Since I became literate enough to sign up for a social media account (roughly 8 years old) it has proven itself true time and time again that the internet is not a haven for the most trustworthy individuals. You might scoff at this notion, but I assure you it is true. From Nigerian email scams to phishing for Steam accounts, running confidence scams is a time-tested strategy for exploiting less savvy web users. A more recent example of such a scam is what I call the refugee ruse. It is anything but sophisticated. The scammer-to-be will create a social media account and claim to be a victim of some far-off war (anecdotally, usually the Israel-Palestine war), throw a sham pity party for themselves, and beg for donations to escape their war-torn country. They'll repost content in support of their alter ego's country, and maybe some other scams if they're feeling cheeky. They will sparsely give concrete status updates, instead vaguely gesturing to their gratitude for all the money oblivious strangers are giving them. Don't fall for this cheap shit. Please. It's very easy to spot a scam if you only put in the minimal amount of effort. Bashar Inshasi is probably not a real person. However, Darina Bishop is. She lives in Queensland, Australia and has made over 60,000 Australian dollars off the back of this bullshit. So, why are these scams so successful? Well, personal solutions are always going to be easier to swallow than political solutions. Why Free Palestine when you can free one Palestinian? Throw more money at this one person! That's how you get things done! This is not activism. It can't even be called slacktivism. It's just ignorance, the very ignorance endemic to solving these issues. Nobody can rid themselves of ignorance, of course. You are not immune to propaganda, or deceit, or other ignorant people. You can, however, be less ignorant. So think about what you give money and attention to. Don't be a sucker.