Does Giving Mean Getting Taken Advantage Of?

Christmas. This is the season of giving, but where does giving turn into getting taken advantage of?

Let me explain myself. I was raised in believing that good things happen to those who believe. But sometimes bad things happen and you have to lean on someone to help make magic happen around the holidays.

Typically a person in that situation will turn to Goodwill, Toys for Tots, or a local church or a government agency like Public Aid to help provide something for Christmas. In Princeton, Illinois certain needy parents are sent a special pass to "shop" for their children. The "Toy Shop" is fully supplied by donations, and the parents are escorted by a volunteer to "shop" for free for toys which could range from getting a Barbie to even getting a Bike. Each child can get up to three toys. Other towns have something called a "Giving Tree or Angel Tree" and someone picks a family to buy gifts for. The gifts then are delivered to the home along with a food basket.

But there are people who do not qualify for the benefits like these for holidays, and have turned to a new avenue of providing gifts. In a new world of high tech communications, it is only logical that people turn for help on the net. People joining communities or groups on sites like Yahoo, Google, and AOL in order to have their Christmas lists filled.

Groups like families_in_need,Buddy's Mansions Angels, both Yahoo groups, and Wish upon a Hero offer to adopt a family for the holidays. Though the sites do warn that not every request will be filled, requests flood in everyday. My concern is how do the moderators know if they are being scammed by someone. How do they know the sob story they hear or read is legit and not someone out to get what they can?

For example I know someone who posted something about losing her job, her husband losing his, the family living in a run down home and it is all fake. How do I know ? I have seen her house and her husband works at Best Buy part-time. It is all lies to get gifts for her kids. All of it a means to an end.
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OK lets give her a benefit of the doubt, lets say it is all true. She is really that far off, she is dead broke, where do the sites draw the line on requests posted. She posted at least three times today and on two different group postings. That is a total of six times and that was before she decided to post her kid's "Wish List".
You see some of these sites ask for a Walmart Wish list. Well her "Wish list" contained 70 items, you heard me 70 items. That is 23.3 items per child, what on earth is this woman teaching her children. I have four kids and they can't name four items for Christmas, let alone 70.

What amazed me it the audacity this woman had to post a list that long and most are high priced items.Out of 70 less than thirty items were under $20 dollars. She requested a Disney Pink Princess MP3 player, which runs close to $88, and a Talking Dora the Explorer which runs for $98.

Where has the meaning of Christmas gone if a person will go out of there way to scam sites that want to help people. There are people who are worse off then this woman is and she wants $30 comforter sets for her kids beds. What about the woman posted on Wish upon an Hero asking just for people to send cards to her little boy. Or the one where the woman lost her family to a fire. That person actually posted the news release video on the request to validate her claim. People are over looking their requests to give to this woman who literally steals from honest caring people who just want to make someone's Christmas bright.

I have just one thing to say, quoting the line from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, "You are a mean one Mr. Grinch" or should I say Mrs. Grinch. Life is too short for someone to be that greedy. I have said it before to the people who are "angels" or "Hero's" please help the needy ones, really look at what these people are requesting. If it is a high quality product like an MP3 player and three laptops for their kids, beware.