#THE VET BILL ASKS ARE A SCAM

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

Tried to tip a tumblr blog at 1am and it was such a suspicious transaction it immediately put a full fraud freeze on my account

Fortunately, banks no longer just ask 'did you make that transaction' they want to make sure you weren't scammed into making that transaction and 5mins after their call will give away all your money anyway.

This is an honest to goodness life saving movement and I cannot be happier banks are adopting it

Unfortunately, it meant I had to have the most embarrassing financial call of my life

-

Me: Ah yeah I was just trying to tip a tumblr blog

Cash: right and were you directed there by a Facebook link? An Instagram advert?

Me: no I was just on tumblr...on purpose

-

Caah: and this person asked you for money?

Me: oh no they just had a funny story, which happened to be about money and I thought, "wouldn't it be funny if I tipped them"

-

Me: * covering a reblog by reblog update on the adventures my mutual was having *

Cash: okay I don't think that can actually happen though..

Me: It might not have, but i was happy to tip them just because it was funny

-

Cash: and how well do you think you know this person?

Me: *considers explaining how much I know about a beloved mutual without ever knowing their name or face* ... I have no idea who this person is

I think in the end Cash decided there was no saving me from myself

[grey-tones]

Stressing

[maodun]

Hi, sorry! just trying to reach out for help if it’s okay! My cat is in need of urgent care so I’m trying to raise some funds for his upcoming vet care visit, I made a post about it and I pinned it on my blog, hoping that you’d be so kind to help me spread the word, please as every bit of help can get him one step closer to relief. I would truly appreciate it and i pray that all goes well on your end, too! stay safe! By the way, if its possible, try to answer this ask in private or mesage me if fine, reason is that, people might think I "pressured" you to do so, as some people can be weird about these things. Sorry again for being direct. 🥹🙏

oh hey your paypal - what's that url?

country.x=PH that's phillipines. your paypal destination is not even close to the locale of the story you've likely stolen from someone else. either way you're making it up that you're in Blissfield/Ann Arbor, Michigan :)

[roosterbox]

Hi there! Sorry if im being too direct its just that I’m trying to reach out for help if it’s okay! My cat is in need of urgent care so I’m trying to raise some funds for her upcoming vet care visit, an ultrasound to be exact. I made a post about it and I pinned it on my blog, hoping that you’d be so kind to help me spread the word, please as every bit of help can get her one step closer to relief. I would truly appreciate it and i pray that all goes well on your end, too! stay safe! By the way, if its possible, try to answer this ask in private or mesage me if fine, reason is that, people might think I "pressured" you to do so, as some people can be weird about these things. 🙏🥹

My first cat scam ask. I’m kind of honored.

Biggest red flags:

the vague copypasta of an ask (that I saw several of when I searched up “cat scam,” some with the EXACT SAME wording)

the fact that other than the ‘pls donate’ post all their reblogs are tagless commentless random fandom reblogs

the blog is like 2 days old

asking me to ‘answer privately’ and to donate on PayPal via ‘friends and family’ on their pinned post. Which is also a very common scam tactic.

Asker, if you really are genuinely looking for vet money help, please consider a different method. One that uses less easily searchable copypasta messages.

Blocking after posting this, fyi.

[tangledinink]

Hello sorry for tagging. I am very sick, my asthma is at its maximum level, my nose freezes, I have no medicine or food. I am in bad shape financially, I am a black disabled, who uses multiple medications, I pay for my food and lodging

Unfortunately I do not have all the resources to keep me safe, that is why I need your help, whatever you can contribute to me will be of great help.

Okay kids, are you ready for a lesson in SPOTTING ONLINE SCAMS????

