Targeting rich and famous, online beggars thrive on networking websites

Mamdouh Qassim, a banker, sharing his experience, said: "With many Saudi businessmen and authorities available on different social media platforms, we find people asking them for help in various forms. However, in the last couple of days, they have been asking for Eid gift money. They also ask princes to help them pay rent and other bills. Most of these people are ignored or blocked but some princes actually reply and solve their problems."

Khadija Al-Khateib, a housewife, almost fell a victim to one such cyber beggar who used the Syrian crisis to ask for money. "I saw a tweet from a woman who claimed she needed money to feed her children during Ramadan and that her husband had died in Syria. When I responded to her message, she sent me her bank account number. When I checked with the bank, the account was in the name of a man from a different nationality. I was very disappointed," she said. Al-Khateib said when she tweeted back a message after checking with the bank, the person closed the account. "I am sure he has more than one account and he will do the same with other people," she added.

Saudis don't ask only for money, they ask for jobs from authorities. "When you look into authorities' twitter accounts, you will find people sending messages with complaints about unemployment and demanding jobs," said Saeed Al-Shareif, a businessman. "I once offered a job to one of them, but he declined it. This shows that their demands are not genuine and they only want to grab attention and make noise for nothing," he added.

Ignoring these people is the best thing to do, says Nizar Ammar, a businessman. "These people look for account holders with huge followers, believing that they would help them with either a reply or repost their message so it would reach more and more people," he said, adding: "When I see such messages, I ignore them because it looks like a fraud since people who need money don't usually have Internet connection. And if they know how to use the Internet, then it shows they are educated and I'm sure they can find a job," he added.

Arab News contacted the anti-begging department but no one was available to comment.

Source: ARAB NEWS