My two cents is that I'm glad this thread was started just to hear others viewpoints. And to learn that the private PMs that were going on from "strangers" were scams and those people are no longer on here (at least that we know of ;)) I do not believe there were any ill intentions in the creation of this thread ~ it was simply a question.
Again, it comes down to the fact that we are all adults. We can choose to read or not read. We can choose to help someone out or not. We can choose WHO we want to help, IF we want to. No one on here is making anyone do anything they don't want to do. Don't like the thread? Don't read it.