Change your Paypal settings to avoid spam
iBeggar.com will never give out your email address. Unfortunately, Paypal displays your identification on their payment page. When people visit iBeggar.com, and click on your donation button, your name OR email address will show up on the top of Paypal's donation page. If you want to display a name INSTEAD OF your email address, you can change settings in your Paypal account under Profile > Business information. Once you've done this, spammers will not be able to find your email address.
Legal Disclaimer
iBeggar.com cannot guarantee that any beggar or donor is legitimate and makes no claim that they are. We do not censor what people submit and cannot be held responsible for content that was created or emails responses that users get. If a user gets caught in a fraud or scam we are not liable for any losses that may occur. Please be cautious when accepting donations from users and we highly recommend that you accept donations through PayPal ONLY!!
If you do not accept donations through PayPal and decide to accept checks, money orders or wire transfers from donors, iBeggar.com is not responsible for your loss if you get scammed because you decided to not follow our PayPal Only recommendation.
Recognizing scams
Most scams involve one or more of the following:
- inquiry from someone far away, often in another country
- Western Union, Money Gram, cashier's check, money order, shipping, escrow service, or a "guarantee"
- inability or refusal to donate via PayPal.
- Asks for a fee in order to receive a donation.
Examples of Scams
1. Someone claims that iBeggar will guarantee a transaction, certify a buyer/seller, OR claims that iBeggar will handle or provide protection for a payment.
- These claims are fraudulent, as iBeggar does not have any role in any transaction.
- Scammer will often send an official looking email that appears to come from craigslist, offering a guarantee, certifying a seller, providing payment services -- all such emails are fakes!
2. distant person offers a genuine-looking (but fake) cashier's check
- you receive an email (examples below) offering to buy your item, or rent your apartment, sight unseen.
- cashier's check is offered for your sale item, as a deposit for an apartment, or for your services.
- value of cashier's check often far exceeds your item - scammer offers to "trust" you, and asks you to wire the balance via money transfer service
- banks will often cash these fake checks AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE WHEN THE CHECK FAILS TO CLEAR, including criminal prosecution in some cases!
- scam often involves a 3rd party (shipping agent, business associate owing buyer money, etc)
3. Someone requests wire service payment via Western Union or MoneyGram:
- Scam "bait" items include apartments, laptops, TVs, cell phones, tickets, and other high value items
- Often claim that an MTCN or confirmation code is needed before he can withdraw your money - this is FALSE, once you've wired money, it is GONE.
- Common countries currently include: Nigeria, Romania, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, Netherlands - but could be anywhere
- Apartment listing may be local, but landlord/owner is "travelling" or "relocating" and needs you to wire money to them abroad
- Deal often seems too good to be true, price is too low, rent is below market, etc
4. distant person offers to send you a money order and then have you wire money:
- this is ALWAYS a scam, in our experience - the cashier's check is FAKE
- sometimes accompanies an offer of merchandise, sometimes not
- scammer often asks for your name, address, etc for printing on the fake check
- deal often seems too good to be true
5. distant seller suggests use of an online escrow service.
- most online escrow sites are FRAUDULENT, operated by scammers
- for more info, do a google search on "fake escrow" or "escrow fraud"
6. distant seller asks for a partial payment upfront, after which he will ship goods
- he says he trusts you with the partial payment
- he may say he has already shipped the goods
- deal often sounds too good to be true
7. foreign company offers you a job receiving payments from customers, then wiring funds
- foreign company may claim it is unable to receive payments from its customers directly
- you are typically offered a percentage of payments received
- this kind of "position" may be posted as a job, or offered to you via email
Actual scam emails sent to iBeggar users:
"The $1174.99 can be donated to you right away but you have to be able to afford a refundable fee, this fee will allow me have the access to initiate the fund transfer to you."
"The fee is needed inorder to verify the transfer of your donation and it is just $51. It is when this is paid that your donation can go through to you. - pattgardner@yahoo.com". Person using the name Pat Gardner is a known scammer.
