Rotting The Basket

Greg Rozsa, my friend who started Help​With​Ka​t​rina​.com and who has already brought tons of sup­plies to the home­less in and around New Orleans (you can see pic­tures he took on the web­site), receives hate mail on a daily basis.

This breaks my heart.

But what’s worst is that his web­site was tem­porar­ily shut down today because of com­plaints. Now, I acknowl­edge the fact that scam­mers are ram­pant and come out of the wood­work to take advan­tage of sit­u­a­tions like these. But Greg is a good man with a big heart.

And there’s some­thing else that irks me to no end…

My girl­friend said it best: “Tragedies like this bring out the best in peo­ple, and also bring out the worst.” Here’s a sam­pling of hate mail he’s received:

“Hi Smart Guy! USA is the super coun­try and doesn’t need any poor individual’s con­tri­bu­tions for Kat­rina releif!! So, stop doing this ‘smart” thing because evey­body knows by this, you are ONLY fill­ing your ‘pocket’!!”

“how good are your con­tracts if you can’t even spell sim­ple words?”

“what about the 1000 that died in Iraq women and children?”

“You aren’t help­ing any­one with your weak fundraiser. There are mil­lions being donated to “real” orga­ni­za­tions. Step out of the way lit­tle boy, and let the pro’s han­dle it”

“I don’t know who you think you are, but you are wast­ing your time with this web­site. Stop it now.”

“Scum­bags like you make me sick. It’s a shame you are tak­ing advan­tage of a national tragedy to fill your bank account.”

Unbe­liev­able.

Greg’s story was picked up by PR Newswire and Yahoo! News, and pub­lished on Yahoo! It’s very well doc­u­mented with the proof I’ve described ear­lier, cou­pled with Greg’s already long-​​time good stand­ing in the Inter­net community.

And now, his web­site is down. Appar­ently, some agency is inves­ti­gat­ing him for fraud. (Greg has since found out it was because of a band­width issue, not a scam risk. But even then, the host­ing com­pany gave con­tra­dic­tory responses, and should have at least noti­fied Greg. They didn’t. And their responses were vague. Hmmm…)

What really irks me is this…

Greg has posted oodles of pic­tures of him and Jeff buy­ing the food and sup­plies, load­ing up the trucks, bring­ing them to the home­less shel­ters, dis­trib­ut­ing them (and actu­ally cook­ing the food for the home­less, too!), and post­ing copies and scans of receipts on the site — open and ready for any­one to see. You can’t be any more above board than this.

But…

… This is not so, appar­ently, to some peo­ple who decide to launch com­plaints — and then forc­ing com­pa­nies like these to make shot­gun deci­sions with­out inves­ti­ga­tion. When peo­ple com­plain, it cre­ates tons of ner­vous­ness for com­pa­nies — and often, these com­plaints, while some are gen­uine, are often unfounded. Here’s an exam­ple.

The biggest rea­son given as to why the site “appeared” like a scam is that peo­ple found the site via Google AdWords. Lit­tle do peo­ple know that the AdWords cam­paign was actu­ally donated by my girl­friend, Sylvie Char­rier, of Worka​holic​s4Hire​.com.

Sylvie was so peeved and incensed about the fact that Greg and Jeff were accused of being scam­mers sim­ply because they were “run­ning AdWords,” that she posted this rebut­tal. The cam­paign was entirely paid for by her and her alone, with­out Greg know­ing about it until lately.

And I agree with her rebut­tal 100%.

For those who fail to look past the “saleslet­ter” and “ads,” shame on you. And for those trigger-​​happy orga­ni­za­tions who blindly pun­ish gen­er­ous souls with­out inves­ti­ga­tion and at the mere unfounded complaint…

… Shame on you. You are worse than the truly uneth­i­cal and vile peo­ple who fraud­u­lently profit in times like these — the very peo­ple you’re try­ing to avoid or shut down in the first place.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

• How to Capture and Captivate Attention
• The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction
• Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness
• Changes, Relaunches, and Extreme Makeovers
• Superior Value Equals Superior Sales

Other Related Posts

• WordPress, Trademarks And Apologies
• Extortion: The New Get-Rich-Quick Scheme?
• What Copy Cosmetics Communicate
• Web Two-Point... What?
• Thou Shall Make The Ordinary Extraordinary