The “Give free” group on VKontakte: customer reviews. “Give away for free” - real help or fraud?

The social network "Vkontakte" captivated the group "Give free." They have both global and local coverage: by city or region. In large cities, dozens and even hundreds of such groups coexist at once. If you drive “give free” in a search on a social network, then about 34,936 groups will come out. In Moscow there are more than 350 at the moment. And every day there are more and more of them. But what are these groups: real help and charity or fraud?

Reasons for the popularity of the “Give free” groups

Why are such bands so popular? Based on feedback from the “Give free” communities, we can draw several conclusions about this:

1. People love freebies. They like it when you don’t have to pay for things, but you can get them as a gift. Often these people are able to make money on such things, but they prefer to sit in groups and look for worthwhile things for nothing.
2. Some are trying to cash in on this. Taking a thing as a gift, they resell them already for money. They "work" in several groups at once, monitor expensive things. They are taken from donors and resold at various Vkontakte flea markets. “I give away for free” are trying to fight with such participants, and many accounts the administrators of the “Give away for free” administrators block, but they reappear.
3. There are really needy people who need help: poor, large families, fire victims, etc. But as practice shows, they are a minority.

What is the difference between all the groups “Give free”

After examining the reviews about the groups “Give free” in “Vkontakte”, you can distinguish 3 different options that allow you to draw conclusions about the type of activity:

• The real group in which things are really presented.
• A group that is thus trying to win members and subscribers.
• A group that is trying to lure money from gullible citizens.
  

Real groups

Real groups on the network are enough. Usually in such groups give unnecessary inexpensive things. Donors can ask for a piece of chocolate, kinder surprise or other sweets. There are as many “give for chocolate” ads as are “give free”. Truly worthwhile things are rare there. And they quickly disassemble. Some people spend days in such groups and try to grab good things for themselves.

As they say in the reviews about the group “Give free” in Vkontakte, often the fastest takes things, and not the one who really needs them.

The following is also noted in the reviews:

• Things are taken away by far non-poor people who are able to buy all this themselves.
• Often, the donor receives such messages: “Bring, bring me your gift, then I will take it. I don’t have time to come myself. ”
• The donor of expensive things is thrown a “PM” with a huge number of messages with requests, and sometimes requirements, to give the thing to him.

As you can see from the reviews, even real groups are not as good as they might seem at first glance. Unnecessary things can always be attached not via the Internet. Give, for example, to a shelter or to poor citizens. Then the thing will really bring someone joy.

Groups that try to cheat members

To develop their group and increase the number of subscribers, group administrators can make posts about giving expensive things. People subscribe, repost, like, thereby increasing the reach of subscribers.

Usually the text of the post is as follows: “I will give the phone for free. I’ll select the winner from among those who reposted the record until 02.15. " But no one chooses the winner on 02.15 or 02.16, this is done only for more reposts.

What is the purpose of cheating subscribers? If the group has many members, administrators can receive money for advertising on the group’s page and thereby earn money.

Another option is possible, in which the post authors themselves “PR” themselves due to such groups. These types of ads encourage people to go to the page. This increases attendance.

In reviews of the “Give free” groups, people note that such communities are often blocked. Especially when they dramatically change their type of activity.

Participants doing reposts, putting likes, lose nothing at the same time, but also gain nothing. The worst thing that can happen in this case is an advertisement on your page for scammers and fraudulent groups.

Fraud groups

In such groups, it all starts, as in the previous case. An announcement about an expensive gift is given - a phone, a computer, etc. On a certain day, the donor chooses the winners.

Fraudsters choose several people at once or all reposting as winners. And they send them messages in which they say that the thing will be sent by mail or delivered by courier. But before that you need to pay for mail and courier services. The donor sends an account to which you want to credit the money. He refuses cash on delivery, citing many reasons. After payment, of course, no one sends a gift, the so-called donor blocks all winners or is removed from the social network.

In the reviews about the group “Give free” in “Vkontakte” some users write that they were trying to intimidate them by law enforcement agencies. This happens as follows: if you refuse to pay for delivery or there is temporarily no money for it, the donor still allegedly sends the parcel, which informs the donor. And asks to send all the same money. If a person again refuses to pay, then threats begin.

Of course, the cost of shipping an expensive thing is small, but it is only within the framework of one person. And if 100-200 people transfer money right away, how many rubles will the swindler get rich without doing anything? Such ads also appear in real groups, but administrators are trying to immediately respond and remove obviously fraudulent posts.

How not to fall into the hands of scammers

How to distinguish real groups from fraudulent ones:

• From the feedback on the VKontakte groups “I Will Give for Free” it becomes clear that most fake communities use already published photos of things from the Internet. It is very easy to verify this by uploading a photo to Google Pictures. The search engine will immediately display similar images.
• Dear, new things (computers, phones, other equipment, bicycles, etc.) are rarely given just like that. The vast majority of people are trying to sell such things, even for little money. Or give, give to your friends or relatives. Few well-intentioned people will go to these groups to give expensive things to anyone. In today's economic situation, it’s hard to imagine that someone would give a stranger an expensive thing for free.
• If they offer to pay for delivery even a little money compared to a gift, then this is 99.9% scammers. If donors do not want to deal with delivery issues, then they can place an ad in the groups of their city and give it in person. If sending the item is not difficult, then you can use cash on delivery.
• Publications by template. If in the group all the ads are the same, there are no personal insertions of the authors, then most likely this is a fake group.

Signs of post fraud

There are several signs that make this conclusion:

• The secrecy of the author of the post. In real groups, people who exercise the gift do not hide themselves. Under each post you can see who wrote it.
• Closed comments, as well as closed information about group administrators. In reviews about “Give free” in VK, people often write that in these groups comments are always open. Everyone can write, share the joy of their acquisition. Admins do not hide themselves. Everything is quite open and simple.
• If the donor’s name and surname are open, you can drive him in a search engine or in the Vkontakte network itself, maybe he already tried to commit fraud somewhere.

Finally

What to do if you saw the post “Give free a new iPhone” in your news feed? Scroll further or block such ads? No one in their right mind will make expensive gifts to completely strangers and certainly not in the public of a social network. This is evidenced by the huge number of negative reviews about the groups “Give free” in “Vkontakte”.

No need to wait for a miracle from the groups “Give free”. If real things are given there, then they are usually either cheap, old or worn. Often given to children's things from which the kids grew up, toys and more.