Beware the feel-good video that makes you donate money
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If there's one thing the world didn't need, it's another reason to doubt the apparent best intentions of others, but thanks to a YouTube filmmaker, that's what we've got.
Twenty-nine million people have so far seen this video in the last week, when a man gave a homeless man $100 to see how he spent it. He spent it providing food to others, according to the video.
It spread quickly via social media, of course, and so did the subsequent IndieGogo campaign to raise money for the man. As of this afternoon, people have donated $135,000.
It's phony.
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“Bro, he drove Thomas to the liquor store,” a witness to the filming says of filmmaker Josh Paler Lin. “While I think the guy is homeless, it is clear that from what I saw every part of that scene was staged.”
The homeless man's real name is Kenny Nickel CBS in Los Angeles is reporting.
“He’s sitting on money,” his brother said. “But this is a scam. This money needs to go to people who really need it.”
"Haters gonna hate, that's all I can say," Paler Lin told Fox in Los Angeles.
The filmmaker has reportedly made over $50,000 in YouTube advertising with his video.
