#so i don't have any of the information they ask for to 'verify my identity'!

[beesinspades]

guess who forgot the password for the ace tr*gun week accs so they can't access anything they're not logged into already (twt and tmblr are safe but i Need to access the carrd and if I get logged out of twt i'm utterly fucked) and is This Close from having a nervous breakdown over it

EDIT AFTER 2 HOURS OF LOSING MY MIND : I FOUND IT 😭😭😭

[perseph]

Hey I’m a huge fan of your Scarlet Witch blog! This may sound weird but I didn’t know who else to ask. I’m Indian and I learnt that the Roma were originally from India through your blog actually. No one really knows who the Romani are in India. But anyway, I wanted to ask if the Romani population considers themselves to be a part of the Indian diaspora or holds any ties to the country. I only ask because there are many cultural groups who migrated a while ago due to colonization but they still consider themselves to be a part of the diaspora, but I don’t really know anything about the Romani.

Hello! This is a nuanced subject, so I'm afraid my answer ran a bit long, but I hope you find it informative.

I know for a fact that Romani people are not entirely unknown in India. In modern history, Indian leaders and politicians have recognized the Roma as an Indian diaspora several times, including former Prime Minister Indira Ghandi, all the way back in the 1970s. And there are Indian scholars, such as Shyam Singh Shashi, Ph.D, who've conducted significant work on the history and origins of the Roma people. In 2016, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj named the Roma as "children of India," and in 2018, the Croation Romani Union held several meetings with Indian leaders, including President Ram Nath Kovind, who met with Union leader Veljko Kajtazi at the office of the Croatian president.

Gaining institutional recognition as an Asian diaspora has been a vital part of our movement towards civil rights and legal representation. Because so much of our history and our circumstances in the West have been obscured by false narratives, just having the ability to advocate for ourselves as a racial minority-- with identifiable origins-- was something we've really had to fight for. And from an academic perspective, having the ability to represent ourselves and use modern linguistics and genetics to verify our history is also an important form of resitution.

The Romani diaspora is also incredibly diverse, with many different identities and dialects, so being able to unite under a common origin has been very helpful for organizing, especially on an international level. That's why it's often emphasized by events such as the World Romani Congress, particularly when it comes to unifying symbols, such as the international Romani flag-- which, as you may have noticed, contains a red wheel, or dharmachakra, inspired by the Indian flag.

Having said all that-- I don't personally know any Romani people who identify as Asian or Indian, purely on the basis of being Roma. Obviously, mixed people exist. But within the culture, Romani identity is typically predicated on its own set of rules and values, rather than one's genetic lineage or racial makeup, and for most of our history, we've really identified as our own distinct group. In my experience, a lot of people actually primarily identify by their vitsa, which is a smaller, more specific population within the diaspora. For example, I'm gitano, and I have friends who are Sinti, and we're more likely to use those words to describe ourselves, especially if we're talking firsthand about our families.

If you think about how the diaspora originated as a displaced population and began migrating west, then split off into smaller groups and arrived in Europe at different times, you can see that our cultural and communal identities-- and our languages-- developed in transit. As I said, much of our history has been lost and distorted, and it wasn't until relatively recently that we had the access and ability to retrace this part of our origin, so it's just not, traditionally, how we think of ourselves. In the present day, though, I think it's become more popular to place emphasis on our Asian roots, for all the reasons I've described, but also because it provides context for our shared language, customs, and spiritual beliefs. For example, there are goddess figures who appear in many permutations of Roma culture that are derived from Hindu belief, although they've taken on their own unique identities along the way, just as we have.

As we move towards the future, it is increasingly necessary that we open ourselves up to outsiders and figure out how to become more laterally united, without compromising our distinct, diverse identities. These things are difficult to navigate, and I don't wish to speak on them, but I think a lot of Roma are reconsidering what it means to be Romani people in the world, and finding different ways to relate to our Indian origin is gonna be a big part of that.

[smokescreenimusprime]

watched tf one the other night with my best friend and now I've been Re-Mental Illnessed, here's some Rescue Bot Smokescreen Rot I rotated while driving home :]

I think I've finally hammered out some more details of Inside Job and this is what I came up with:

like canon it starts with the Omega Keys. Specifically when Bulkhead gets attacked and knocked unconscious when looking for one

And against direct orders, Smokescreen leaves the base to go get him

there were a bunch of reasons why he did what he did. A desire to prove his capability as an EMT. He wants to be a field medic like Ratchet is, he wants to be able to do more than just wait for them to come back injured when the more time that passes the more dangerous it could be. There was also the fear of losing anyone else, especially so soon after he befriended Bulkhead. It's barely been a few days since they started getting along, and the loss of the entire Rescue Bot Force is still raw

so he goes, and finds Bulkhead unconscious and alone in the woods, with the only injury being some scratches and a blow to the back of the helm. Smokescreen doesn't have a scratch on him as they hobble back to base

it doesn't stop Ratchet's anger

Now, don't get me wrong, Ratchet is angry because he was scared. Smokescreen could've been in very real danger. He didn't know what awaited him on the other side of that portal. For all they knew, the Decepticon soldiers could've still been there, and they could've lost the last Rescue Bot in existence

but unfortunately, he says all this when still angry

and Smokescreen, as thick as his skin is from experiencing years of discrimination, is genuinely hurt by it. This isn't just a fellow medic or instructor yelling at him, this is his idol berating him for what he thought was the right thing to do

this is his idol unknowingly repeating the words that followed him all throughout his training and that he sought to prove wrong, and he has no idea how to respond

so he runs. He drives as fast and far away as he can, shuts off his comm because he just. Can't right now. He can't interact with them right now because frankly he doesn't trust himself to speak and not say something he would regret to his dying days

and unknowingly this puts him right in the Decepticon's claws

some aspects of his capture stay the same. He wakes up in the medbay strapped to a table, the Omega Key is extracted, and he is placed under the cortical psychic patch

but the differences happen in the details

His restraints are barely more than a pair of manacles that he could've probably figured out how to escape if given enough time. The Omega Key was removed before he even woke up, the incisions of surgery fresh on his frame but the work is well done with obvious care. With the patch, the mental prodding and information gathering is... oddly gentle and quick, doing barely more than verifying what the Keys are and Smokescreen's identity as a Rescue Bot before retreating

Smokescreen is not a warrior after all. He is a bot thought to be long since extinct who quite literally dropped out of the sky at their feet without warning. He may have loyalty to the Autobots but... he's not fighting this war. Not really. He's just been doing what Rescue Bots do: helping those who need it.

The "cell" he's kept in, if it can even be called that, was an old now-dead officer's quarters. The door is locked and there are guards stationed inside watching him at all hours, but they are not cruel. He gets a healthy amount of rations regularly, and has even been given a data terminal to keep himself entertained (of course, no before Soundwave had thoroughly firewalled and restricted anything that could be used against them)

the most stressful part of his capture is when Megatron comes to visit. Every day without fail, he will come check in on how Smokescreen is doing. He will ask how he's doing and they talk. About Cybertron, about the war, about how accepting the Rescue Bots were, allowing any Cybertronian regardless of caste to join, how much of a tragedy it was for them to have been wiped out.

