#five-and-fourty

[voidesse]

Guys this happened to me litterally yesterday evening, please be careful and thanks to @panspock that warned me

PSA: CAT MEDICAL BILL SCAM

Please signal boost this if possible to inform your followers about these scams.

Earlier today, I got a message from the account nicole-loves-king, where they asked me to signal boost a post because their cat needed medical help. Here's the ask:

(And you can see the post in question here)

I looked at this post and was immediately put off because they were asking for people to send things through 'friends and family', which if you aren't aware, is a very insecure way to send someone funds using paypal, because you don't have the protections you would get if you used 'goods and services'. So scammers can make off w your money really easily.

I looked at their blog and scrolled down to the end, and I realized their blog was made today! And, all their posts (there weren't many posts to begin with lol) were of trending topics. I noted puss in boots, and welcome to nightvale among others. This is probably how they found me, because I reblogged some of that stuff recently.

Here's the time stamp from their oldest post (notice it says the time, not the date, which means the post was from today):

In their ask, they also tell you to answer privately. Hm, that seems sus. Why would someone not want you to publish a request for help?

So I have a policy where I don't signal boost posts from brand new blogs because, yknow, they could be scams. I posted this, and the scam account blocked me. They also blocked my friend when they replied to their ask and said their blog looked suspicious. I did some more digging, and I found a comment from someone that confirmed my suspicions:

This is in fact a scam!

@nicstonka is almost identical to the above account (nicole-loves-king). Look at the avatar, the pictures, and the paypal address, both accounts even have 'nic' (as in 'nicole') in the name. The only thing that is extremely different is the name of the cat! Yet both blogs also have the name of the cat in their url ('king' and 'tonka'). That should also be a red flag, because usually someone isn't gonna have the name of their pet in their url, only a few posts, and a signal boost for that exact (fake) pet.

Here's a side by side:

Looks at those paypal accounts: nbrunelle519, and nbrunelle391. Nope definitely not a scam /s

And the cat pictures side by side:

Tumblr's "scam" tag is actually full of these reports now, which you can see here. Or if there's nothing there anymore, click here and here for images.

And links to some older PSAs about other cat scams: 1 2 3

So if you see any blogs like this, where all they have is trending posts, it seems like they've copied and pasted an ask to you, or if they're asking you to send things via friends and family, vet them so so so carefully, because chances are you're walking into a scam. Don't just repost things without carefully checking! If you aren't in a position to check carefully, better safe than sorry: don't repost it! Don't let these scams spread.

Pro tip: If a blog is dash only, so you can't view their archive to see when their first post was made, and you're on desktop, you can just open the blog in its dashboard view, then click 'end' on your keyboard over and over until all their posts are loaded. Usually if it's a spam blog, you'll only need to click 'end' 5-6 times, sometimes a bit more, since they only post just enough times to give the appearance they're active, then there's absolutely nothing after that.

If you want more proof someone is a scammer, you can look at the currency they use their post (or the currency shown in the vet bill), then hover over the paypal link and inspect the part of the url that says 'country.x=AA'. The 'AA' is the abbreviation for the country your money is going to! If that country doesn't match the country of the currency shown in the post, it's a scam! Example: someone's post says '$' for USD/CAD dollars, but the country in their paypal link is 'PH', which stands for Philippines, where they use Philippine pesos, not dollars!

Also keep in mind that these are not bots! There is a real person behind these accounts. They have replied to people who wanted to confirm they were real, but their intentions are still to scam you, they just know it looks better if they reply.

Stay safe!!

Edit:

Updating this post to announce the scammer's made more blogs, and they're probably gonna keep doing it! Here's the list so far. (For the blogs in the 'still active' list, notice how similar the pinned posts are!) Feel free to report all of em if you want:

Terminated:

turncoatrune, starlightdisc, xxmy, wxnt, eeyore-pg, coatedpeanbean, starrypanelstars, panelstars, scyllostyle, the-nonbinary-witch, aash-aash, leechness, ash-aahs, commandobutch, lovely-pages, pagefive-to-six, reconnecteed, five-and-fourty, stepsapphic, farmer-butch0, health-pages, turnersapphic, lxve, march-pls-be-good, emberful, imse7en, kassidymaygemz, kassidymaydream, dreamingkassidy, kasdream, live-march

Still active:

confusedskulll, march-lives

Keep in mind you may not receive an ask like the above ones. You may get something simpler like this, instead:

Most of these are cats, but there's also been at least one dog. It's possible they'll try this with other animals too.

