Free doesn’t mean worthless.

One thing that troubles me is the fact people take for granted things that are free.  In particular I’m discussing the support we offer.  We do this for free for a very good reason.  How can you ask for money from people when they’ve just lost everything they have to a scammer.  With the media, we have never taken a payment other than expenses or a meal as we discuss options with them.  After all, the purpose of media appearances is to get the word out that there is a place that people can come to for free help.  A number of times lately we’ve had that thrown back in our faces.  People demanding more and more from us and yet not even willing to give us the details of their scammer.  Let’s not forget that they found us because someone DID share the details.  There has to be give and take.  Also with the media, we can spend hours with them and not even get a mention of the site they had the information from.  Hardly seems acceptable, does it?  Well enough is enough.  What we have is the culmination of years of working with scammers.  Yes, we offer that for free to help people, but if respect isn’t given back then we’ll have to offer less and less.  I’ve already had to stop people calling me as they were quite happy to wake me up at 3am with no regard for me.  Free is free, not worthless.  Let’s not forget that.