Smokescreen is not blind to how he attempts to sow seeds of doubt into the Autobots into him. About how cruel it was for them to keep him confined to the base, how cruel Trion was for implanting a relic without his knowledge, questions if Smokescreen truly wanted to help them or if that's just what they've pressured him into doing with false promises that crumble like glass

but instead of refuting him... Smokescreen decides to play along

after all, Megatron obviously sees him as a poor, innocent, helpless bot who could be swayed by some sweet words and a cage advertised as protection

and that facade would make it all the easier to escape when the time came :)

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Holding Out for a Hero Villain

Pairing: Shigadabi

Rating: T

Contents: Non-graphic mentions of mass murder including of children, suggestive dialogue

Getting caught with a sleeping quirk was not what he was expecting, but Dabi wakes with his hands completely encased in quirk-neutralizing cuffs and locked in an interrogation room and that is pretty much what he expected if he ever got brought in, so that’s something he supposes. He leans back in the chair. He doesn't feel any extra bumps or bruises that might indicate they took a blood sample, but they definitely could have taken hair or swabbed his cheek. He doesn't feel like he's been asleep for longer than seven hours, but the quirk could have a different feel than normal sleep. He assumes that means that they are likely in the process of verifying his identity. Which means--

It's absolutely not a surprise when Endeavor, Hawks, and some cop come into the room as he leans back in his chair and waits. And yeah, Enji's eyes are going over his face desperately, like he's looking for any trace of Toya that might be left and all Dabi can do is give him a vicious grin before he turns his attention to Hawks. 

"Blowing your load a little early, aren't you, birdy? Guess being the fastest hero isn't always a good thing, is it?" 

His wings don't even twitch, but Dabi has been around him for long enough to know that when the spy is holding himself that rigidly, it's because he is trying to keep his mask on. "Dabi, or should we say 'Toya'? Good to see you again, man." 

He shrugs, not paying any attention to Endeavor. This isn't how his reveal was supposed to go and he is not going to start in on him when he can't back the words up with his flames at the moment. "Call me what you want, doesn't matter. You're going to let me out soon enough anyway." 

The cop takes lead next, moving to sit across from him at the table. "You seem confident in that, but you are an A-ranked villain, Mr. Todoroki. Surely you know that we have a vested interest in keeping you here before your relocation to Tartarus." 

"Oh sure," he agrees. "And you are?" 

"My apologies, Detective Tsukauchi." 

"The living lie-detector! Huh, nice to meet you." Hawks can't quite keep his wings from giving an aborted little twitch at that. Dabi doesn't react to it. Hawks had definitely not given him information about Tsukauchi, but their PLF members in the police force certainly had. He's never been more pleased that he decided to take the ribbing from the rest of the League after Deika by showing up 'empty-handed' after going off to recruit again in favor of keeping the double agent as out of the loop as possible. Endeavor tenses too, and he is thrilled to have already put them on their back foot just by knowing more than they expected him to. He reclines as much as he can in his chair. The fact his ankles are chained down is the only reason his feet aren't on the table. 

"I didn't realize my reputation would proceed me." The detective gives him a placid smile. "Can you elaborate on why we would let you out given your... extensive list of crimes?" 

"Because if you don't then you're going to watch Japan fall apart around you." He waits to see if the detective spots a lie, however he manages to do so with his quirk. 

"Hmm, well until then, we have some other questions that we'd like to ask you." 

Dabi settles in. Mostly ignoring them as he starts to count the very faint ticks he can hear from the detective's watch. He's not giving them anything else. Now he just has to wait. 

///

The trio left after about an hour of him stonewalling them and Dabi did his best to just doze again in the chair. He's gonna have so much to catch up on once he's out, that he's damn certain that getting the extra sleep will be more helpful than not. 

It feels like maybe another two hours have passed before Endeavor and Tsukauchi come back into the room, his father definitely a little paler than he usually is beneath his flames, the fire of his mask flickering the way it does when he's agitated enough to be having some difficulty controlling it. 

"Already? I thought you'd hold out at least a day." He had been settling in for a week at minimum with torture, but he'll take whatever he can get. 

"Sekoto Peak is gone." 

Which. Oh. Okay. Dabi blinks. That's not what he expected his father to say, but still, "That's wild. So are you taking the cuffs off now or after you let me back onto the street?" 

"We're not letting you go," Enji growls. 

"Okay. I'm going back to sleep then." 

"You don't seem very surprised about this. Were you aware that this attack was coming?" 

"That wasn't an attack, that was a warning shot." He yawns. 

"A 'warning shot'?" 

He hums, "He's giving you a chance to stop being stupid and let me go before he escalates." 

"Shigaraki? He didn't come for any of the other members of the League that we've captured, why would you be any different?" 

"I'm his favorite." It is funny to see his father glance at the detective to see if he's telling the truth. "You let me go, or what happens next is on you." He shoots a vicious smile at Enji, "Not that you've ever cared about the consequences of your inaction before." 

They try to wheedle out anything else they can from him, but he doesn't give an inch until they leave. 

///

It's only an hour before Hawks and the detective return, Hawks' feathers shining because they've gone sharp with his fury. 

Dabi waits for them to speak with a lazy grin. 

"Endeavor isn't here because his home, the hospital that your mother was located at, and the school your sister works at were destroyed." 

"Oh, that was a big hospital wasn't it? And Fuyumi's a grade-school teacher isn't she? Man, that must have sucked for her. I wonder if she tried to hold any of her students together before they crumbled into dust." 

"This isn't funny, Dabi!" The bird loses his temper. Always been able to get him furious by just barely laying on his buttons. "Two hundred children and five hundred people are dead."

"Yeah they are, and that's entirely on you, birdy. You could have kept playing ball and I still wouldn't have given you anything, but you wouldn't have the blood of seven hundred civilians on your hands." He considers. "Did Rei and Fuyumi survive?" 

"They didn't." It's a lie, and not even a good one. The bird's wording of the casualties gave too much away. His father would only not be here because he suddenly had no choice but to very publicly take care of his family in the wake of a tragedy.  

"Well isn't that interesting." Because if they did survive, if Duster decided to start with those places, then that means the treatments have progressed well ahead of schedule. "Are you letting me out now? Or do you want to see how much more damage he can do?" 

"We're preparing your transfer to Tartarus." The detective tells him. "We'll complete your interrogation there and move forward with pursuing a trial." 

"Okay, then everything else is on your hands too." 

///

He's not expecting the next person who opens the door to the interrogation room. Dabi had thought that it would be the police, heroes, whoever they found to escort him to the transport or whatever. He was not expecting a red-eyed Natsuo to step in the room, face an aching mixture of fury and sorrow. Dabi forces the tightness in his own throat away before he leans back in his chair again and drawls, 

"Hey little brother." 

"Toya this has to stop." His voice trembles, cracks, tears slipping over his cheeks. "My school-- everything around it-- Toya, it's gone. He destroyed it. He killed everyone else." 

"Yeah, I told them that would happen. It's going to keep happening until I'm back home--" Neither he nor Natsuo are prepared for the detective and two even more harried looking cops to burst in at that moment. 