*please don't message this person or harass them-- i do recommend that you report and block them, however.

right now it's incredibly important to give time, attention, and money to online fundraisers. but it's also incredibly important not to let scammers take advantage of that and steal money that could actually save lives right now.

firstly-- if we go to this person's blog, and navigate to "archive--"

this person's blog has only existed for a few days, only has a handful of generic posts (many reblogged multiple times,) and made their first reblog the same day that they posted their "fundraiser" post. this is a MASSIVE red flag.

please also note that neither their ask nor post actually mention palestine or gaza at all, but it's still tagged with "free palestine" and "gaza."

though this one should obviously be taken with a grain of salt, it is also worth noting the poor grammar here, because this can be (but isn't always!!!) another red flag. Note also that all the details are really vague and don't quite make sense... user describes "enduring cold" and their "nose freezing" though it's the middle of the summer. This user says that they're "sick," but doesn't really offer any further details about this. This user says that they need money for "resources," but don't elaborate on what exactly they need. They vaguely elude to a need for lodging, caretakers, and medicine, but don't actually give us any details-- despite this they have a "$1200" goal. What is this specific goal of $1200 for? Is that the cost of their medication? Overdue medical bills? Cost for rent this month?... They also apologize in their ask for "tagging" me... but they didn't tag me. They sent me an ask.

Another red flag is that their link labeled "Fundraiser link" leads directly to a Paypal donation page rather than a gofundme or anything else. If someone chooses to collect aid through paypal, venmo, etc. instead of through a gofundme, that's not a huge issue in and of itself... but it is fishy that it's mislabeled like this.

And if we GOOGLE this user's tumblr name or paypal name, we can find results like this:

This also led me to find them on @/kyra45's blog on their list of current scam accounts.

Despite all this, they have close to 100 reblogs from well-meaning people trying to signal boost and ask for donations on their behalf.

With the current situation in Palestine and the amount of actual, legitimate fundraisers and donations being circulated right now, for Palestine, Sudan, the Congo, or otherwise, it is more important than ever to be aware of people who are trying to take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain. Whenever possible, please take the time to do some due diligence when you receive messages like this and check to see if a fundraiser is legitimate! It always sucks for someone to be the victim of a scam and lose money to someone playing pretend on the internet... but it sucks even more when that money could have gone to people in actual, acute, dire need.

Here's some more information about spotting scams on tumblr! Shoutout to tumblr user kyra45 for compiling this, and for all the other hard work they do-- thanks.

Here's an actual, vetted, and legitimate campaign that could use your support. After receiving this ask, I went and donated. If you have the means to do so, it would be amazing if you did so, too.

[ see ALL gaza funds campaigns here ]

[kyra45]

thetreeonthecountryside/thetreepoink is a scam account

They’ve now conned people out of $130 so please share this post to bring awareness that their post is a scam post. (Link removed as the account deactivated.)

The blog is a scammer. They don’t own Elvira and here is how I know. The PayPal address their using isn’t the one owned by the actual owner. The real owner isn’t a tumblr user and their post has been stolen by the scam account word for word. No money donated to the PayPal username kathnicols is going to the cat. Also the PayPal address is in the Philippines and if you pay attention to the vet bill it’s for MA.

The blogs bio is stolen from another blog.

Which is basically the scammer trying to look like someone’s alt account.

Please don’t donate to thetreeonthecountryside/thetreepoink. They block/delete any reblogs/comments that call them out so you have to do it another way. This scammer doesn’t care about this cat they just stole it off Facebook. Here is the original owners posts.

The ask being sent:

“Greetings! Hi there! Pardon me for being this direct. But my little kitty needs your help, i know times are tough but please if you have some time to spare, kindly boost/share the post I pinned for her. It would be so meaningful to me as I’m hoping it would reach more people.. please 💔🙏 praying you’d consider, and pls kindly send me a msg for a response or answer the ask privately so I could atleast thank you for doing us a favor! Wishing you good health and peace! 🫶🏽”

Update

They deactivated, but unfortunately that means their post can still spread by reblogs. However, they can’t delete any reblogs that call them a scammer.

Update 2

Remade as tinytreees.

Update 3

Changed to immatinytree

[scam-alerts]

🚨Scammer Alert🚨

Account running this scam: crusadingcross

Type of scam: Vet bill / donation scam

How / why this is a obvious scam:

1 - "He is an 8 year old ragdoll"

That is obviously a black cat. Not a ragdoll.

This is a ragdoll:

2 - Vet is in Minnesota, but the Paypal is based in the Philippines...?