If you wanna get even more info on all these accounts and more up-to-date stuff on em, someone is tracking the scams with a dedicated account over here. You can also see a comprehensive list of scammer red flags specifically for tumblr here!

And lastly, you can report the scams using 'report something else' > 'unlawful uses or content' > 'phishing'

[cat-with-no-name]

Hi! Im so sorry for coming across your inbox like this, I know this might come strange and you might hate for this but I just wanna ask for some help if you can maybe possibly take a look the post I pinned for my lil cat, we’re in desperate need of help so a reblog/boost might definitely help us a ton! I hope you’d consider but if not, its okay and I do understand! Wishing you good health and stay safe! Pls send me a msg for a response or answer the ask privately if you could. 😭🙏

no reblogs older than 5h ago, almost all reblogs directly from the original blog like you were just scrolling the most popular posts on tumblr or something, plus the ETERNAL red flag of "don't answer this ask publicly please"

this is gonna be a report/block for scamming fammmmmmmmmm

[protectcosette]

Hi! Im so sorry for coming across your inbox like this, I know this might come strange and you might hate for this but I just wanna ask for some help if you can maybe possibly take a look the post I pinned for my lil cat, we’re in desperate need of help so a reblog/boost might definitely help us a ton! I hope you’d consider but if not, its okay and I do understand! Wishing you good health and stay safe! Pls send me a msg for a response or answer the ask privately if you could. 😭🙏

your blog was made yesterday nice try tho

[calciumcryptid]

Kinn would use pet names because he is the type of dork who would find them genuinely romantic.

Kim would use pet names because he thinks it gets him a good grade in boyfriend, a normal and possible thing to want to achieve.

Vegas would use pet names because he is exerting ownership in ways deemed socially acceptable, but he has to be pretentious about it.

[clouduyu]

i recently saw that one meme and immediately thought of bokuaka

[metfell]

woag metfell background holy shit

[numberjacksthereboot]

So the Numberjacks suddenly become lawyers. What do they say in court?

"Uh, actually my honor, my client is not guilty. I got algebraic proof for this."

Nah look at my lawyers man, nawww I am going to jail

They would suck at this

[zenitsustherapist]

agatha ily

[speed paint under cut]

[sunofaraven]

Right. I've got a double strength tea in a travel mug, 4 hours of sleep under my belt, and a long car journey ahead of me

*cracks knuckles*

Time to reply to some of the lovely comments y'all been leaving on my fics recently!

[robotclownindulgence]

WHY DOES MY DASH KEEP STOPPING ON THE APP? CAN THIS SITE PLEASE BE USABLE FOR FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!???

[i-care-arts]

don't say yes if you can't say no / victim of the system, say it isn't so

Five-hundred is her twin's biggest fan, much to his embarassment. Doesn't change hair color as often as him, but somehow they always match.

[hraugur]

random subbjugglator gamzee thrown in there havent drawn him in a while

[hopecomesbacktolife]

god rly gives her quietest soldiers the loudest most obnoxious neighbors huh 😪

[monti-moth]

They really just let anyone be therapists, huh?

[soft-pine]

people have said a lot of funny things to me while trying to critique my spreadsheet of notes. but none of them have come close to matching the freak of this. the claim that supernatural season 1 episode 7 "hookman" frames sam as a damsel in distress.

and not only that. but that somehow somehow i didn't include this in my notes document...

my brother in christ, i don't have a sheet for insane sam meta.

[ithacanradio]

they cancelled my dead guys detectives right at the start of a month full of exams and right on the night where i went a bit mental cause the prettiest guy was hitting on me at work and im so mad i dont want to shag him anyway thats it im getting a psychologist