"Jaku, Otheon, and Esuha City have all been hit simultaneously. Eight city blocks have been wiped out." Huh, must have gotten Twice's help with that one. 

"From each? Wow, he's losing his patience, haven't seen him mad in ages." The cops usher Natsuo out before he can get a word in and the detective stays behind, dragging a hand over his face. "Look, I told you: This is not going to stop until I'm free and call him off. You can keep holding out, you can try to trick him, kill me, whatever, but it won't stop until he has me back home. And if you keep waiting like this, he's not even going to have to tear this place down, because I'm sure the average citizens, the people who you're letting die, are going to get fed up sooner rather than later too." 

There's an achingly long beat, but then the detective tells the others, "Prep him for transport." 

They manage to get him up and locked in with four armed guards who take him downstairs to the vehicle bay, and loaded into the the back of the truck before the next call comes in, Tsukauchi not moving nearly far enough away to hide the crackling of his walkie-talkie that says that, 

"The HPSC building has been destroyed. A new drop-off point is being selected." He leans back against the wall of the armored van and waits as they lock his limbs back into place. 

Not even a full day and they break. Pathetic.

///

They drive him out into the middle of Deika. He knows it as soon as they open up the back of the van, and he gets the barest glimpse of the surroundings before they put a bag over his head and then they stand and wait. And wait. And wait. 

Eventually Dabi risks getting shot and just plops down on the broken ground. He can feel the warmth of the sun on his skin for a little while, but it fades, and the light behind the cloth blinding him also goes. Whatever. 

"He didn't show." Hawks. Which, okay, didn't know he was here. "Maybe you're not as important to him as you think you are." 

"Maybe." 

"Let's bring him to Tartarus." 

Hands on his chains again, pulling him off of the ground and loading him back into the van. Dabi lets them lock him in. It takes ten minutes before their little caravan is trundling along again. They drive for an hour, until the wheels are going over smoothly paved roads again, before he starts to hear it. 

From somewhere in the distance, there is crashing, crunching, screaming. The cops around him start to shout, trying to figure out what's happening and Dabi just does his best to brace for impact. He doesn't know if this is Shigaraki himself, Gigantomachia, Geten, or any of their other heavy hitters, but something is coming to hit this caravan. His ears pop as wind rushes in as the doors of the vehicle are yanked out of place with a wrenching metallic tear. He's chained down, but god, that motion makes his stomach twist. He hears the cops yelling, but the sound grows more distant as they're pulled out of the car, Hawks shouting, 

"Everyone off the ground!" 

Oh good. That means it is his lover after all. The truck swerves, hits a bump, and Dabi goes weightless for a second before something very solid is grabbing onto him. He hears the chains snap, and then the distinct sound of something decaying, before he's feeling his body covered in a deluge of dust. It takes him a second to realize that he's in someone's arms, against their chest for a handful of weightless seconds before they land back on the ground, skidding to a stop. 

"Are you hurt, firefly?" 

Wait. "What the fuck, are you ripped now?" 

"Dabi." 

"I'm fine, put me down and get this shit off of me. I have a bird to turn into fried chicken." 

Duster does put him down and then Dabi feels his hand, his whole hand, against his cheek through the bag. The fabric turns to dust and he blinks it away as it falls over his head and shoulders. Decay crawls over his skin harmlessly until it reaches the cuffs at his wrists, the ones still tight around his ankles, and those fall away as well. And Tomura really is right here. White hair much longer than before it was when he went into the tank, body corded with fresh muscle, and control over his quirk that Dabi didn't even know would be possible. 

No one can really blame him for that all being so hot that he immediately tangles his hands in that thick, soft hair and pulls him into a kiss. Least of all Tomura, because his lover's hands wrap tightly around his hips and pull him in close, kissing him back just as fiercely. Kisses him like they haven't gotten to in two and a half months and after an entire day of worry. Definitely ruins the moment when a gun goes off. 

Dabi is expecting pain, or expecting Tomura to be in pain, but he doesn't even flinch as the bullet connects with his shoulder. As he pulls away and glares up somewhere behind him as the bullet is pushed back out of his skin and the wound heals over. He lifts a hand and there's a loud sucking sound as all of the air seems to be pulled out of the vicinity, the pressure changing so fast it makes his ears pop, and then Duster lifts his hand and sends out a blast of air so intense that the closest two cops who were floating, held aloft by Hawks' feathers, turn into ragdolls as their bones are snapped from the force of it, the boom loud enough Dabi's pretty sure his ears will be ringing for a few days, as Hawks retreats back even further from them with the rest of the convoy. It's practically a small army that he'd tried to save before Duster got to them, but he has plenty of feathers for it. Or at least that would be the case if this was like Fukuoka and there was somewhere for him to land as he used the feathers for rescue only, but as it is now, he's visibly struggling to hold himself up on the tiny wings he has left as the others keep the rest of the police and a handful of other heroes aloft, none of them wanting to risk touching the ground after seeing what Shigaraki can do. 

A few heroes, including his father, but no, "They didn't send Eraser Head?" 

"A double took a parade to Musutafu." Tomura explains, settling one arm back around his waist. "I'm not sure how much longer that distraction will hold, if you want to finish these ones off, firefly?" 

"Tempting," But he doesn't know if the one who knocked him out is here. He didn't get a good look at them before they hit him, and he would hate for both of them to end up back in chains after how much effort his lover put into coming and getting him. "But I'm more interested in going home and seeing what else your treatments changed." He presses in even closer, like he'll be able to feel it through the plates of armor beneath his new suit. "Did anything else get even bigger?" 

"You're incorrigible." 

"You're shockingly romantic. All of my family members?" 

"I figured you would be upset that your reveal was ruined." 

"I love you." 

Tomura's eyes soften and he presses another soft peck to his lips. "I love you too, baby. Come on, let's go home." 

The tar claws its way up their throats, and in a matter of seconds, they're gone. 

[memory-loss-maria]

i feel awful doing this, but i am exhausted and have nowhere else to turn at this point.

my name is maria, and i am homeless in new mexico. i have been homeless for two years. the short version of this post is that i am asking for $150 for two nights in a hotel, plus food.

0/150

i included some official paperwork from new mexico's disability vocational rehabilitation department, which exists to help disabled people find long-term careers. i cut out some identifying details because i don't feel safe putting a lot of personal information online, especially with the circumstances that led to me being homeless. my url is a reference to the fact that the tests the dvr department gave me show that my working memory is in the bottom 20th percentile, meaning it's absolutely awful. that, combined with what is most likely chronic fatigue syndrome, has basically made it impossible for me to find a job.

(i am currently going to a free clinic for homeless people to try and get a diagnosis of cfs by process of elimination. so far they have ruled out diabetes and thyroid problems. but things are going very, very slow. as you can imagine, if it's not an emergency it's not a priority for these clinics.)

i am asking for money because i am in a lot of pain today, and it's going to be 101° today and tomorrow.

i don't stay in a shelter because i am a lesbian and the shelters here are all catholic.

i don't have any friends, and i haven't talked to my family in years. i don't have food stamps because the state has had some problem verifying my identity and i haven't been able to get a copy of my birth cerificate because i wasn't born in new mexico.

if you can, please help. i have been outside in the heat all summer, and having a break from that would mean the world to me. thank you for reading. ❤️

[mappingthemoon]

In light of Elom rummaging around in everyone's private personal information and probably selling it on the dork web, may I advise: NOW IS A REALLY GOOD TIME TO FREEZE YOUR CREDIT.

