“My annoyance with the Fediverse is all the scammers.”. The constant requests for money “from Gaza” and the doubts of @NetscapeNavigator@vivaldi.net

@fediverse

Warning: A few hours after this post, the user NetscapeNavigator was suspended from the Vivaldi instance

I’ve been vilely attacked in the past, with reports and private messages, simply for writing this

We don’t deserve to be bombarded by thousands of tragic requests for help that we can’t directly verify and that prey on our pity, or worse, our guilt.
Sending private messages is harassment. Sending private messages asking for money is even more odious, because we know that sooner or later, someone vulnerable will donate.

A mastostar, a guy with 47,000 followers who passes for a prominent figure in the Fediverse, told me I’m “just a hugely privileged twat throwing his toys out of the pram because he is being forced to see things he’d rather ignore” and that perhaps I lack a moral compass.

I imagine if I’ve been subjected to harassment for saying something trivial, poor @NetscapeNavigator@vivaldi.net will be subjected to harassment, stalking, doxxing, and multiple reports to force him to close his account.

But what did Netscape write?

Here’s his message before it was deleted:

My annoyance with the Fediverse is all the scammers.
I do not suspect they’re scammers — I know they’re scammers, because they’re using the same photos as the next person. I also have the unique perspective from my job where I deal with this sort of thing professionally (I work for Meta/Facebook).
Some of them are not just staged or stock photos, but even A.I. photos too. Honestly, I always get a small laugh when I see the old photo re-shared with 6 fingers. The stupid scammers are so low-effort here that I doubt they noticed, and I doubt they care. Like all scammers, they want your money quick and easy. Which is why they often re-share the same photos and videos among themselves.
They use both a repeated heart-bleeding story to tug at people’s sympathy, but the reason why they repeat themselves is volume. They’re not so much trying to convince people as they are hoping to flood timelines so someone who is more gullible and who wears their heart on their sleeve will act and give them money.
It is the same marketing tactic corporations use. You see an ad repeated for a soda, and become thirsty, and if you happen to buy their soda, all the better. Just as the scammers repeat their heartfelt story over and over, and you feel sorry, and if you happen to pay them, all the better.
If there is substance, it always circles back to the scam.
A normal person may post a photo of their home and ask for tips on decorating or point out how cool the new couch looks in their living room. The scammer will point out the couch and claim it’s too bad they have to sell it or no longer have it, but it would be better if you gave them money.
A normal person may post a photo of their spouse and children, talking about how proud they are of them or how lucky they feel to have them in their life. The scammer will claim they love their spouse and kids, but it would be better if they had your money.
Everything circles back to needing your money. Everything reinforces the scam.

You’re unlikely to see content that does not circle back to wanting and needing your money.

An assessment of the accusation and the critical issues surrounding the #GazaVerified project

Objectively, @NetscapeNavigator@vivaldi.net’s accusation is not supported by evidence. I’d love to see a dossier from Netscape or a post from @iftas, or even better, a journalistic investigation, but nothing of the sort currently exists.

But what is the verification method for “GazaVerified”? Here it is:

What does the verification process look like?
It’s very simple: we have a quick video chat to verify that you are a Palestinian from Gaza and the same person you say you are on your Mastodon account, after which we add you to Gaza Verified.

A damn video call? Is this the verification method for a fundraising system that moves hundreds of thousands of euros? In an environment heavily influenced by a terrorist organization like Hamas? And so with the risk that donors could be accused of financing a terrorist organization? And with another terrorist organization (the Israeli government) eager to infiltrate the donation request system?

It seems to me like the perfect recipe for creating a gigantic explosive backpack to blow yourself up inside four reinforced concrete walls…

https://infosec.exchange/@NetscapeNavigator@vivaldi.net/116987048678237019

    • CovertOperative@piefed.zipEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      It looks absolutely horrible to me too, but that’s the fault of the app I’m using, not OP’s. It’s properly formatted if I use the default interface in a browser.

        • Pamasich@kbin.earth
          2·
          3 months ago

          Seems like an issue with the app you’re using then.

          My guess is it doesn’t support HTML formatting, which is the fediverse native way of formatting posts. Posts are supposed to be federated as HTML and then the receiving instance interprets the HTML. But the threadiverse also includes a source version of the post which is in Markdown, Mastodon iirc doesn’t do that. The app might be falsely relying on that source version, but nothing OP can do about that when Mastodon doesn’t support it.

          The formatting is there, but probably not in a language your threadiverse-centric app is made to understand.

      • Zomg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Doesn’t happen on my lemmy account. Maybe it’s a mix of voyage and piefed.

        Anyway, apologies for the initial comment, it was probably seen as rude

        • Pamasich@kbin.earth
          1·
          3 months ago

          I do see the formatting on your instance too, so it is probably voyager that’s the culprit here.

          I assume it relies on the source field on posts for the formatting, which contains the post in Markdown. But that’s a threadiverse feature, Mastodon doesn’t support that. The actual intended way to federate formatting on the protocol is to send it as HTML and then the receiving server interprets the HTML.

          The actual projects like Piefed and Lemmy understand that the Markdown isn’t universal and so fall back to interpreting the HTML when it’s not present. So the post appears as intended there. But I guess apps might not be as thorough there and solely rely on the Markdown with no fallback. So when there is no Markdown, the formatting is lost to them.

