ft)I’m currently taking the
pre-health sciences program at George Brown Collegesocks from your dryer hoping toget into the medical fieldfind a broodmother for the spawn that will form the ranks of my holy army someday!You can’t add me on Friendica. It’s far too late for that. Far far too late for anyone to do anything to stop this.
Your socks may be returned to you but they may never be the same.
I only ever got one. I feel so rejected!
😭 I didn’t get any. Why don’t Polish egirls like me?
I got one about an hour after I made my Mastodon account. found me pretty fucking fast.
Don’t boost it. If it violates your instance’s rules (e.g. it’s a scam), report it. Unfollow people that boost it. Mute/block the poster or their content.
I don’t mind seeing it, and I don’t think it is a problem (yet).
Agree that caution is warranted for any request of funds, whatever the requestor wants to call it.
Yeah, the other day I saw a lot of posts like “I am from palestine, my home is destroyed please donate to help”… Spam is probably the significant problem on fedi
Funnily enough, I haven’t seen many instances delicated to just spam, like there was conerns about. Its mostly from .world or mastodon.social
I just mute all of them.
It may be my “3rd world syndrome” but to me, someone with internet access and a social media account who post regularly, is not in poverty. More likely a spambot.
My local beggar, in contrast, is a sincere person who tells me that he just want some cheap boxed wine or something to smoke. Refuses food or any kind of help. Cash only.
it may be like that in the “third world”, but in western countries at least, if you don’t have a cell phone you are pretty much actively discriminated against. many government programs, not to mention utilities, require the use of a smartphone app. for example, my electric company requires one, as does my internet company. you can’t even begin service with my ISP if you don’t have an app.
if you live in the US, you’ll find it very difficult to even find a job without a cell phone, as most unemployment programs or job listings are done through apps these days. so the first thing any homeless person needs to acquire, is internet access and social media.
Not trying to change your mind on giving money to internet grifters but having a cell phone is pretty much a basic tool of survival these days even if you’re destitute. Phones more than a couple years old are basically e-waste and cost nothing or are donated/trashed all the time. Even a WiFi only phone can be the best tool someone has to find shelter, food and get important weather updates.
Even if it’s a recent phone, new flagship phones cost less than a month’s rent in many places. It’s not like phones are unattainable for homeless people.
When I was homeless, I had a cell phone. It’s pretty hard to find work without one. And I don’t know if it’s still the case, but at that time if you are on any sort of government assistance you could get a phone paid for.
As it is really difficult to get out of poverty without one.
That sad, I don’t hand out money on lemmy. There are folks in my community I know need help too.
I mean, I know phones can be cheap or donated. And I also know that homeless people may have possessions that some consider “expensive”. It’s not that uncommon.
But constant internet connection needs monthly payments that, in my very personal and particular mindset, are not really compatible with “I’m a beggar. I need help”.
Having knowledge of the Fediverse it’s too niche for me, and the stories like “I can’t pay groceries!” almost every week are unlikely in a place where most of folks are tech workers. My spam-meter says that probably some people out there found the #mutualaid hashtag and are making some fake profiles and fake stories.
you can find plans for $15/mo. it’s not unreasonable for homeless people today to have a cell phone. even homies in prison have tiktoks.
The plans can be super cheap compared to food and housing. A pretty poor person can still have consistent Internet now.
It’s not the affordability that makes these things almost certainly a scam, but they pretty much are almost certainly a scam anyway.
Again, the phone and the service, at least, when I was homeless in 2019, was covered along with other social services such as SNAP and Medicaid.
And again, I completely agree about not handing money out online. Just disagreeing about homeless folks having accessibility to a phone or the internet. And Public libraries or anywhere with wifi (if you have a phone) are other options.
There is an entire sub on here somewhere that is only for mutual aid. The sob stories in there are batshit crazy.
People do solicit donations, as on just about every public forum. I really wouldn’t call it a problem on lemmy at this point, but a rule against it except in communities where it’s encouraged wouldn’t be a terrible idea. Somebody who is interested in doing it could start a Please Help community specifically for these requests, requiring some form of verification. Seems like running it could turn into a lot of work tho.
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