It is free to freeze your credit. You can unfreeze and re-freeze it for free as many times as you wish.

When your credit is frozen, it means no one can open up an account in your name, including bank accounts, credit cards, loans, mortgages, I think also some cell phone companies, etc. (any account or service which requires a credit check, pretty much). When you want to open an account, you can lift the freeze temporarily so they can do a credit check and then re-freeze immediately. This is super easy to do and adds an extra layer of protection against identity theft.

You will need to set up freezes with each credit reporting company: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This post from Experian includes info for all three credit bureaus: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/preventing-fraud/security-freeze/

Setting the freeze online is very simple, but you can also do it via phone or mail. If online, you may have to sign up for accounts with all three bureaus, and in some cases you may have to submit your SSN online to verify your identity, so if you don't want to do that, choose the phone or mail option.

(Added bonus: You may receive less junk mail credit card offers and stuff since these companies will no longer be able to see your credit report all the time without permission.)

You can monitor your own credit for free at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/

You used to only be able to request a report from each bureau once a year, but during COVID they changed it to free weekly reports. I personally request one company's report every four months (first from Equifax, then Experian, then TransUnion). Looking at your report regularly will help you stay on top of any bad shit like accounts opened under your name that you didn't open. You can do this perfectly fine by requesting your reports from the source; I would NOT recommend using services like Credit Karma where you have to connect all your accounts to some company's database so they can try to sell you shit under the guise of offering "monitoring" services.

Note: Your credit report will NOT show your "credit score" for free, if you want that, you'll have to pay money, but tbh the entire concept of a credit score is a scam and paying money for the arbitrary number is more of a scam. It's more important to pay attention to keeping your accounts in good standing (paid on time) and obvs making sure you don't get mixed up in identity theft or some dumbass clerical error that isn't your fault. (Example: At age 21 upon taking out my first loan [narrator voice: and that was her first mistake...], I discovered that my parents' mortgage was associated with my credit report, and even though it was taken out before I was born and my name and SSN are different than my parents', I had to submit tons of evidence in triplicate to prove that it wasn't my loan and get it removed from my report!)

Ok one last thing, I'm not trying to veer off into an identity theft prevention master post rn, BUT, it's also a good idea to avoid letting your debit/credit/banking info sit around in various shopping websites' databases. Every single online store is all like, "Save your card for faster checkout?" Fuck that, it's a trap! When possible, I mediate every payment through PayPal or Venmo. Those companies are also not great, but at least there is less risk in only having your banking info in a couple of databases rather than 50 different ones for each store you bought something from.

GOOD LUCK OUT THERE. Who knows, maybe money will become obsolete and/or irrelevant in the next few years and none of this shit will matter anymore 🫠

[myrfing]

hi!!! sorry this might be a bit of an odd ask, but i saw that you get some comms from the crepe site (the eating gif one is sooooo cute) and i wanted to ask what the process was like to use that site to order commissions? is knowledge of korean needed? is it like skeb where you can enter comm details in english and it auto translates it for the artist? thank you for your time!

HI not odd at all! I hope more people use crepe, there's many talented artists on there. There is no auto-translate like on skeb. I run everything through the DeepL translator or good old google translate. I also use the Simple Translate extension for Firefox to make this a lot easier. I have 0 knowledge of Korean so I like to double check back and forth & try to use simple, straightforward phrases. Thankfully the website is also designed pretty intuitively, it's just a lot double checking on my end :J...

I pay via stocking up on Points via Paypal and use that to pay artists. In short: you select a commission type from the artist's page, fill out and send in their request form (it seems to be customizable on their end so they differ between artists), and if they accept your commission, they will invoice you via the site's chat system. They will also likely ask any questions they have about your request in here. Once the site confirms your payment, then it's relayed to them to begin working on your commission. Some artists offer check sketch, etc., stages that are facilitated by the site in the same chat, some don't. When they finish, the site will notify you via email & that chat thread, you receive the file, review it, and confirm the completion. At that point, no changes can be made, and the transaction is complete.

Here's a shitty mspaint guide:

To sign up via email:

Follow this link. Enter your email and hit the link to send an authentication email.

2. In the email from crepe, hit the verify button.

3. Fill out your new credentials, then hit the create account button. You can review the terms & services via the subtitle link.

4. This next page asks you what your account is for. The left box = I'm here to commission artists. The right box = I'm here to take commissions as an artist. Make sure the left box is selected and hit next. (Text below informs you you can swap to an artist account later, and artists can commission from other artists)

5. It then scrolls you to the option to verify your identity. This lets you communicate via kakaotalk, adds a layer of security, and verifies your age for 18+ commissions, but unless you have some form of S. Korean ID, hit "I want to do it later". Then hit the "I don't want to verify now" option again on the confirmation popup. I'll add on to this post on how to verify via passport as an overseas user, but it's not necessary unless you want to get hole & pole commissions.

6. Account creation complete :~)! the button just takes you to the front page which displays random commissions you can browse.

To commission an artist:

I'll use the artist who did the snacking animation for me as an example! Say you find an artist you really like, and you go on their page. Here's an overview.

Let's say I click on the top one. It will take me to this page. Scroll down and review all the information and terms about this particular commission type. Artists will tell you what you get, what they will and won't draw, pricing caveats, what you're allowed to do with the commission, and whatever other pertinent info here.

2. Once you've reviewed everything, scroll back up and hit apply. The price is a range; artists will tend to charge more for high detail/addons!

3. You will be taken to their application form. Again, this is different for each artist, and you're gonna need to carefully fill it out case-by-case. Once you've filled out everything required, scroll all the way down and the submit button should no longer be greyed out. It's purple like all the buttons so far. Hit that, and it will show you your completed application and send it to the artist.

4. At this point, you wait for them to either accept or deny your commission. Here's an overview of your header bar menu, click on your icon to access it. You can check commission progress history, the application you submitted, and your messages here. Your messages are where you're going to be alerted if the artist accepts or not, it will have a notif mark. You can also stock up on points, but you can also do that when they invoice you.

5. Once the artist accepts, you'll get a message. It's in the messages where you'll deal with all communication and the procession of your commission. If you're not completing your steps (i.e. paying, checking the sketches) by hitting the purple buttons, the commission can't continue. These buttons will sometimes take you to different pages, i.e. charging points for the invoice, to the comm timeline page to receive your files and confirm steps...U Must play it by ear here and translate on your own because I'd need an ongoing commission to show you & I'm on ice soup week right now

But that's pretty much it! Some things:

I usually begin my applications with a blurb specifying I'm using a translator as an overseas customer in case they are not comfortable working with the language barrier or I start saying some crazy ass mistranslated shit to them. Ex: 안녕하세요! 저는 기계 번역을 사용하는 해외 고객입니다. 번역이 제대로 되지 않은 텍스트에 대해 사과드립니다. 해외 고객은 받지 않는지 알려주세요.

