I already covered this in the OP, I felt a strong sense of kinship, I would get a lot of warm fuzzies from doing this
I agree that it feels uncharitable to ask hard questions of someone claiming to go through a rough time. But gwern’s proposed suggestion- of donating the money to CI directly, and trying to earmark it for her suspension if she does sign up- feels like it should give the same fuzzies while protecting you from this being a scam. You can even send her an email saying “I donated to CI on your behalf” for some extra fuzzies.
That was in response to this not being optimal philanthropy (something I’m well aware of), not about asking for third party evidence with which I don’t have a problem.
I agree that it feels uncharitable to ask hard questions of someone claiming to go through a rough time. But gwern’s proposed suggestion- of donating the money to CI directly, and trying to earmark it for her suspension if she does sign up- feels like it should give the same fuzzies while protecting you from this being a scam. You can even send her an email saying “I donated to CI on your behalf” for some extra fuzzies.
That was in response to this not being optimal philanthropy (something I’m well aware of), not about asking for third party evidence with which I don’t have a problem.