Internet Magazine, June, 2003
Karyn Bosnak's success in raising $20,000 online has encouraged people to get out their Web begging bowls. So is cyber begging a legitimate way to raise money or the latest Net nuisance?
Aaron needs $40,000 to help pay off his three year-old son's medical bills. In desperation, he's setup a website to ask for public donations, at www.pleasehelpaaron.com.
"My wife and I have sold our home and moved in with her parents," Aaron writes. "We desperately want to move into a home of our own, free from the monster that is our credit card debt."
But Aaron has only banked $13 from eBay sales, and received no donations at all from visitors to his site. A recent attempt to publicise his site on an inappropriate newsgroup was met with hostility.
"How about some real advice -- sell your computer and stop paying for Internet access," replied Xian. "Oh, and if you're looking for kindness and dignity, perhaps panhandling isn't a good calling for you."
Aaron is one of thousands of 'cyber scroungers'- people who solicit donations from website visitors in the hope of collecting enough money to pay off their debts, medical bills, or legal expenses. People have also been turning to the web in the hope of getting the money for dream holidays, boob jobs, lavish weddings or even sex toys.
Cyber scrounging or 'cyber begging' is not new. Yahoo! was already listing a category for it-with links to four sites - back in 1996. It subsequently renamed the category to the more politically correct 'e-panhandling'.
It all began with the now-infamous 'Send Me A Dollar' website (www.sendmeadollar.com), which offered you the then rare opportunity to send a stranger in America a buck in exchange for a mention on his website. But cyber begging really hit the big time after Karyn Bosnak (www.savekaryn.com) was able to successfully pay off her $20,000 debt thanks to the generosity of thousands of visitors to her website. Brooklyn-based Bosnak had let her shopaholic tendencies spiral out of control, preferring Manolo Blahnik and Prada over K-Mart and Conway.
But Karyn was saved, and is even releasing a book about her ordeal this summer. Now it seems as if the owners of half the websites in the world have added PayPal's simple logo to their pages and are asking for donations (see the lists at www.cyberbeg.com, www.savemesites.com or http://debtrfreeme.tripod.com).
On these mostly amateurish websites, men and women describe how they've got into financial fixes, what they've spent the money on and how their debt is being managed.
"If you want to become an Internet begging phenomenon, you really only need a tiny donation from a large amount of people," says Dr Adam Joinson, an expert in Internet psychology from the Open University (www.joinson.com).
Joinson thinks visitors to online begging sites get a more 'personalised' experience than they would with seeing a street beggar.
"What tends to make us -- at least psychologically -- more likely to help other people is that we can empathise with them," he says. "With an individual tattily dressed in the street, it's difficult to see ourselves as similar. But on the Internet, people give us so much information about who they are, the type of person they are, and what they'll do to help themselves as well as seeking donations. It tends to increase the amount of empathy we've got with people, and once we've got empathy, then we start wanting to help."
A pound of flesh
Ernie Davis (not his real name), based in Scotland, has [pounds sterling]23,000 of debt excluding his mortgage. His ex-partner went on a spending spree when they split up, and he can't keep up the payments. Davis has also chalked up [pounds sterling]8,000 in legal fees after being given custody of his son, but his ex is seeking a change of the court order and he doesn't have legal aid.
His website, Send A Pound (www.seadpound.co.uk) was inspired by sites like Send Me A Dollar and Save Karyn. "I was heartened when I read about Save Karyn. I thought maybe I could do it too," he says.
But, unlike Bosnak, Davis hasn't been successful "Donations stand at [pounds sterling]9, and [affiliate link] commission is currently [pounds sterling]18, but I don't have that yet -- I need [pounds sterling]50 before [companies] will actually send me any money."
Only two people have sent him donations, but he has received supportive emails. "One woman emailed to tell me that not all women are like my ex, and one guy mailed me to suggest that I move house," he says.
Like most online beggars (a term many of them understandably dislike), Davis is investigating other ways of raising money by using the Web. He gets free help from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (www.ccs.co.uk), sells things on eBay, and gets commissions from click-through links, however paltry they may be.
Most online beggars disclose a lot of personal information about themselves, but usually prefer not to reveal information that could lead to them being personally identified, in order to protect themselves and their families.
Although Davis does present a lot of information about his situation on his site, he believes the Internet is "faceless and impersonal".
"I'm sure that if I had the courage to stand in the street and explain to passers by why I was begging, I would have collected more. I'm not a brave person for doing this at all," he says.
But Joinson thinks that the more details you disclose about yourself online, the more likely it is that people will donate. "Self-disclosure and giving information about your background is something that's used in relationships to build trust and intimacy," he says. "It's being used increasingly on websites to make people trust the source of the information."