I tried asking if an artist takes tips once, but there's no built-in system for it and Paypal seems to be the only avenue for it, which I think the site disallows you from sharing (?) to keep transactions moderated by the site. They said "don't worry about it", but I dunno if this is universal

Try to not leave descriptions in your ref images, it's hard to read in your application. Enter it as text in the boxes.

I leave a review once per artist within a month, I am nooot sure about the etiquette about leaving multiple reviews. I don't think it would hurt but uhhh I haven't checked

"Omakase" = artist's choice for most of the image composition. You can still give refs of course and make a simple request, but this means you can't nitpick/have total control over what the artist draws.

"Water level" = NSFW 18+ stuff. I habe no idea what a better translation for the term is yahoo mario water level

👍 enjoy your beautofial art

[coolbeesbro]

So I set up my new stuff on Etsy hoping I'll have better luck there and biting the bullet on listing fees, and already I've had 2 scammers in my inbox that start off making it sound like I just got a sale.

This is just 1 since I didn't think to screenshot the other before I marked it as spam, but that's just downright cruel. Taking advantage of someone who you can see hasn't made any sales, especially right now, takes a special kind of evil.

Although this goes without saying, just in case this is a PSA to others that sell on Etsy, do not follow any link or type any URL's that they ask you to.

Taking this opportunity to point this out (I didn't pick up on these parts before until I saw a video on TokTok) notice how they ask me to type in COM and not .com? It's usually small things like this that trick people into trusting it, because it look similar enough to be legitimate that some people (myself included at one time) won't think twice about it. Likely, this link would lead to somebody hacking into your device or account to steal information such as credit card and banking info that you might have attached or saved. The scary thing is, you may not even know you have one right away.

This also applies to other phishing scams, mainly pertaining to PayPal (I've gotten these emails many times). They (the hacker and not PayPal) send you a message that looks just plausible enough to trick somebody into thinking you just made a purchase, won't give any form of specification, and will have an attached PDF "receipt" that they ask you to click on. This usually tricks people into doing so because you think, "Hey, I didn't make any purchases with PayPal, what was ordered?" you click on it then BAM they can get into your system. I unfortunately did this myself once and my phone slowly stopped working over the course of a year, I started getting a lot of texts trying to get me to follow suspicious links, calls from the "FBI" and "IRS", and I had to change the passwords to all my accounts because the person even tried hacking into my actual PayPal account. My phone would get absurdly hot, and the full battery would last 4 hours at best.

Never click on a PDF document from any sketchy emails, because a virus can and will infect your device (computers and phones) by hiding malicious code in it. These forms of attack are usually in the form of spyware to track what you do on that device and collect your private information so the hacker can commit fraud or identity theft. It could also download ransomware and lock you out of your device unless you pay them, and also threaten to leak private information (some of which being outing someone LGBT+, leaking nudes, and doxing) to scare you into giving them what they want.

There's a way you can always tell if it's a scammer, and that's by checking the actual email. PayPal emails are always going to be one of these two: service@paypal.com or member@paypal.com. If you cant remember making a payment and get an email from one of these, it can still be a scammer that can change 1 or 2 letters subtly. For example: Service@paypal.com, member@PayPal.com. If you have any suspicions, just go straight to your PayPal account and check for any bills/receipts there. If you don't seen anything, it's best to report those emails to PayPal directly so they can either verify it as one of theirs (it won't be if it differs at all from the two I showed) and work towards flagging and taking it down for others later down the line who may be tricked.

Anyways, this has just been a PSA since something good can come from the asshole who sent me this message. Hope this can help at least 1 person.

[femmefatalevibe]

how to find/make good friends or friends that will be there for you. haven’t really had a good record with making friends in the past but i want to expand my social circle outside of work my phone is dry af i literally get 0 notifications :/

Making connections that flourish into fulfilling, long-lasting friendships can feel like hidden treasures, so I totally get you. Among my friends and I (mid-late 20s), it's so normal to feel like your friend group is constantly in flux to some degree. In terms of where to meet people, I suggest the following ideas:

Try meeting people who share a mutual interest: Join a book club, or sports/volunteer group, or take a class (workout, language, painting, cooking, improv, dance, etc.) and strike up a conversation with someone who you feel you vibe with. A simple compliment, smile, and short introduction can go a long way.

Find museums, galleries, coffee shops, parks, dog parks, etc. to hang out. Enjoy yourself, and strike up a conversation with someone who seems friendly/like you would vibe. You never know who you can meet in places you frequent who have similar lifestyles/common interests.

Join mutual interest groups on Facebook or pages on Instagram etc. for your local area. Reach out to someone who seems like-minded. If you vibe and their identity is easy to verify, try to meet IRL.

Consider more chill bars/quiet lounges/any nightlife spot that most "your vibe" if you will – you're more likely to meet similar people.

Become a local at a certain café, coffee shop, nail salon, bookstore, etc. It's easier for both parties to chat up a familiar face than a stranger they don't recognize. You already have a mutual activity to bond over, too.

Consider connecting with people on LinkedIn in your field for a coffee talk/informational interview. It's a great way to meet people with similar interests and goals. At worst, you both have a new professional connection. At best, you might have made a new friend or someone who can introduce you to one. Less stiff and awkward than trying to befriend coworkers (which can also create some sticky situations, too, if you're not careful).

Join online groups surrounding your interests on social media. Create content/accounts of your own and interact with people's content/personalities you like. Initiating a chat with someone you have great rapport with on a public discussion or is a mutual connection on a certain platform can't hurt.

If you live in a dorm or in an apartment/complex with people in your age group, hang out in the public spaces, and don't be afraid to say hello when the moment feels right (offering a compliment, asking a question, etc.)

On how to be a good friend, check out my guide on How To Find & Be A Good Friend To Other High-Value Women.

Hope this helps xx

[romssidewaystooth]

The infuriating experience of trying to apply for health insurance and the application ONLY asks for assigned sex at birth. Which I was immediately skeptical of because I don't know what they ACTUALLY want.

Are you trying to match this with my ID? I sent a copy of my driver's license in to verify my identity. My license says I'm male. That is not the sex I was assigned at birth. There would be a mismatch.

Is this what they are going to use to determine how to categorize me for medical procedures? I am a post-op man with no uterus, ovaries, vagina, or breasts. I have a dick and balls and have been on HRT for over 10 years which means my risk factors fall on the male side of things.

This shift in language to account for trans people actually makes info collection WORSE for us when there is no recognition of the fact that our current (legally recognized!) gender/sex could differ from what we were assigned. I'm not saying there are NO possible cases where my assigned sex might be relevant, but every time I fill out a form like this I am left guessing what I need to put down in order to have my information recorded accurately and receive proper treatment.

These forms NEED to ask for what they actually want. "What is the gender currently listed on your ID?" is a perfectly valid way to ask a question if that is the information that is actually being sought. If your new doctor's office needs to record what sex you are listed as on your insurance in order to send a claim, "assigned sex at birth" is NOT an accurate way to collect that information. The form should literally say "what is the sex listed on your insurance?" Be as specific as possible!

