#go scam me

[snarkleharkle]

The replies here are wild.

So many people who need to touch grass.

Should I donate to AO3?

[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 ]

[leglessstreetlights]

fleshing out my Relativity Au some more, i fujking love these guys, they're so-

part 1/ part 2

[theabigailthorn]

Thanks to all my patrons for supporting me!

Turns out when you actually do your own research and writing [AHEM!] it takes time to make good content. These awesome names and plenty of generous people like them help make that happen. Their pledges give me the time to research the show PROPERLY and also go towards paying the crew, who make the show look spectacular.

If you can, and you wanna support what I do, sign up and join them :)

[12percentspider]

Huh ok so a certain confirmed scammer used a header image but I did see something in it.

Something I've definitely seen before. But I just can't place the name... [i'm censoring the people because it's 100% stolen ok]

Seen that before. Should be easy enough to-

That's right! Jollibee. I heard they were going to bring that to the US. Does anyone in the audience know where Jollibee is from?

If you remember hearing about it, yes, it's originally from the Philippines. {< literally just the company website. but i did see there's one a 4 hour-ish drive from me but i'm obviously not going there right now to check}

So literally a scammer just looked up pictures of families where someone has a hijab in the picture. Or a search to that extent. The picture isn't of anyone in occupied Palestine.

@massivegalaxytragedy Did you try the sundae twirl? How is it? Your images seem to have some stolen from Gaza reports, but the family pictures seem stolen from a real family's facebook profiles. Is it someone you know? Do they know what you're using their pictures for?

Huh, you can rent one of those trucks in Davao. Last I checked that's nowhere the fuck near Gaza.

[northern-passage]

i thought there was a call to boycott the entirety of black friday and cyber monday?

i think there are people on tumblr & twitter that are advocating for a full boycott (which is good), but specifically with BDS & according to their website they're just calling for a targeted boycott against puma, HP, and marvel for black friday and cyber monday (along with the other targeted companies)

personally, i'm also boycotting starbucks (for their treatment of unionized workers) as well as a few of the other companies not listed in the immediate full boycott list.

as of 11/22 on their twitter, this is what they shared:

1. Consumer boycott targets - The BDS movement calls for a complete boycott of these brands carefully selected due to the company's proven record of complicity in Israeli apartheid.

2. Divestment targets - The BDS movement is pressuring governments, institutions and investment funds to exclude and divest from as many complicit companies as practical, especially weapons manufacturers, banks, and companies listed in the UN database of business involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, as well as the WhoProfits and AFSC Investigate databases of companies enabling the occupation. Below we give some of the targets we are campaigning against.

3. Pressure (non-boycott) targets - The BDS movement actively calls for pressure campaigns against these brands and services due to their complicity in Israeli apartheid. We have not, on strategic grounds, called for a boycott of these brands and services, instead we strategically call on supporters and institutions to mount other forms of pressure on them until they end their complicity in Israeli apartheid.

4. Organic boycott targets - The BDS movement did not initiate these grassroots boycott campaigns but is in support of them due to these brands openly supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.

ultimately the companies listed under the first category you absolutely should be boycotting 100%.

and i'm not going to tell you to not also boycott black friday, especially since it coincides with the temporary 4-day "truce." like i said, i know there are groups that have been advocating for a full boycott this weekend along with protests; there were hundreds today, from Washington, DC, to Massachusetts, to California, to Florida... i shared the creator's day because they do that every other month or so on itch.io anyways & i wanted to link the BDS information alongside it. they may update in the future as well and call for more targeted boycotts as the holidays ramp up so i suggest bookmarking the website or following them on twitter, and look for a campaign near you to get involved directly.

BDS has also called for a global day of action on November 29th, which includes intensifying all targeted boycotting campaigns.

[wickjump]

a formal thank you to jakei for not blocking me for talking about cross 174832898 times a day. i probably would block me i'm really annoying. any way i very much extremely appreciate you andyour au.hhave a good break your so cool

love wick

[five-rivers]

Hey, listen. I've been posting donation asks lately, but there's some stuff that I'm just. Not going to post. Like, if you spam my inbox by sending several exact duplicates of an ask within minutes of each other, or if you send something that's just a straight up guilt trip about people not responding to your asks, I'm not showing that to my followers. I am also not going to post anything with pictures from people I don't know, because I don't want to play the 'does this blurred picture contain graphic medical procedures, open, untreated wounds, dead bodies, etc. that I'm going to regret seeing if I click on it' game. This is a fandom blog I do as a hobby, not a donation or activism blog, and if this gets too stressful or annoying for me, I'm going to just stop posting this kind of thing and close my inbox altogether.

[triptychofvoids]

actually, since i just received an ask that read very much like a scam;

to my young trans followers, please be wary of people that are wanting to take advantage of you. be very careful of people asking you to dm them who may claim to offer you any sort of gender affirming care online. check for credibility, inform yourself and knowledgeable about hrt/other trans related care and do your research on these topics. block and report blogs that wish to take advantage of you and other trans people and stay safe!

[fisheito]

when a battle can't be solved with dark nova yakumo

[kirby-the-gorb]

[vynnyal]

Turns out Sunlit Trail isn't quite done just yet, so after all that they just send you to a dead end 😂

[xxplastic-cubexx]

im forcing you all to look shady-car-salesman erik

[What If Magneto Had Formed The X-Men With Professor X?]

[average-transfem-robotgirl]

My family is still staying in half of the church that wasn’t affected by the bombing because there is nowhere else to stay other than tents. They are limited to one small meal a day and one shower a week. They are sleeping on the floors, but no one can sleep since there is bombing everywhere around them. Even when there is no bombing, they can still hear the loud buzzing sound of the military planes above them, which would keep anyone who hears it awake. Along with everything, My grandma has diabetes and osteoporosis, so she can’t walk. She has to take her insulin medication along with many others; however, she has run out of many of her medications.” Am on my knees requesting for donation. Target $950

1: Another person with a randomly generated three word name.

2: Another scam prompt VERY similar to others I’ve seen.

3: You follow some accounts that haven’t even posted anything, making me think you’re definitely using an algorithm for picking out people.

4: Your profile picture is from this Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/uk8x8q-help-my-family-leave-gaza

(By the way, please go support this Go Fund Me.)

5: You’re using the same banner, title, page layout, and description as all of the other scam bots I’ve seen.

6: 950$ is not NEARLY enough to successfully evacuate a family. You’re just expecting enough people to fall for this that you’ll earn a quick buck.

Fuck this, fuck you, free Palestine. 🇵🇸

[dakogutin]

beware of scammers posing as artists offering commissions

this user left a comment on my fic and followed up with this

their first comment (which i didnt include) already sounded bot-like (they talked only about the first scene and didn't leave comments on the other chapters despite saying my fic had 'great potential')

so i let them reach out to me on tumblr only to find an empty profile

so i browsed through their likes and found random posts from different fandoms. no themes or ships or anything.

very much bot behavior

then i found this warning under a post endorsing this person.

naturally i reached out. and they said this.

it's so disheartening that this exists in fandom spaces. i hope this would help caution others out there as i doubt it was a coincidence they reached out thru my ongoing fic that's fairly new and therefore has only a few hits and kudos-- making my profile vulnerable ig. i hope shtbags like them burn in hell:D

rb to spread the word

[3-aem]

my toxic trait is picking up random hobbies on a whim like today i went shopping for a cardigan but found No cardigan i liked and so i naturally decided that i can just knit one even tho the only thing i have ever knit was a 8” by 3” rectangle in 5th grade that just looked so pathetic-