This was a struggle I dealt with when I did my Donor's Choose fundraiser for new books for my classroom. Luckily, the site has such a good reputation that very few doubted me and I was helped a lot by people who knew me or who were familiar with the site.
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
Unfortunately, it's hard to trust anything you read (hear, see, etc). In this day and age, you've got to figure that most people have an agenda, and it's usually not what they say it is. Personally, I think critical media literacy should be a subject taught in school from early ages through high school to prevent people from taking advantage of others, and to train them to question and use their logic to distinguish fact from fiction.. If we learn nothing else from the Russian interference with the election, hopefully (but doubtfully) we'll learn this.
Don't believe everything that you read.
I was royally conned years ago on MySpace, by a guy in his sixties who was posing as a 30 yr. old lesbian. He duped me for 3 years before I stumbled on a blog he wrote on another site bragging about his hoaxes and how clever he was. I've since learned reverse-image search and IP address tracing, so I'm a lot harder to fool, but I'm sure it still happens to some degree. I just don't let myself get seriously involved with anyone online anymore to play it safe.
I don't always get a response, and it often leads to them not responding anymore which usually tells me what I needed to know. I just want reality. I'll ask for a pic..no face, but maybe a breast showing with a small note that says "for Txtabber" That way at least I'll know I'm truly talking to a woman, or at least a dude with a fun friend. LOL.