And if you aren't willing to do that, then just go back to asking for "sex" instead of "assigned sex at birth", because at least that leaves some room for self-determination and then further specifics can be gathered as needed. (Of course many places do not WANT us to have any self-determination, so, you know.)

[queerprayers]

do you have any advice on picking a good new name for oneself? i don't feel connected to my current one and would like a more spiritual one but i don't know how to pick the "right" one

Hi, beloved! You asked this ages ago so it's very possible this is no longer relevant to you. If you have one—congratulations on the new name! Either way, I'll answer, hoping I can help you or perhaps someone else who's thinking about this!

Name changing happens often in the Bible—it's usually symbolic in some way, and often very dependent on the meaning of the name. Abraham (formerly Abram) and Israel (formerly Jacob) both have their names changed in an encounter with God and an angel(? debatable), respectively; Jesus renames Simon "Cephas/Peter," which means "rock;" Saul starts being addressed as Paul (the Latinized version of his Hebrew name) as he becomes more active in Christian communities and leaves Judaism further behind. People entering monasteries/convents often pick a new name, and Catholics traditionally choose a saint's name for their confirmation. You have lots of holy company, is what I'm trying to say!

Finding a name in the Bible could be your place to start—I love the figure in Luke's gospel I'm named after, and her calling as a myrrh-bearer inspires me immensely. If there's a figure that's close to your heart, who mirrors your journey, who you aspire to follow, you could choose their name, especially if you connect with its meaning! This website lists Biblical names/origins—it doesn't seem to include sources, so I can't verify every single one (maybe check another source to be sure about something), but from skimming it it looks useful/accurate!

As I mentioned, choosing a saint name is also very common—and there are tons to choose from! Even if you're not Catholic and whatever your theology about saints, people who Christian communities remember and honor can give you inspiration and meaning. Catholic.org and Wikipedia both have pretty exhaustive lists—you could narrow it down by thinking about time periods, patronage, location, tradition, or anything else that's meaningful/relevant to you.

Naming a child with a family/cultural name is obviously common, and that could be something you do for yourself as well! Connecting with your ancestors/communities could help you feel more connected to yourself. 

I've mentioned it, but a lot of people think about the meanings of names. There's tons of iffy information out there, so I would recommend looking at multiple sources (I know this because I used to use baby name websites to name fictional characters, and some of them were just completely contradictory!). There are biblical concepts, like Sophia/Wisdom, but you could think about any concept/value/theology you connect with and go from there. 

Any decision can be spiritual when we approach it purposefully, and I think any name could be spiritual if you find meaning in it. I can't promise there's one "right" name—the people I know who found new names took time and tried some out along the way. It might be more of a choice, a mindful acceptance, rather than a lightning bolt out of the sky moment of resurrection. You also don't have to have a deep connection with a name—you've said you want one, so of course I support that, but it's not, like, wrong to just… have a name. (If you're reading this and you've never thought about your name/its meaning in your life, I support you.) However it works out, I wish you (and anyone else thinking about this) courage and curiosity as you seek out a new identity. 

The thought I leave you with is this (if you'd like it): God calls us by name—sometimes that's the moment we see Them fully. What name do you want God to call, what name would wake you from sleep and cause you to genuinely respond with, "Here I am; you called me"? 

<3 Johanna

P.S. I found two prayer rituals for renaming while looking around, and I thought I'd link them—one of them is specifically for gender transition, but parts of it could be meaningful for anyone!

Unitarian Universalist Transgender Renaming Ceremony

Episcopal Service of Renaming from The Book of Occasional Services (pg. 120)

[scam-alerts]

I appreciate everything that you have done so far! You explain every scam in pretty great detail and it's simple enough for people to read and understand. Keep up the great work!

Hey there! Thank you so much for your kind words. :)

My goal for this blog has always been to make sure that information about scams is free and readily available so people don't have to look real far to find it. In a lot of places online there aren't many concrete explanations of a scam or how they work. Just a lot of 'top 10 ways to avoid this scam' or 'this is a scam going on be warned!' but nobody ever explains how it works, or what the scammers will try to have you do.

I also like making sure that everything is explained in a manner that young people or those with Autism or ADHD can understand.

i myself have ADHD, and the way some scams are worded can easily be misunderstood, and if you ask about it they (scammers) will push you to ignore the typos or absurdity of the situation, all in an effort to make you act before you can think about sending them money.

No matter the circumstance or situation, sending someone money just because they promised you money, money that you have absolutely no way of knowing is real in the first place other then them saying 'trust me', in and of itself is a very silly situation if you step back and think about it. At least to me it is.

I like to think about online situations with scammers like how you would door to door scammers.

You wouldn't give a stranger $200 on the spot after he knocked on your door saying he can 'fix something for you' outside your house, right? You'd want proof he was someone who does that job, right? Surely you'd find it pretty sus that this stranger seemingly came out of no where, and doesn't even have a vehicle, tool belt, or any other proof of their company...right?

Face to face you might have time to think, but online?

Online scammers like to push you so you don't have time to think.

And when it comes to recent scams, some follow a similar script:

You must send [person] money to expand your account. You must send [person] money to unlock your account. You must send [person] money to prove your identity. You must send [person] money to show you're legit. You must send [person] money to verify you want to proceed.

Not only are you being told to send another person money to 'expand' your account in the art commission scam with a fake email, but the scammers who run the sugar baby scam will do the same thing in asking you to 'verify' your legitimacy. To prove you want this.

'You'll get $3000 a month. I just need you to send me $100 to prove you're legit and want to do this so I can verify you're real.

You should never have to pay someone money, to get money.

As for the other scams, maybe it's because I grew up with internet safety 101 that I know better on how to avoid things.

Never click on suspicious links. Never download suspicious files. Never click on anything offering you something 'free'.

Nothing online is free. It will always come with a cost one way or another. Even using those discount websites like shopify and aliexpress can lead to you getting scammed or your information getting stolen. Same with dropshipping websites you see advertised on tumblr all the time.

If it seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

That's just how this world is, sadly.

-----

Thank you again for your ask! <3

Take care and stay safe everyone.

-Bee

[northwest-cryptid]

So I was looking over the rules for the "name 100 women" challenge because I thought it would be silly to do it on stream and I noticed something...

"No family, friends, or ex girlfriend or neighbors or any of that shit they have to be googleable women / public figures"

...Fuck that.

No seriously, fuck that.

You want to test if people know women yea? It's supposed to be like, for women's month or whatever. Alright, let me build up and mention women who matter in my life, let me mention my friends; let me name people who I know who may not be public figures or famous people but who are still important people.

Are you trying to say they're lesser? That they don't matter, that they don't count? Why the fuck not? Because you can't confirm their existence?

Okay here's another thing yea? What do you mean "they have to be googleable women" guess what fucker EVERYONE IS GOOGLEABLE. That doesn't mean shit, my mom is googleable if you know her name. Almost everyone has a fucking facebook, tumblr, twitter; whatever. That means you can google them!

