2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward: the first five people to comment on this status will receive something from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a gift - perhaps a book, or baked goods, or a candle or music, something homemade or store bought- a surprise! There will likely be no warning and will happen whenever the mood strikes me.
The catch? Those five people must also make this their Facebook status.
I commented on her post and thought I didn't make the cut. To my surprise, she replied and told me I made it. It's not that I want a free gift or something, I just thought, it's a good way to pass acts of random kindness around. Imagine the amount of time and effort you will put just to send something special you handpicked yourself or even created out of love to five lucky friends you may know personally or not. Just the thought of that is a great gift in itself.
Well, I posted it in my Facebook wall a while ago and I already have 1 friend taker. So, head on to my profile wall in Facebook and comment if you want to be amongst the lucky five to receive something special from me. Your comment here won't count though. Sorry about that.
WARNING. Do NOT comply with this chain letter type message that is going around Facebook like wild fire. This could be a GRAVE DANGER to you and others.
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2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward. The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a gift - perhaps a book, baked goods, coffee, or, music, or a surprise! There will likely be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me. The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their FB status. Who's in?
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What is the problem here? If you are one of the first 5 people to post a comment, you'll have to provide the person with your physical location address, in order to be mailed a "gift" at some indeterminate future time.
The reason this is not a good idea is that we all probably have accepted friend requests from strangers who SEEMED to be okay. Or from friends of friends. It's not wise to give unknown, or vaguely identifiable people, your land address, especially if you're a woman, a teenage girl, elderly, disabled, or otherwise vulnerable.
Even if you know the person well, the whole idea of posting a comment to get a "gift" will encourage the meme, the viral aspect of this dubious and potentially dangerous practice. It may even be part of an identity theft operation.
If you are copying and pasting this message, I advise you to delete the post from your wall. Even if you're a good person with good intentions, the very idea of this is not a good idea to be propagating on Facebook. It's a weird way to fish for comments, it's a randomized ploy, and it just accustoms people to engage in potentially dangerous behavior online.
You should NOT give out your physical location, home address, phone number, or other sensitive information to anybody online, unless you really, truly, genuinely know them and trust them, preferably in the real world, and not just as someone online with whom you have interacted and engaged in conversations.
A girl may be a man. A single may be married. A person with similar political views or music tastes could be a predator, hacker, or identity thief. Stay safe. Avoid complying with messages like this that may SEEM good intentioned, but could be a trick to get your home address, then do you harm online or in the real world.
Thanks Steven. You're right. I didn't see it your way but your points are very valid esp at this time where everyone can be just anyone. Thank you very much for the warning. Next time, I will see every angle before I consider promoting it. You just brought senses back...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/Creative.Pay.It.Forward
ReplyDeleteJust make sure your 5 people are people you know and you will be a-ok. Are you really 'friends' with a bunch of strangers on Facebook Steven???
ReplyDeleteWay to take the fun out of life and be super cynical... and you are literally going around to peoples blogs and posting this same thing... ouch... you must be a very angry and lonely person...
wow, the post is ment to be sent to friends and family as a good thing. Are you trying to make people paranoid. In the world we live in today things like this are few and far between. More like this is needed in the world then maybe people wont be so paranoid. Now i know YOUR intentions are in good faith, but try not to take something like this, that comes from the good in peoples hearts, and turn it into a conspiracy theory! (P.S. i enjoy a good conspiracy theory myself but this is ridiculous)
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