I’m not sure of what kind of situation you’re asking about. If the question is, would I help someone I didn’t know, yes, if I had the means and method to help.
If you’re talking about online, different question. I don’t have any statistics, but my guess would be that of anyone online who asks strangers for help (especially involving money), I would be far more skeptical than I would have twenty years ago.
I would advise NOT to give any help that gives that stranger any of your banking, employment, or home address information. No matter what reason they offer.
It is a tragic truth that dishonest and/or dangerous people have no problem taking advantage of someone willing to help them who has no idea their aims are - often - criminal.
When we feel a connection with someone, we WANT them to be real, to be truthful, to be trustworthy. Sadly, they are most often none of those things. No matter how much we care for them.
There was recently an incident that became famous because it involved a man who became romantically associated with a woman overseas. He left his wife, his children, his life to go to be with her and staged his own death to get away free. It apparently did not work out and he returned to the US to a family that didn’t want him anymore. The woman in question may not even have been a woman. There’s no way to know.
Try finding a charity that is legitimate where you can help without getting destroyed.
