Hey, folks.

This isn’t exactly a pleasant topic, so let’s first try to establish some common ground: Regardless of where you might fall on the political spectrum, and regardless of what your personal beliefs might be, I think that we can generally agree that war is good for absolutely nothing, that numerous situations in the world are downright horrifying, and that we could all do with a bit more in the way of compassion.

Unfortunately, there are entities out there who look at that previous paragraph and immediately think “How can I best swindle compassionate people?”

See, for some time now, a complex situation has been evolving on Reddit: Scammers have been using footage and images of real people and real circumstances – sometimes edited, sometimes not – to direct traffic toward dishonest crowdfunding efforts. You’ve likely seen some of this taking place: Someone purporting themselves to be either in need of aid or providing it floods the site with heartbreaking, inspiring, or harrowing stories, then subtly directs concerned souls to some means of sending money. The accounts disappear as soon as they get caught (sometimes after sending mocking messages to moderators), but the individuals behind them come back with new usernames and new narratives almost immediately thereafter.

At the same time, disinformation-pushers have taken to using the scams as fodder for their propaganda campaigns. “Oh, look, another scam,” they say. “It makes you wonder if anyone is really suffering over there.” Well-meaning individuals respond to those statements with evidence, the evidence gets questioned, and before long, a shouting-match eclipses any sort of accurate information. When the scams get taken down, it’s cited as proof that the propagandists are right... but leaving them up doesn’t help anyone other than the scammers.

/r/Pics is far from the only place being affected by all of this, but it’s arguably one of the largest. As such, we wanted to warn people to be on the lookout for both the dishonesty and the disinformation. The stories are engineered to elicit emotional responses, and the accounts pushing “reasonable” doubt often have hidden agendas. Before reacting or responding to either, stop for a moment and consider how and why you’re being influenced. If you want to make donations, do it through approved and vetted platforms like UN Crisis Relief.

If you see something that you think is a scam, please report it. If you see someone using an assumed scam as an excuse to push propaganda, report them, too. “This is a scam, and here’s the evidence” is fine (and even encouraged), but “These scams prove that there aren’t any real victims” is decidedly not.

It’s unfortunate that we need to make statements like this, and it’s disheartening to know that kindness is being both exploited and twisted into distrust. We can still look out for each other, though, and even if calling out bad actors isn’t a standard display of compassion, it’s one that’s all too necessary in this day and age.

TL;DR: Posters fishing for monetary aid are often scammers. Accounts questioning if aid is even necessary are often run by bad actors. Don’t get taken in by either of them. Help other people avoid them.