Thank you to @kyra45 for the second screenshot which can be found here. :)

Also as noted in Kyra's post, this vet bill is from a post on a facebook group where it was stolen from and is being used for this scam here on tumblr. If you want proof, DM @kyra45 for it.

3 - 'send the money through friends and family'

Never send money to someone through friends and family unless you know them personally. If you send them (a scammer) money through friends and family, once they're found out to be a scammer, you cannot request this money to be returned to you due to it being considered a personal gift.

----------

How to reverse image search an image to find the source.

Current list of documented scammers: Part 3

Helpful guides on how to spot scams. (by @kyra45)

Disclaimer:This post is only meant to serve as documentation and reference material so that others know: why this person is a scammer, and to provide more information about the scam they are running. I do not, in any way, endorse harassment or mass reporting these users. Only report posts related to asks, comments, or messages if you GET them or ones like them. Thank you.

[mythalism]

id like to make my stance abundantly clear for anyone who follows me.

first of all, the vast majority of gaza fundraisers are not scams. i do not reblog any fundraisers that have not been vetted in some way. some popular vetters include @gazavetters (they had some issues which you can read more about here, but has been re-confirmed as an legitimate list) and @gaza-evacuation-funds. there are also several individuals who have worked extensively to vett fundraisers, such as @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein and @/90-ghost and they have some great masterposts about fundraisers and which to prioritize according to your ability to give here and here.

the process of vetting these is usually quite intensive and includes sending images of each of the individuals mentioned in the fundraiser, sending photos of IDs to match names, speaking in specific palestinian arabic dialects, and much more. many usual users also reverse image search the photos posted to confirm they cannot be found elsewhere online, and you can do this yourself with any fundraiser you see. with the thousands and thousands of skeptical eyes on these fundraisers, its extremely unlikely that scams are slipping through the cracks. any that i have seen have been immediately identified, called out, and taken down.

on top of this, gofundme specifically protects all donations. this means that if, on the off chance, a fundraiser was proven to be a scam, you will get a refund. and you actually get the refund. i literally got a refund for a donation i made just the other week. whether or not that fundraiser was a scam is not definitive, because gofundme also frequently takes down legitimate fundraisers due to accusations of scamming. but regardless, there is no reason to worry about your money. you will get refunded.

if the idea of donating to these mutual aid campaigns still makes you uncomfortable, thats fine. there are a variety of well-established NGO's and nonprofit organizations that you can donate to, including several UN agencies such as the UNRWA, UN crisis relief, and UNICEF palestine, as well as palestine's children relief fund, islamic relief USA, and the human development fund. personally i prefer to donate to mutual aid campaigns, but they are not the only way to help. i also really love gaza funds which will randomly generate you a vetted fundraiser to donate to each time you click it.

if your reaction to all this is to dismiss all of it as a scam, to dismiss these thousands of people as liars, to dismiss the palestinian bloggers spending their time verifying these campaigns as liars and manipulators, i'd ask you to consider why that was your first instinct. why do you assume the worst of these people? do you make the same assumption when you see a mutual aid fund on your dashboard from an american gofundme to pay their medical bills? do you make the same assumption for funds you see on your dash for surgery to save someone's cat? whats so different this time?

if you are uncomfortable with having to see images of blood, gore, starving and malnourished children, sick babies, bodies in body bags, houses now rubble, while you sit from the comfort of your still-standing home, i would ask you to get a fucking grip. especially if you are american and your tax dollars are funding those bombs like mine are. its supposed to make you uncomfortable. you should feel uncomfortable that we are complacent in this. whatever excuse you want to use for why you should be exempt from seeing these things is a moot point. PTSD, phobias, autism, general overwhelm at the state of the world, ive seen it all. do you think the palestinians being bombed dont have PTSD? do you think there are no palestinians with autism? do you think they are not overwhelmed at the state of the world? do you think it is not triggering to them to witness this happen to their friends and families and selves? YOU can unfollow me. YOU can close the tumblr tab. YOU can close your fucking eyes. to avert your eyes to this violence is a privilege that these people do not have.