          Just my thoughts on the matter though, haven’t actually looked at the code.

          • Al Kath@infosec.exchangeOP
            1·
            3 months ago

            @Pamasich The mastodon used in my instance is an enhanced fork that allows me to write in Markdown.
            In the past, I’ve encountered some Lemmy apps that didn’t compile the formatting correctly (for example, a hashtag at the beginning of a paragraph was interpreted as the # that defines the head, resulting in a paragraph written in huge letters).
            Another problem is the size of “header 1” compared to “header 7”: since these tags were designed for typographic output, it’s not possible to maintain a consistent difference between all seven “headers” on screen, otherwise you’ll end up with a gigantic “header 1.” A good compromise for developers is to focus only on the first two or three headers.

            @NetscapeNavigator@vivaldi.net @fediverse @iftas @Zomg@piefed.world @Zomg@lemmy.world

  • mrdown@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    The allies during world war 2 did worse terrorist acts than resistance groups like Hamas. Like rhe usa did the worse terrorist operstion ever by killing 100 000 japanese in a single day in 1945 firebombings. Palestinians has the right to armed resistance

  • JensSpahnpasta@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    Like it or not: Sending money to individuals in Gaza is a really, really bad idea. You do not want to have a money trail linking you to Hamas. Yes, not everyone in Gaza is part of Hamas, but you really do know nothing about the woman writing you that dm. So if you want to help, donate your money to legitimate aid organizations. They also are able to provide help to those palestinians who are not able to write in English and use the internet to chat with you on the fediverse.

    • aiforests@mastodon.cloud
      0·
      3 months ago

      @JensSpahnpasta @kathsone
      There is no guarantee it will reach everyone because humanitarian aid is getting blocked by Israel and Hamas but I agree that donating to aid organizations is still helpful.
      Sending money to individuals is also totally fine as long as there is no impersonation involved.

      • JensSpahnpasta@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        as there is no impersonation involved

        And there is no way for you to verify that. But the whole scale of the operation should make you suspicious. I received around 10 DMs asking for donations. Given that the population in Gaza is not that big, all of them were from women and that internet access is still shaky and Mastodon/Fediverse is not really the medium palestinians in Gaza are communicating with, you should be suspicious.

        There’s also the issue of “taxes”. Even if the individual you are sending money to is legit, there will be people in Gaza who want their cut from their income. Hamas is collecting taxes and there is no reason why they wouldn’t collect taxes from that poor mother who got a big bunch of money from outside. Which makes you complict in financing a terror organisation, which you really do not want to do.This will happen to everything you send into Gaza privately

        • aiforests@mastodon.cloud
          0·
          3 months ago

          @JensSpahnpasta
          Generally I get what you mean but taxes are necessary to have a working society and to pay the staff that is working at healthcare facilities.
          In comparison, there are 146 million people living in Russia that also have to pay taxes which are used to buy weapons. It doesn’t look like the impersonation is limited to Palestine-like accounts, there are at least two Ukrainian accounts with messages that appear somewhat suspicious as well
          https://ieji.de/@OlgaPatlyuk
          https://mastodon.social/@Ukrainian/_Art

          • JensSpahnpasta@feddit.orgEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            Generally I get what you mean but taxes are necessary to have a working society and to pay the staff that is working at healthcare facilities

            Yeah, but that is the ugly thing in Gaza that there is no real government, but only a heavily sanctioned terror group. Yes, they collect taxes. But you do not want a money trail going to them

  • Malyca@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    I posted a supportive message in one of those posts and immediately got a message asking for money. Left a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, anyone in Gaza would be that desperate. I’d rather give benefit of the doubt, but I’d rather donate to non profits that disclose their spending and I want that spending to be fair to the cause. I feel like that’s the best way to help.

  • aiforests@mastodon.cloud
    1·
    4 months ago

    @kathsone @fediverse @iftas

    > I’d love to see a dossier from Netscape or a post from @iftas

    There has been an investigation by STRG_F:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-E0aBiHXr4

    I have been following him for a while and most people sadly didn’t bother to take a closer look at this.

    1. https://de.pinterest.com/alzahraa/_ib/%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86/
    2. https://www.instagram.com/p/DF52DojN6s5/?img%5C_index=2
    3. https://youtube.com/watch?v=5gJ8eJE0B2I&t=12s
    4. https://mastodon.social/@israajamal/116234911897929319
    5. https://mastodon.social/@Rawanmahmoud/116993607704242083

    Some are posting photos of mirrors with the shape of Palestine (which doesn’t make sense)

    YouTube video from Aseel Alturk (@aseelfromgz on Mastodon, GazaVerified) Instagram post from Flastinia (AseelAndAreej account, not verified on Mastodon but similar to @aseelfromgz) Mastodon post from Rawammahmoud (GazaVerified) Mastodon post from Israa (GazaVerified)

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    have not seen much of this myself. im long term unemployed with a wife that has medical issues. if I see these I might at best wish them well but I don’t have excess resources atm and no indication of it happening anytime in the near future. If I do level out I will be dealing with all sorts of things I have put off that I should not and getting ready to survive the next thing like this.