The thread this morning about the person asking if some one could deliver them shopping that got deleted

[Byallmeans]

I wish you wouldn’t have deleted it @MNHQ.

I live in that area and I could have took some round and seen it they were ok, I actually replied that I could do this in the thread shortly before it got deleted.

It might have been a scam but it also might have been some one really struggling with no real life support. Not every one have family or neighbours they can ask.

You can’t just rock up to a food bank, there is a process you have to follow a process of getting one of a front line worker such as social worker, GP or citizen advice - all of which you have to book an appointment with which can take days/weeks.

1 in 7 people that use food banks are in employment. Even our beloved NHS nurses are having to use them so maybe if the OP came on and said she was a SP nurse and tax credits had fucked her payments up she would have got a bit more sympathy rather than ‘Reported!!!’ And ‘You again!!’

There has been times when I was working and had to look down the back of the couch for change for bread. This shit really does happen. Luckily I had family to help out, the OP could have been completely isolated and unable to ask anyone else.

Did you block the OP or offer any kind of assistance?

This could have been a scam but it also could have been someone who was desperate and promptly got shut up.

It’s all been said already but this thread has annoyed be with how naive the OP. They ask for food because they know someone somewhere will be gullible enough to send them a tenner instead with the reasoning of “well they never asked for money so they must be serious and it’s only a tenner anyway so why not”. Then they get ten/twenty gullible people doing that and they’ve earned a nice couple of hundred quid for a troll post.

Next time you see a thread like that, watch how they ignore the genuine offers of dropping something by or meeting up (if anyone is that stupid to risk their safety like that) or the genuine advice on how the person can be fed or where they can get support. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, they’ll be replying to private messages and accepting offers of £10 through PayPal from multiple gullible people. If they do that on a few sites, they make quite a bit of money.

MNHQ do a good job of deleting them. If a person is too dumb to keep themselves safe from scams online, at least MNHQ is doing the job for them!

@Beautiful3

You are lovely *@Byallmeans*. I didn't see the original post. How awful that someone needing food, got their thread deleted instead. I suppose mumsnet hq may have seen many opportunists, unfortunately who's sole intention is to beg for money. Youd be surprised how many have privately messaged posters and sent money over. In their eyes, they're protecting people from being taken advantage of.

THEY DIDN'T JUST NEED FOOD THOUGH THEY WERE LITERALLY SCAMMING

Yes. You really can self refer to a food bank. Most are Trussell Trust and they have made a lot of covid based changes, as have we in our community based charity.

Covid support groups all over the UK have worked hard to contact people in need and get food to them. They work with a wide range of local organisations and have been doing a lot of largely unacknowledged work. Anyone who can register here and ask for help could just as easily find very local, very comprehensive help much more quickly.

Don't feel guilty.

@Byallmeans

It was not the op's first attempt at asking, they had been given good advice previously. They were trying to scam you.

Volunteer for your local food bank or give them your spare food/ your cash. I donate regularly to my local one and they dont turn people away. Your local school will know which children are hungry, the teachers might take food donations to "supplement" the lunches for poor children if you wished.

Or donate food via the olio ap - there is often plenty of food available there that the op could have accessed if in genuine need. They werent in need.

OMFG. My post was automatically hidden because I mentioned the other site. Unbelievable. I came on to show how the OP of the begging thread Was doing the same thing over there just the date of the payday was different so clearly a scam.

OP, it really isn’t safe for you to turn up at an unknown persons address with food and nor would it be safe for her to give you her address.

The safe way would be PayPal. And that would mean monetary transactions taking place.

@MagentaRocks

OMFG. My post was automatically hidden because I mentioned the other site. Unbelievable. I came on to show how the OP of the begging thread Was doing the same thing over there just the date of the payday was different so clearly a scam.

Considering the ‘other place’ has included a “hilarious” picture showing that MN have hired minstrels as their new advisors for the new board for black MNetters, I can both understand and applaud this decision.

I haven't seen that pigeonsfeather

I think the OP protests too much.
No one could be that naive.

Starting a thread about this is just as suspicious as the begging thread in the first place. Why would OP not just email MNHQ and say they want to help that person and ask MNHQ to send them an email. MNHQ were happy to reply to this thread so I'm sure they would reply to the OP. Then if the person is happy to share their email address, they can talk to each other and arrange a donation.

Why start an entire thread to bark at MN and its users? To try and rally people together to keep begging threads standing? That would be a really cruel position to put some users in.

I'm glad begging threads get deleted before anyone can get conned into donating money these days. There have been several posters over the years who have done very well out of kindhearted gullible mumsnetters.

Well anyone who thinks they would rather be scammed than risk someone being hungry, please paypal me some money.

I will give it to our local foodbank, whose numbers are increasing rapidly at this time, but you've no guarantee I won't be buying a new car with it.

The problem, OP, with your response, is that every time people do give it encourages scammers to try. Even if only a couple of people give they're still quids in. Find your local foodbank and give to them when you feel moved. It has far greater likelihood of getting to someone who truly needs it.

They didn’t ask for any money - just food.

