To all aidmates: Please, DO NOT POST YOUR EMAIL addresses! Keep your privacy. Communicate via private or public AIDPAGE MESSAGES - it is easy, convenient and above all it is SAFE.
--- August 3, 2006
I was approached by an aidmate with question about a fraudulent loan offer. This gave me the idea to create an Abuse / Warning page where all aidmates can post their similar experience in order to warn others.
Given the number of aidmates that are talking about financial problems, and the fact that Aidpage is free for everybody, unfortunately, it is unavoidable to have spammers, liars and dishonest people. We are doing as much as we can to keep the system open and at the same moment to identify such parties. The system is performing automatic post-processing for known fraudulent schemes and is deleting the identified accounts. Aidpage is removing some accounts – mostly international Nigerian-like “loan givers”. This is why, once in a while, some of you are receiving email notifications for messages. Then, when you login, there is no message - it was deleted in the meantime by the system. Unfortunately, we are far from 100% successful in this identification process.
So, what should we do? Here are several suggestions I can think of:
Use common sense!
Be careful and communicate through Aidpage only. Nobody needs your email or phone to talk to you. They can do it easily on Aidpage and yet they would not have access to your information (unless you let them).
Any legitimate lender or grant giving organization should identify itself publicly. Such institutions cannot be hidden or secret.
Whoever claims to represent an organization should be able to post all pertinent information about him/herself and the organization – address, phone, full name, type of business etc – right here on Aidpage. This is a simple advertising for the company and it cannot be a secret. On the other hand, you don’t have to give any information about yourself – their business info is public, your personal info is not!
Once you’ve got all the info, go ahead and check them out. Ask aidmates that you can trust for advice. Make sure you know with whom you are dealing.
Then, there are individuals willing to help. This is the best thing happening on Aidpage. However, their personal information is as private as yours. They may not want to expose themselves publicly and this is absolutely understandable. Anonymous charity is common.
In case someone wants to send you money, they can do it via Paypal. You just need your own Paypal account – it is easy and free. This way, you don’t have to give out any sensitive personal information – like home address, phone, bank accounts, social security number, birth date, etc. You may consider creating a special email for Paypal only.
I do believe good people vastly outnumber the bad guys, anyway.
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