Half the musical/visual artists or otherwise creative people I know are women, but can I list them? Apparently not because the very popular streamer lady says they don't count?

Fuck that.

You also can't have rules like "Can be Streamers + Can be any version of their name" and then pair that with "BUT I HAVE TO BE ABLE TO FIND THEM ON GOOGLE!"

Nah man fuck that, because here's the other big thing, The version of their name I'm familiar with could be from back in the day, there's even a "can be dead women" rule. So what if I name a dead woman, by a name she used back when I knew of her; but that name isn't very well known? Well it doesn't count because it's not googleable uwu.

Fuck that.

You want me to name 100 women? Sure I'll happily name 100 women. You want me to name 100 women you can find on the internet? Sure that's fine.

...You want to limit it to exclusively the popular women? No.

Fuck that.

Limiting it to exclusively popular well known women is so lame, let me name the people who are important to me, the music artists who make the shit that connects with me; not just "Taylor swift" because she's "googleable" that shit doesn't matter to me, her music doesn't matter to me; she doesn't matter to me. You know who IS a woman who has had a big impact on my life? Tamika, the happy hardcore singer who likes to remain fairly anonymous and goes by Tamika for the sake of being credited in songs she sings for. She was responsible for the vocals in a ton of HH songs I heard at clubs growing up and her daughter Kayliana, another woman; has followed in her footsteps to bless my ears with even more lyrical goodness.

But of course if you look up either of them they're not googleable because they wish to remain somewhat secret, they're only ever credited by first names and asking the DJs they have worked with will get you an answer of "they would like to keep their identity vague" so what am I not supposed to highlight these two genuinely skilled individuals who have brought me years of great musical vocals?! Just because they're not Googleable?! I thought this was "Name 100 women" not "name 100 popular famous women" or whatever.

Fuck that.

Look I get it, you want to verify this shit; you don't want some guy going "uuuh martha, sandra, stacey, debra" whatever. I understand that, but also at what point does someone become a public figure?

Am I a public figure if you can look me up on google? Is that all it takes? My tumblr has a substantial following people know of me, do I count? (I guess not really since I'm NB and all but hopefully you see what I mean).

If I can list streamers, but not friends; does that mean my streamer friends don't count?

Fuck that.

How are we determining what "Googleable" means? Is it just front page? Is it just googling their name? What?

I could find more information for half the people on my list by looking through odd subreddits or deep-diving into tumblr posts, does that qualify?

You can't be like "lol men can't name 100 women" and then staple on 200 regulations.

I think it's totally fair to say things like, no repeats, no fictional women, no descriptions they need to be names.

Sure that's totally fine, that makes sense even. If I could repeat a woman 100 times that's not 100 women. If it's a fictional woman that's not a woman; if I could describe "the lady who ran the window at the Maccas" that's not NAMING a woman!

But I'm really hung up on this "no family, friends, etc." rule because it's bullshit. You can't ask me to name 100 women and then tell me I can't name any of the women I happen to know personally because you can't verify they're real.

Fuck that.

[ariel-s-awesome]

Dear Supporter,

I hope this message finds you and your family in good health. My name is Eman Zaqout from Gaza. I am reaching you out to seek your urgent help in spreading the word about our fundraiser. I lost both my home and my job due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and we are facing catastrophic living conditions. 💔

I kindly ask you to visit my campaign. Your support, whether through donating or sharing, will help us reach more people who can make a difference. Thank you for your continued support for the Palestinian cause. Your dedication brings us closer to freedom. 🙏🕊

Note: Verified by several people as 90-ghost and aces-and-angels. ☑

Take a good look at a prime example of a scam bot, people. Same format every time. Real people don't message random nobodies.

Assorted tips to spot scammers:

How old is their account? Most bots are only a few days old.

How were they able to find your blog? Are they an established member of any comnunities you share? Have you ever seen them in your notes aside from their ask?

If you’re not a fairly big name on Tumblr, or even in your social sphere: Why are they asking you to boost them? Why not ask more popular users? (Or their friends?)

Do they give you enough information to vertify your identity?

Get familiar with their patterns. All of these follow a rigid format with an opening, a few paragraphs, emojis scattered to assure you that they're real, and a closing. Most Tumblr users either write too casually for the structure or too formally to use emojis often. Their pinned post will follow a similiar pattern with photos scattered throughout. (Note: Reverse image search can no longer vertify that they're original pictures thanks to AI.)

See the other asks I got recently to learn their pattern. All of these came within 4 days. The last 3 came while editing this post. And please note that I am neither an active nor popular user.

Edit: Copying and pasting the examples because private links keep breaking.

Example 1

zainsami To all those with compassionate hearts,🇵🇸🍉 I reach out to you today in a moment of extreme need💔. My name is Sami, and I am the father of two young daughters. Since October 7th, we’ve been displaced by the devastating war in Gaza. Every day, we struggle to survive without enough food, water, or a safe place to stay. The danger around us is overwhelming, and we are in desperate need of help.🥀🤍 I humbly ask for your immediate support. Even the smallest donation can make a huge difference and could be the lifeline that saves us from this terrifying reality. I beg you to consider our situation and offer your help before it’s too late.🙏🙏 No contribution is too small; every bit of support can change our lives. Please, act now, because time is running out.❤️🖤🤍💚 With heartfelt gratitude, I thank you for any help you can offer.🥰💖 Donate link to us 🍉 https://gofund.me/107a832

Example 2

majedalgherbawi Dear Friends,I write to you with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart. After 188 days of displacement, constant fear, and struggling to survive, we managed to escape with our lives and reach Egypt. But the pain didn’t stop there. Just yesterday, we lost my children's grandfather 💔, not due to direct war, but because of malnutrition and the lack of basic life necessities. We couldn’t save him, just as we couldn’t save our home or our dreams. The rest of my family is still trapped in the war, suffering the same harsh conditions that led to the passing of my children's grandfather. We are here trying to build a new life, but we have lost everything. We lost our home, and my children were deprived of their schools and universities. Even my eldest son, who worked so hard to build his future, lost his job and saw his dreams shattered.😔 We are now in desperate need of your help. We seek to secure a safe home that will provide us and our children with basic needs. Life in Egypt is extremely difficult, and prices are soaring beyond our reach. All we ask for is a chance to rebuild our lives and secure a better future for our children.🙏🏼 From the depths of my heart, I ask you to stand by us in these difficult times. Your support means hope and life to us.🙌🏼🇵🇸 https://gofund.me/59e9578a

Example 3

mahmoidsy Hello My dearest friends,🌟 My name is Mahmoud Jihad, from Gaza. My home, my university, everything has been destroyed. I now live in a flimsy tent with my family after losing everything. I was studying Information Technology while caring for my family, and now we have nothing. 😔 We are living amidst indescribable destruction and desperately need your help to survive. 😭 Even a small donation can make a huge difference. Every contribution is a spark of hope in the darkness of this war. ✨ My campaign is verified by: @/beesandwatermelons ✅ #190 and @/gazavetters ✅ #63. My GoFundMe link: https://gofund.me/463cbf01 Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Let's rebuild our lives together. 🙏❤️

