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What might be appropriate is a respected nonprofit organization that will speak for said person having done a background check to see that thing are indeed serious, and that there will be fallow up to see that funds are dispensed as advertised.
Someone under desperate circumstances are likely to be willing to be investigated in order to receive help.
Someone truly "under desperate circumstances" can easily get help from organizations already in place. There's no need to beg from random people or waste resources verifying that need. I'd guesstimate that 99.9% are scammers and am alarmed that so many are taken in by them.
In my experience NextDoor has always been mostly a toxic waste dump, and this bogus panhandling activity is simply the next phase of toxicity, or should I say a--hattery.
Yeah. It didn't help that every member of this private forum has their name and address "verified". Because it's not enforced.
My name and address is not linking to real me. And I am registered in three different cities.
Panhandlers, scammers, wannabe handymen and bogus businesses found a way to register there.
I don’t follow Nextdoor, but I belong to a couple of different “neighborhood pages” on facebook. Same stuff goes on there. People just ask for the most random stuff that they want for free!
Plenty of people giving stuff away, too, but the wanters quite outnumber the givers.
Yeah. It didn't help that every member of this private forum has their name and address "verified". Because it's not enforced.
My name and address is not linking to real me. And I am registered in three different cities.
Panhandlers, scammers, wannabe handymen and bogus businesses found a way to register there.
It seemed like when I signed up, they snail mailed something to my home address with a verification code or something, but I don't think they do that anymore.
Local food bank is always a good place to either donate or volunteer at instead of giving money to ebeggars. Stuff like people begging for free furniture I can get. It's hard to get rid of furniture nowadays as most places won't take it and the stuff is expensive if you had to move out of a bad situation and need a couch or dining room table. There's often someone someone with unwanted furniture in the neighborhood so you might be able to pick up a free couch and do two people a favor.
It sounds like they don't verify by snail mail anymore. They need people actively involved since a lot of people have dipped out.
A few years ago, there was no way to report people, or contact a mod. No way at all. I found that strange, especially when there was so much crap going on, on that one particular neighborhood in mentioned upthread.
About a month ago, a lady explained that she had recently lost a lot of weight, in part because she had a large benign tumor removed, and she was wondering if anyone had clothes to give away (and gave the sizes she was looking for) or where she could go to get some inexpensive clothes for herself.
It just so happens I keep a bin going for clothes I get tired of, or clothes I ordered and don't fit right, etc. It was stuff I was intending on giving to Goodwill, but here's a lady in need, and I could help with that need.
So I messaged her and told her what I had. I told her I'd put them on my porch, and gave her my address. Come to find out, the lady lives around the corner from me. She was tickled that some of those clothes were brand new.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Ours rarely has a request for financial help, more often than not it's a complaint about someone not picking up their dog's droppings, parking too close to the line at the supermarket, parking in front of their house, or someone's kid walking on their lawn. It gets very tiresome. I glance at it but rarely read posts any more, and never contribute.
Yes. There does seem to be an increase in people posting about their problems, asking for monetary help. Many provide links to their GoFundMe accounts.
It might be that more scam artists have taken to using Nextdoor but it's also possible that more and more people are having some legitimate struggles given the current state of the economy and are turning to their Nextdoor "neighbors" for assistance.
I haven't seen anything that constitutes as a frivolous request, like asking for concert tickets, but I have seen some folks asking for things that they really should be able to provide for themselves if they took on a little extra work like yard work, dog sitting, etc.
For those like the OP living in an obvious reclusiveness, why are you even engaged on a neighborhood website when clearly you could give a rat's *** as to the welfare of your neighbors?
The unfortunate reality is that much of the lower middle class-middle class is suffering minus any social service safety nets. While some may sink quietly into homelessness and/or destitution through what is often no fault of their own (job loss, health issues) some may choose to fight for their livelihood and the fact that reading about it upsets your perfect little world of prosperity is a somewhat nauseating trait you might take a moment in the mirror with.
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