What do you think of people that ask for help online?

I don't go on there as there are a lot of scams on there. If they have a comp. then they can get a job doing something like all of us do. So no I'm not giving them a dime as I don't have one to give anymore. I give to the Sal. Army. Your friend onlydia

I have found that for me giving to organizations on a national or community level is what works for me. I do believe that we should try to help those less fortunate but I am more of a traditionalist when it comes to charity. Its not that hard to find somebody hungry or homeless in every community, without having to search the internet to give. There are many churches and schools that know of people and families first had that have definite need and not scamming you.

I think 99.9 % of these sad stories are false and only scams to make money. The other .1 % are exaggerated. The people truely deserving of help are people you know who would never ask for help. Help them, forget about everyone else.

I think it's a load of Cr@p. I've been in situations like that before, where we were about to have our power shut off, or we were flat broke and couldn't afford to eat. There are services to help people during those times. HEAP is a government program that will pay your power bill if you qualify. Food Stamps, food pantries, catholic charities. They'll all help you if you really need them to. I think some people are just greedy. They probably have everything they need, and are just trying to get extra money for holiday gifts or something like that. You know, I understand that sometimes those outreach programs don't work out so well. A few years ago I had gotten some gifts for my kids for free from an outreach program, and they weren't anything spectacular. Luckily I was able to afford to buy gifts on top of the ones we recieved, so the kids still had a nice Christmas. But I think if someone posted that they just wanted a few NICE toys for their kids for Christmas, and posted exactly what they had in mind, I bet they'd get a better response than asking for money. Also, when I find myself strapped around the holidays, I tend to sell some old stuff for the extra cash. This week I sold an old chest freezer I wasn't using anymore. It gave hubby a few extra bucks to work on his shopping, now he's just about done.

I think such things is a scam. They just made up their stories, so you'd better help someone around the neighborhood than giving money to strangers.