[ExI] due diligence

[spike]

Data hipsters, do offer me please a suggestion or two.  I have a friend who
has money, doesn't use the internet a lot, almost never for anything other
than business-related stuff.  Recently he read somewhere an inspiring
something (details intentionally omitted) that causes him to want to do a
charitable act for the author, enough to make a real difference in this
person's life.  The only relevant details: this benefactor is happily
married for a long time, fifty-something, American, several children,
upstanding sort, honest, kind and good, etc.  The recipient is
twenty-something, single, have no idea what she looks like and he doesn't
care, completely irrelevant for what he wants to offer.  The benefactor
wants exactly NOTHING in return, nothing.

 

In any case, this is a situation in desperate need of some basic due
diligence, the same way one would investigate before making any investment.
The recipient is in Britain somewhere.  Do you lads have anything analogous
to our Spokeo for instance, something to do some top-level spot checking?
It might be as simple as reverse-lookup of an address, to see that Jane Ayre
(pseudonym) lives there, rather than Mohammad M. Mohammad from Nigeria, just
for starters.  Any other ideas on how to spot check an inspiring internet
story for truthiness?

 

I had to advise my friend that in its current form the plan is 18 molar
hydro-bad-idea-chloride, an unstable chemical that can decompose rapidly and
spontaneously when mixed with reality, leaving behind nothing but pure
bad-idea, in a highly toxic environment.

 

spike  

 

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