Online Panhandlers: Buddy, can you spare a bus?

[mandy]

Chances are you've received sob-story spam in your inbox, asking you to send a few thousand to somebody in Nigeria. But while surfing, you're more likely to come across sites using art, humour or sappy stories to get at your virtual wallet.

They are online panhandlers — individuals who ask for money, gifts or other personal payoffs — and they're tough to pin down.

"They fall into a sort of a grey zone," says Evan Hansen, editor-in-chief of Wired News. He notes an often blurry line between those asking for cash to, say, support a blog, and those just flat-out asking for cash.

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