Example 4

eman-zaqout Dear Supporter, I hope this message finds you and your family in good health. My name is Eman Zaqout from Gaza. I am reaching you out to seek your urgent help in spreading the word about our fundraiser. I lost both my home and my job due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and we are facing catastrophic living conditions. 💔 I kindly ask you to visit my campaign. Your support, whether through donating or sharing, will help us reach more people who can make a difference. Thank you for your continued support for the Palestinian cause. Your dedication brings us closer to freedom. 🙏🕊 Note: Verified by several people as @/90-ghost and @/aces-and-angels. ☑

Example 5

hayanahed Hi, I hope you're doing well. I'm writing to you with a heavy heart and an urgent request for help. My family is in a very danger situation due to the ongoing war, and I've launched a GoFundMe campaign to save them. Could you please reblog my campaign post from my profile? Each share could be a lifeline for my family. 🙏 Feel free to share it in any other social media platform if you would like. Our campaign has been verified ⭐️ by operation olive branch, and is entry number 26 on their spreadsheet. Also with ⭐️ Project watermelon,line 249/(212) on their spreadsheet. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you in advance for all of your support and kindness.

Example 6

eunice-2 Hi, I hope you are doing well.🌹 Can you help by sharing my story, reblog, and donating if you can, to keep hope alive for me, I'm type 1 diabetes. I am calling on your humanity and kindness to help me raise $340. This amount will enable the approval of an insulin pump that will help me better control my diabetes. Although I am happy that I have been approved the hardest part is the money to pay for the pump and equipment, please your contribution is important. Be blessed ♥️

Assorted tips to spot scammers:

How old is their account? Most bots are only a few days old.

How were they able to find your blog? Are they an established member of any comnunities you share? Have you ever seen them in your notes aside from their ask?

If you’re not a fairly big name on Tumblr, or even in your social sphere: Why are they asking you to boost them? Why not ask more popular users? (Or their friends?)

Do they give you enough information to vertify your identity?

Get familiar with their patterns. All of these follow a rigid format with an opening, a few paragraphs, emojis scattered to assure you that they're real, and a closing. Most Tumblr users either write too casually for the structure or too formally to use emojis often. Their pinned post will follow a similiar pattern with photos scattered throughout. (Note: Reverse image search can no longer vertify that they're original pictures thanks to AI.)

If you're running a vetting blog: Please open your askbox or provide another method of direct communication so people can privately warn you about scammers.

Edit: I have been informed of the exisiting GoFundMe drama. Sorry about the racist people but wow. Please do more research into scams.

[tittyinfinity]

A couple of days ago when I had to pay back a friend, they said that facebook pay was the best way to get the money to them since their cashapp was having issues.

So I went to send it over messenger and it did something it had never done before, which was ask for my legal name, my birthday, and my social security number. It said it wanted to "make sure my payments were in compliance with federal regulations."

Which means they're looking for sex work and drug deals. Facebook has the ability to send your data to the police/government. They're already starting the process of making sure everyone on the website has their real identification attached to it.

But this is dangerous for me in a completely different way – I'm on disability, and if any math doesn't add up correctly with my transactions I could lose some if not all of my monthly payments. Thankfully, most of my transactions are through cashapp, but if the money I borrowed and the donations I received were reported as income, I could be sued for fraud, despite only needing the money for regular necessities like bills and household items.

I messaged them and told them "I'm so sorry, I know this is an emergency but I absolutely cannot send the money like this. I'm going to have to drive the money to you, but it will be a couple of bucks short because I have to get cash back."

I eventually ended up being able to send it to their mom's paypal instead.

But yeah, if fb asks for your personal information like this, DON'T DO IT. Not only for yourself, but because it could put your friends in danger, too. Even if my legal name isn't attached to everything yet, if one if my friends is legally verified, they could quickly find out my identity from their information.

My fb is already deactivated, so I'll be getting rid of messenger now. I highly suggest y'all get rid of your Facebook accounts too

[gaza-giving-tree]

Can confirm a lot of these are NOT bots, actually. 🙃

A lot of these accounts are real people, going through the worst nightmare of their lives, trying to get help any way they can, with the limited tools they have at their disposal.

Unfortunately there are SOME people who are stealing the information and photos from some Gaza blogs to scam others, but the scam blogs are usually easy to spot; they tend to have a just a PayPal link instead of a fundraiser link (though there have been a couple exceptions to this that I've seen).

Platforms like GoFundMe and Chuffed protect your donations for up to a year, and literally investigate fraudulent activity. That's why you'll see scammers using PayPal instead.

A lot of actual people do copy/paste the same message because they have limited time/phone battery/internet connection and are trying to find as much help for their families as they possibly can. Mutual Aid blogs like @gazavetters are trying their best to tell people to not do this, to cut down on this type of posting and messaging.

They are trapped in a war zone, many with no source of income available because infrastructure in Gaza has been almost completely decimated. A lot of people are literally surviving off their fundraisers right now, because they have no other source of income and there are no jobs around in a place that has been heavily bombed and destroyed. But they still have to pay astronomical amounts for food and medical bills (and even rent, in some cases)! Which is why they're asking for money.

That's why I started this page: to help promote people who have been vetted by others within the mutual aid community on this site. I talk to them, document their realities, try to present as much factual information about them as I can, so these people can hopefully get help, not be met with skepticism or vitriol from others.

Can you really blame them for getting frustrated, after being ignored for months on end by the majority of people they reach out to?

Also, I get so many messages a day from these blogs. Not once have I gotten anyone threatening to kill themselves or others over not receiving help. I HAVE gotten messages saying they will most likely die without help, though! Which is, unfortunately, the reality a lot of people in Gaza are living in. It's NOT self-inflicted; they're being relentlessly bombed and starved, and aid from charities is difficult for them to even receive because a lot of aid is not even being ALLOWED into the area right now.

Imagine being trapped in the worst nightmare of your life, trying to do your best to survive, and people say you're a scam artist for reaching out for help.

Take a look at my blog; you'll find a lot of REAL people here! One family I've written about is so real they ended up on Al-Jazeera TWICE. That's pretty difficult to fake! You can see the articles I've written for them, [HERE] and [HERE]. 🙃

Also, blogs like @gazavetters are NOT bots. They actually talk to these people, look at their legal documents, verify their identities, then add the vetted people to a list, which they maintain and adjust as needed.

Like yes, use your brain and investigate before you give anyone your money. That's common sense.

But please don't go around spreading misinformation because starving people living in a war zone, asking for help, makes you uncomfortable.

You can choose to look away. They can't escape the reality they're being forced to live in.

I guess here’s your daily reminder that it’s okay to block and report gaza scam bots. yeah, those annoying ones in your DMs and inbox with the same copy paste story and formatting starting with “hello dear” or “hello beautiful soul”. those annoying ones that are now threatening to kill themselves and their children unless you post their asks and donate $20 to them. yeah, those ones are scammers guilt tripping you and profiting off of your kindness and real Palestinians who are being killed babes.

(and if you can, donate directly to organizations you know and trust, but that’s not some bots pretending to vet other bots on tumblr dot com)