Anyone else super suspicious this time of year

[thaegumathteth]

I hope this thread is allowed but around this time of year I feel myself noticing a lot of 'down on their luck' posts. I'm not doing ATAT but it's just made me wonder - am I noticing them because I'm expecting them? Am I being unfair and possibly not offering advice to people that I would at another time of the year? (Not that I think my advice is especially good!)

I just feel suspicious of everyone from about now until Xmas and wanted to know if I'm alone!!

I don't know if you're alone but I'm not with you. Christmas without money is a very hard time for parents so there's a simple reason for talking about it.

I think this time of year is when a lot of people will most feel the lack of money as it’s a time most of us will be needing to spend more. With the cost of living this year I imagine people are feeling it more than usual. Even if people are out to scam (I assume that’s what you’re wary of?) I don’t see how that makes a difference to offering advice. Even if the poster you’re responding to isn’t posting in good faith, you never know who will benefit from advice from reading the responses.

There's always scammers about. Mumsnet is no different to anywhere else. Just they go about it differently in here. I feel sorry for gullible people who fall for it.

It's been an awful year for me and pretty much everyone I know. Winter and cost of living crisis is adding to it. Dark nights now, everything costing more.

I wouldn't be suspicious- it's a horrible time. My MH has taken an awful bashing.

As others have said, giving advice isn't really being scammed if you have the free time to type a reply. that's where help should start and end anyway online.

I'm the same as you in that - unless it's a poster I recognise - I jump to 'scammer' with that type of post.

However, giving advice is free and, as PP have said, that advice may help somebody who genuinely needs it. You just have to hope that anybody posting in the hope somebody offers money to them isn't lucky.

3 grandchildren with November birthdays, 1 on Boxing Day and another 4 on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th January. Add in Christmas for all of them and February sees me snivelling for weeks.

Yes you're right. I'll answer as I otherwise would, I'm sure nobody's been particularly missing my words of wisdom anyways!

Btw I don't doubt people are struggling, absolutely not but it's when it's a 'my first time posting and all these things have happened and I've no money' that I think 🤔

It’s usually that they totally over egg the pudding with the backstory and making sure they can’t take on board ideas and suggestions offered: no money for so much as a roast chicken and potatoes for Christmas lunch (and already knows for sure on 9 November that they can’t save any money whatsoever between now and 24 December), family all dead so can’t help out, no friends to borrow a tenner from, just been diagnosed with serious health problems, just had a new baby, just broken up with partner, just lost job, just moved very rurally so no seasonal jobs round, can’t drive so no way of getting to the nearest town 22 miles away for jobs, can’t look for any kind of at home work as certain words involving any kind of job trigger their PTSD from being raped and abused for years, DC homeschooled so can’t ask school about foodbanks or community grants etc etc.

Asking for advice and ideas is one thing and understandably will increase over the next few weeks, sadly. Several current / recent threads running which are more or less the above paragraph word for word, though.

As PP have said it's a tough time of year for many people and so a topic for discussion.

And scammers gonna scam. It's just the themes change throughout the year.

Alarms start ringing for me when posters reject perfectly sensible practical solutions for their dilemma.

People worry about money all the year round - and the scammers come out of the woodwork all the year round.

I think the main difference is that its cold, dark, wet, crappy and the "I spend £hundreds on my kids/holidays/whatever" posts make it harder for the "have £0 to spend on my kids/heating/food" people to cope and so they also come out of the woodwork.

If you fall into the latter category its a horrible position to be in at any time of year.

Are they scamming you out of your advice? It's hardly hard cash, is it?