now let's get hypothetical. lets say that 50% of these fundraisers are scams by some evil asshole who wants to buy a new car or a russian psyop or whatever the fuck else people are saying. frankly, that doesnt change anything for me. even if 75%, 90%, 99% of these fundraisers are scams, i literally do not care. because if my donation or reblog helps even ONE single palestinian feed their family that night, or evacuate, or get medicine, or even just feel less alone and like the world cares about them for a single moment, then it was all worth it. even if 100% of them are scams (they're not.) i would keep spreading them, and supporting them because even if this or that fundraiser itself was fake, the story these pages tell are real for someone in gaza somewhere, and the photos of the carnage they are facing are real, and i would support them because i would still be bringing awareness to an issue that the world has been largely content to ignore for the past 70 years. i would be using my small platform to change a few minds. i would be letting any palestinian who might follow me know that i am with them. whether or not they are real changes nothing.

i will continue to be outspoken in my support. ive been talking about this since i made my blog and my pinned post is literally a fucking fundraiser, you knew what you were signing up for. and if you have a problem with it you are not welcome here. get lost and go fuck yourself. when your kids or nephews and nieces ask you in 30 years what you did during the palestinian genocide, i hope you're happy with the answer you are able to give them.

[fallow-grove]

btw the "i need money for my cat's vet bill" ask scam is still alive and well. its genuinely upsetting that people or groups or whoever the hell is running that are so willing to take advantage of others' compassion by lying to them. stay safe out there kids

[u-reblogged-a-scam]

Do not donate your money to, or reblog any posts from, @/furryreviewearthquake bc they are a scammer. Take down any of your reblogs if you haven’t already done so.

Oh look, my header is different! That’s bc I’m doing things a bit differently this time

I received some links to lists of know scammers from @slenbee, who’s part of a group of scam busters. Their lists include the names of scam blogs and their go-to scams (insulin, evacuation, etc.), as well as where they found their evidence for each call out. It’s a good list, and I thought I’d chip in and add some more evidence for each scammer that isn’t in these posts

Before I get into my list, I recommend you check out their posts here and here, as well as the evidence links provided in each one

Now, here are OP’s red flags:

OP previously went by “lastdosesworld”; the name they’re currently using in their empty PayPal (which are ALWAYS included in these scams) is ��Alice Simatei”, but, if I’m assuming that only one person ever uses this pfp, they also have PayPal accounts under “Ronald Ogwila” (when they were “devotedclassycollector”) and “Sally Cheruiyot” (when they were “decaffeinatedcrusadesweets”)

(Regardless if these are the same person or not, you should still be wary of all of them)

This is yet another diabetic Palestinian scam (a common scam going around that’s used to prey on your sympathy during a genocide)

Their current “fundraiser” has a goal of $460; real Palestinian fundraisers are tens of thousands of dollars

OP is using a pfp that’s very familiar to me, as I’ve seen it used for other scams before. If you see this pfp, check for any signs they’re a scammer, bc they most likely are ⤵️

As I always say in my posts: Never trust a donation post linked to an empty PayPal account unless said link has been verified by a trusted source

Here’s an additional resource to help you spot the red flags of scams moving forward:

And here are some posts that go a little more in depth about the scammers that have been repeatedly spotted:

Tagging as many people in the notes of OP’s fundraiser post as I can; if anyone who sees this can reach out to those in the notes I didn’t tag and let them know this is a scam, that’d be really helpful not just for me, but for them as well

@firminfollowing @davi-remastered @riottalker @bbluberrys @palacholic @dinkdonkjoolian @incorrect-targon-quotes @kalbimeyakin @lollipopjewel @sareenawails @lovley-frog @jesse-pinko @fractoluminescence @kira-quartz @pixiedust5959 @cherub11m @that-dumb-bitch @myiahereesstuff @lolohe12 @caeleas @haplophrynemolliz @yonderghostshistories

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

With regard to donating to fund-raisers and the analogy to panhandlers, what do you make of the difference in scale that the internet makes possible? I absolutely agree with the underlying approach — I keep $40 in my wallet so that I always have a $20 to give to panhandlers I see — but there's a limit to how many dishonest panhandlers a person is likely to run into. Internet spam and scams are of a staggeringly larger scale; for example, the head of trust and safety for Dreamwidth has put the scale of these scam networks in the millions of accounts. Obviously vetting practises help a great deal, and I think initiatives like Crips For ESims For Gaza are great, but I'm a little bit hung up on the analogy to in-person panhandling when the scale is so different.