Yes but for many online scammers, doing that is equivalent to shoplifting-to-order.

Except they don't have to leave the comfort of their own homes and risk being caught by security to do it.

@Craddle64

Gosh you are so naive.

1. You can just rock up to a food bank, they will ask you a few questions and take details. In these times particularly foodbanks are very flexible.

1. Even if you need a foodbank voucher, gp, citizens advice and schools do not need an appointment to issue it. A quite word in person or over the phone and they will help. Op knew how to post on MN they should know how to google foodbank

1. That previously banned poster was given advice to speak to school ot go to a food bank. They saw these suggestions and said they would. They also replied 'pm me' to a kind but stupenduously gullible poster offering assistance. Was that you?

1. They are working.

1. They only needed 2 days worth of food, who the hell needs online shopping for that?

You are so naive and probably detached from poverty and ignorant about it to believe that poster.

Gosh you sound horrible.

No, they sound sensible.

It's the run-up to Christmas. There's going to be enough of an influx of begging trolls as it is, without introducing some sort of 'oh, but they only asked for food' caveat (because of course anyone can ask for 'food', but once they're in PM contact it suddenly becomes 'easier' to just send money. It's happened before, with someone who was apparently 'desperate' for clothes, but when people PM-ed her offers to drop off bags of clothes, it suddenly turned into 'actually, it'd be easier if you just sent me some £ ...')

MN are wise to this. It's not new. It happens all the time, but more so at this time of year. You haven't come up with any 'get out clause' or defensible caveat that the begging trolls/begging troll defenders haven't trotted out a million times before.

@Fallsballs

I think the OP protests too much. No one could be that naive.

Well, quite.

@MagentaRocks

OMFG. My post was automatically hidden because I mentioned the other site. Unbelievable. I came on to show how the OP of the begging thread Was doing the same thing over there just the date of the payday was different so clearly a scam.

Was that in the site that cannot be mentioned but that may be a place where mothers talk?

It'll be everywhere. Reddit had a blanket warning about a particularly prolific troll with multiple usernames who had been all over there recently.

Amazing how these dreadfully down-on-their-luck posters never have a single friend, relative, neighbour or colleague to ask for help. Always has to be online forums.

OP you may not be aware that MN was briefly a playground for scammers, and lots were taken advantage of, giving time, sometimes money, donated goods - and headspace too, to the scammers.

So we scoff at these current scam attempts, direct them away, encourage those posters with rescue tendencies to stop and think.

I too recall TheWiltedRose, CopingVeryNoisily*.

*I may well be misremembering the username.

I remember the wilted rose, cvq the mumsnet secret Santa and I’m sure there are many many more and it’s not mean to advise newer members to avoid obvious begging threads, as there is a lot of history of these type of threads and they always follow the same pattern. They start small and then go off the site, they avoid or don’t respond to suggestions of practical help relating to help accessing food banks, budgeting, cooking budget meals etc and hone in on sympathetic posters offering material supplies or money.
Mnhq are now wise to these and act promptly to shut them down to protect the community as a whole.
Sad as it is there are people out there who will exploit posters sympathy.

Look on the bright side OP, MNHQ have saved you money and time.

OP, you sound very kind and generous, but the fact is you never know who is posting behind a username. Unfortunately people lie, and if someone is begging for money and following a template commonly used by scammers, it's more than likely that they are lying.

The poster may not be a woman. The poster may not have kids. The poster may not live in the area they claim to live in. It's quite possibly all those things are just lies.

I know you have a fantasy about rocking up with a bag of food and being greeted by a grateful woman who cries in gratitude while her children look on. But the chances of that happening are really small. If you'd DMd offering to come round with food, there's a very high chance the poster would have come up with some excuse or story as to why she couldn't give you her address and why she needed you to send cash instead. I offer to buy food for homeless people and people begging on the street quite often because there's a lot of begging where I live, and probably 9 times out of 10 they come up with some story why they need cash instead, and will turn down food when no cash is forthcoming, even when they have signs saying they're hungry. And those are people right in front of me who I can see aren't exactly doing well.

This poster could be some young guy in another country trying to scam money. You just don't know.

@MagentaRocks Yes indeed, and that picture was liked by other posters and no mod has removed it. It was also followed by posts saying things like the new MN board was just to talk about “rice and peas” and similarly charming posts. HQ are definitely right to remove all references to it, it’s not a nice place . (The other other place (the Red one) has its issues but at least it’s not a hotbed of racists!)

[quote thesehappydaysareyoursandmine]@MagentaRocks Yes indeed, and that picture was liked by other posters and no mod has removed it. It was also followed by posts saying things like the new MN board was just to talk about “rice and peas” and similarly charming posts. HQ are definitely right to remove all references to it, it’s not a nice place . (The other other place (the Red one) has its issues but at least it’s not a hotbed of racists!)[/quote]
That is shocking. Very disappointed too.

Yeah, no. I’m not giving money to some random person I’ve never met and who could be lying. I donate to food banks, because at least I know where the food is going and that they’re genuine, but I’m far too wary when it comes to people on here. There is help out there for those in need.