I have joined a lot of groups on FB for local buy/sell/trade etc. Every other days there's atleast 1-2 posts about people asking for food/handout/help with bills etc. Got me thinking are pan handlers getting smarter and high tech or is it just people are becoming victim of bad times and bad economy.

Most likely they're posting the request for money from an iPhone 7.

posts like these pop up almost everyday and the whole "feel good crowd" start asking for gofundme link and paypal and asking for address to deliver food and what not.

"victims"
I'm sure there are some people who legitimately need a little help, but damn, get off the interwebs and find something productive to do.
ETA: I'm on my computer, at my shop, waiting for my plans to download, all 293 pages while cruising the interweb.

How ironic you reply and asking me to get off LOL

I don't trust people anymore.  I've seen scuffy beggars driving away in new cars and such.



If they need food, absolutely.  Cash?  For what?

People capitalize on Facebook's fundamental premise of social recognition. They essentially get social browny points for donating and helping others and then advertising it within their own social groups.

People have also been conditioned to believe most of what is posted on Facebook to be truthful, thus they believe they are helping those in need by sending a stranger whos post they believe to be true, money.

They can then believe they have climbed up to a superior social echelon in which they can then judge others for not doing the same. Stacy will tell Suzie that she is a good person because she helps those in need, thus Suzie, wanting to match Stacy, then donates to a different charity, so Stacy can believe she is in there same social bracket as Suzie.

The Catholic church, from what I've seen, follows this very reasoning of logic. You must maintain a certain specificity of good will gestures to be considered a good Catholic.

Facebook is a social version of that.

Because the out pouring of support is so great on Facebook and GoFundMe, baiting victims into donating for their own self-worth is highly effective.

I used to be rather naive (side effect of being young) and I remember some people driving up to our group while we were walking out of a movie. A girl got out of the car and asked for gas money, so a guy we were with gave her 10 bucks.

They got back in the car and drove off.

A college aged friend at that time said "You idiot, they aren't going to buy gas with that, they are going to buy smokes, or drugs, if they really needed gas money they would have been walking, and they also would have driven toward the gas station when they left"

It made me realize a bit that what's mine is mine, and I shouldn't just go giving it away unless the people were truly in need of it immediately.

Few years ago, I was bored and just for the sake of it, bought a pan handler a 6 pack and I started conversation while he started drinking. What fucked up part I learned was he was making atleast $100 a day doing that.

Maybe I missed a sarcasm font somewhere, but I never told you to "get off", and I don't beg.

I know

The freeway entrance spots, where the pan handlers usually are........well, they are never short of people asking for a hand out.   It's not even amusing anymore.

Aloha, Mark

I usually print up job applications on line and hand them to panhandlers.  I did this the other day as I came up to the guy on a green light I slowed down and handed him a folded up job application to Whataburger.  I saw him in my rearview flip me off when he opened it up.

Yep it's been going on Craigslist for years
Have seen it spread to FB the last couple years and it getting quite prevalent on the buy/sell pages

Lots of people who are down and out as well as a lot of scammers taking advantage of the situation.

I have a piece of garbage aunt who went pan handling on Facebook. Posted her begging "pay my bills" bull shit on all the extended family's Facebooks. She got a hysterectomy because my grandmother had died of a related cancer, so she was briefly out of work. Oh, and she drives a new Lincoln Navigator, which proceeded to brag about buying new shit for it and some big vacation to Ireland two months after pan handling on Facebook.

When I had my nissen fundoplication surgery, I didn't bother anyone about it, shut my mouth and paid my bills like an adult. Worthless fucking cokehead.

We had one couple like that here. They crowdfunded to pay their rent ... or that's what they claimed it was for. Next thing we knew they were getting new tattoos.

I saw alot of people pan handling after the 2008 meltdown.  Then I've seen alot of people who appeared to be genuinely down on their luck.  However I don't want to help whatever issues they have especially when there are dozens of charities and social programs they could go to if they really needed help.  

Another reason I don't give people I see out there any help is many of them are complete scammers.  We had one family hanging out near a strip mall for awhile before the cops chased them off.  They didn't look like they were starving becasue they were all morbidly obese and had clean clothes on.  Even the kids were little fat asses.  Then on another occasion I saw a young woman out in front of the mall with a sign with a weepy sob story written on it, but the sticking point with her was she using an iPhone in an Otter case.  What killed me were the fucking idiots still giving her money.  

I get it if you are jammed up and need cash, it's something else entirely when you are a lazy piece of shit out there playing on peoples emotions or you're a fucking junky.