Disclaimer: my tone may sound harsh here, I am having trouble softening my words one this right now, but I truly mean no frustration towards you and really appreciate this question as an opportunity continue this conversation in the Commons constructively

I mean. Make a budget for it?

Like. I've said this before, but given I've decided to hunker down in this foxhole, let's do it again.

All my life I've had a panhandling budget because I came from a family where you simply didn't say no to such requests if you didn't have to. But much like the tired old analogy at this point, you can't help someone else put on an oxygen mask if you've passed out because you don't have enough oxygen yourself.

So my mom told me this was one of those places in life you set a boundary with yourself. Identify how much you can actually safely reliably spend towards financial redistribution, and set it aside in cash each pay period to give out.

My mom's approach was very first come, first served. Whoever asked her, she handed out all her cash. I found that when I was trying to create a similar routine for myself that this led to a constant exposure to people I couldn't serve at all. So I created "allotments". It became my routine to take out a $20 bill at my bank every pay period, and then have the teller give it to me in $5 bills. The first 4 people I met who asked for it got a fiver.

Then came the digital age. Cash wasn't the main way people asked for money anymore, and my fivers were simultaneously going farther and going nowhere at all for weeks on end, especially during the pandemic when I became largely housebound.

These days, I keep $10 cash in 2 fivers, and each pay period I restock it if it's been depleted, and add $10 to a digital distribution fund (I use money transfer apps like venmo, paypal, and cash app for parking this money until expenditure). My allotment is still the same, $5/ask. During low-density ask periods, I will donate my "excess" at the end of a 3month period to a bail fund or prison penpal program, and if there IS no excess, it's because I was able to distribute the funds myself.

They're not big donations, but a lot of the time I've been able to make them recurring. Obviously, genocide upon genocide upon pandemic upon genocide has meant that I rarely have excesses, and many asks have to go unanswered by me. At least if I want to keep my own household alive and well. And I've been told in the past that some even prefer getting my repeat small petty cash funds over getting larger one time donations.

It's still hard to be constantly exposed to desperate asks you can't answer, but when you treat it like a sustainability thing (this is a thing I can continue doing indefinitely vs this is a thing I can only sometimes do without hurting myself).

Like any budget, sometimes things get tight. Mine has been bigger and smaller at times and there have even been deeply painful periods where my budget was, legitimately, $0. But once that changed, I was right back to it.

The more the world changes, the more it stays the same I guess

[tired-and-unjellied]

FUCK YOU BOGAS

It seems the scammer found out I called them out 🫣 (I reported their post)

Pasting the post under the read more:

Here is good old Steven, seen 4 days ago:

I'm just going to copy and paste the last post:

and a new post describing him as a scam:

[12percentspider]

To anyone who has a donation post up regardless of reason:

Please be careful of comments asking you to contact someone for either a large donation or a fundraiser boost. There are scam bots that are programmed to seek out fundraising campaigns to offer them help spreading the word or to offer large donations.

I have seen them on vetted fundraisers, please be alert. If someone is offering you "help" in exchange for money, or wants you to talk to someone who "helped them", it is very likely you will lose money instead. The account "delightfulvoidgiver" is one of them, example:

I have been a good mother to my kid since I lost my husband have been able to pay my family bills hacker_zyan10 on Instagram make me smile when ever I feel so sad there help me clear all my bills and help me when ever I’m in need thanks a lot hacker_zyan10 Click on there [link removed] if you really need help there will help you out there are honest and loyal

It's not real. It's a bot designed to scam people who are in need.