The debt situation is something many Brits recognise. Those who borrow money now owe an average of [pounds sterling]3,383, according to figures released by Datamonitor.
Davis realises his situation may be seen as an elaborate hoax. "There are many begging sites out there, and I myself find some of them hard to believe. I'm not forcing anyone to give, but if anyone [asks me] any questions, I'll reply with honest answers. I will give my CCCS client number, if anyone wanted to give to the CCCS direct -- that would save me on PayPal fees."
Joinson says it's the more experienced Net users who are likely to donate to cyber beggars. "[They] tend to be able to differentiate between what's truth and what's lies. Also, they tend to be more willing to trust people because experience has told them that most of the people they meet online are trustworthy."
Most begging sites, he adds, appear to be unsuccessful because of thier passive approach. "There's no attempt to cultivate donors, communicate with them and seek repeated or regular gifts from those that want to help."
Whether this is true or not, giving money to beggars requires a "great leap of faith", says Howard Lake, publisher of UK Fundraising (www.fundraising.co.uk), an online resource for charity fundraisers, "Although people are the end beneficiaries of both begging and fundraising, with fundraising by organisations there's an element of professional oversight as to how donations are collected and spent," says Lake. "Where money is concerned, this professionalism should inspire trust in donors."
Instead, he thinks online beggars should seek help from charities or government agencies. "But then, breast enlargement is never likely to become a lawfully charitable objective," Lake points out.
Breast practice
Ah yes, breast enlargements. That would be Give Boobs (www.giveboobs.com), the website of Michel Huang, who lives in southern California. This 23 year-old girl wants money for "big tatas".
"Several hundred people have given to my boob fund," she says. "The majority of donors are men, but surprisingly about one-tenth are women. Often these women already have breast implants and think giveboobs.com is a great way to raise money for a great cause."
Huang's upbeat and frank site has proved surprisingly popular, and she's raised more than $3,500. "If for some reason people give money in another big burst and the fund overshoots, I will take the extra cash and use it to buy boob accessories like bras, halter tops and sunless tanning cream," she says.
There are other benefits: "My site makes talking about breast implants much less of a taboo. Women write to me telling me how refreshing it is to find someone talking openly about their breasts and their desire for a little self improvement."
Joinson points out how the Internet's anonymity breaks down inhibitions. "One of the big advantages of the Internet is that people with problems that they are ashamed or embarrassed about can talk to other people, get advice and look for help not just to do with debt. In that respect it's positive."
Another wishful website is London Dreams, (www.londondreams.net) the brainchild of two students, Kim Wroe and Katie Folk, who want to visit London. These self-described anglophiles are far from poor, but have decided that a trip to London together is their dream, and have setup their site to help realise it.
"On the website, we cite actor Ewan McGregor as the direct cause for our dream, but that's more joking than not," Wroe says. "That is part of it -- we're both fans of Mr McGregor's work, and have gained a higher interest in British film and Britain in general since beginning to follow his career."
These two friends say that the idea of London Dreams was not to "sit on our laurels and wait for everyone else to do our work for us".
Instead, they've sold things on eBay and saved up money from pay cheques. "Most people aren't aware of the website when they purchase from us, but we have made sure to include a little thank you note in their packages," Wroe says.
In the offline world, the government has announced plans to make street begging a criminal offence. But there haven't been any legal issues to date with cyber begging, so perhaps beggars should follow the lead of Californian Kevin Barbieux, aka The Homeless Guy, who updates his weblog from a public library (http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com).
Barbieux regularly details his thoughts about life and homelessness, but doesn't make an overt plea for money. In fact, although he's sympathetic to e-panhandlers, Barbieux doesn't believe in begging for money himself. A small 'Make a Donation' PayPal icon is all that is there, but his words have touched tens of thousands of people, making him an Internet celebrity.
Cause for offence?
Caroline Barton, associate solicitor in IT law at Field Fisher Waterhouse, believes that Internet begging is far from offensive.
"In the absence of them trying to deceive people, it doesn't seem there is much the law could or should do," she says. "Internet begging has no nuisance factor, and unless a regular income is made, it isn't taxable. But donors won't be able to make tax deductions, because they're not giving to a registered charity."
Cyber begging seems to be here to stay -- and, unless we start getting spam from cyber scroungers (scram?), they don't appear to be causing any trouble.
If you don't like the cyber beggars, you could retaliate with your own website, such as www.dontsavekaryn.com. However, while many cyber beggars have been inspired by Save Karyn's success, the vast majority of fundraising efforts are unlikely to have anywhere near as much luck.