[silurisanguine]

New scammers

So....scammers here have always used what ever you post to try and emotionally pull you to send money to them. Because I post pics of cats - scammers dm me with '"please help me pay vets bills for my poor sick cat" Because I post about the awful American healthcare system - "please help me buy insulin." Because I post support for Palestine " Please help pay for help ..."

you get the picture. (Hell sometimes they bring out wombocombos...like what I just had that triggered this...."I need insulin im in Palestine".) All these scam artists pages are the same. Newly created, most posts less than 5 days ago. All with either the exact same post they link to in their DMs, or random posts linked to their claim. Often their likes are locked and there is nothing else on their page. They dont follow you, just randomly pick you from what ever search they did on here. But they are ALL working on your emotional response to not check, not be careful. Do not fall for it. if you are feeling generous or are not sure if it might just be a real ask...there are plenty of better avenues to ask for help you can reply with. Sub Reddits dedicated to donating money. Direct help to Palestine can be found here via many posts.

A random person though, coming out of the blue and dm'ing you to send them money without any other contact? That's a scam.

[bunjywunjy]

Greetings Your Bunjyness!

Just received a follow & message from an account called bunjyqueue asking for help with vet bills. Profile also had some dragons. Wondering if it's you or someone you know, or a potential scam. If it is legit, I'm afraid I don't have anything to spare. I'm just squeaking by myself. Anyway I thought I'd bring it to your attention, since the account has so many similarities to yours.

Wishing you and Wexter lots of Xtreme Chompin Fun!

-EFO

no that's 100% not me! if they're a real actual person and not a scam they're in no way affiliated with me.

my only other blog is @heyitsbunjy which is just my emergency back door in case of a sudden blog termination

[kyra45]

Donation scams

(Donation scams)

Donation scams are one of the most common scams you’ll find on tumblr, most often distinguished as being from relatively new blogs whose URL’s are autogenerated though this isn’t quite a reliable method of spotting a scam account. Legitimate accounts will often have these autogenerated URL’s but there is other ways to spot scam accounts. This post combines both donation scams and pet donation scams since both are extremely common scam types.

Both scam account types are usually a few days old, has only a few trending posts, no other original posts beyond pinned, and will usually have a PayPal link (though legitimate accounts will have this too, suspicion should be taken if the country doesn’t match a veterinary bill. Example: The bill says it’s in the states but the PayPal says Philippines.)

—

Pet donation scams are fundraising accounts who take the photographs of their pets from Facebook/instagram/etc and repost them here claiming to need veterinary care for the cat/dog/horse/etc and being unable to afford it therefore needing mutual aid from others. Unfortunately the poster may not actually own the animal and has simply stolen their post offsite with edits made to a pre-existing story.

More often then not, these scams will say they were denied ‘care credit’ and will supply a screenshot that’s often stolen from the original post. Otherwise they’ll show images they don’t own, and won’t be able to show you any other images because they don’t own the pet. The vet bill may be edited to cross out a name since scammers tend to use a different one or on rare occasions will completely copy it for themself.

If you ask them questions about the animal, they won’t be able to answer you honestly and may eventually cease contact. Real pet owners would have extra information on hand if you needed it.

—

Donation scams themselves are just as common, generally taking someone else’s post and passing it off as their own. These range from medical emergencies, health related issues that need immediate attention such as being diabetic and needing insulin, or needing help getting an RV for other reasons. There are other scam types, but this post is for a general idea of what these scams are.

Medical scams are often seen as posts of accounts saying they need Humalog (insulin), or saying they need $350 for it which is “nt much” and occasionally even scams that say their nose freezes. Those who actually have a disability would usually easily be able to catch out these scammers because they’d know how Diabetes and such works. This is not to say everyone who posts these is faking it. Scammers tend to have private PayPal accounts with peculiar names though these names often take from real people.

Donation scams also take images from other websites (even Reddit!) to pass off as their own content. Sometimes these images will have watermarks on them proving they came from someone else.

General scams are usually someone saying they need groceries showing images that are USD prices but then lead to a Philippines PayPal address which wouldn’t make sense if the poster is someone in the states.

—

Also not every gfm post you may see is a scammer; It’s very important to search around and locate further details disregarding posts that tell you it’s a scam but doesn’t provide any reasonable evidence and is just calling it a scam on the spot. With gfm fundraisers often getting closed due to false reports, alternative methods may be used so try and see if someone mentions it anywhere.

—

This post is just a basic explanation of common donation scams. Feel free to share it around, but please don’t use it to say everyone needing mutual aid is a scam. If you know what scams are, then that’s good but others may not.