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For those of you who don’t know, a ‘supporter’ scammed me. I talk about that here
At least I can use what happened to me to educate others so they know what to do if someone similar comes on their Facebook or Twitter etc.
I decided to make this advice blog regarding how ti keep yourself safe from scammers so you won’t go through what I did.
If you get an email claiming to come from Paypal or YouTube etc, email the site’s support and show a screenshot of the email you got.
In Youtube’s case, if you have Twitter tag @teamyoutube with a screen of the email claiming to be someone from YT.
A rep from Facebook or whatever will confirm whether or not their employee sent you the email.
The guy claimed he wanted to tip me, but also said he needed a 50 redeem code (gift card) to send money on PayPal because it ‘a company account’ I would assume they meant business.
Paypal has a business account and a personal. If you buy a gift card for Steam or Amazon, those credits will be on your account. So how could the guy get the credits from his account to send to me?
there are 2 types of Paypal accounts, business and personal. Paypal does not ask for money to send money. It’s like a job posting saying you have to send a check to get hired.
If people didn’t fall for scams, we would not have information combating them.
Keep an eye out for the person’s behavior. This guy was acting strange. They sent me a message saying I needed to be quick getting them the gift cards. You do not need to be that fast redeeming a gift card code.
When I sent my Paypal link to the guy he said it ‘wasn’t allowed’ Paypal gives you a link for a reason, for quick access to your page.
I mean most gift cards have an expiration date, usually, you have months to use it, depending on when you get it.
When I put my foot down the guy was begging me to get a gift card. Like why did he need it so damn badly? Did he get in trouble with someone and owe them gift cards and he was using me to get them or something?
The guy was acting like it was an urgent need to get the gift cards. He also claimed cash app requires the redeem code. No, they do not. When someone is making these claims, ask Paypal or Cashapp, etc.
The guy sent a fake email claiming to be Paypal. Always look for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, how they address you in the email, the email address, etc. when you get emails from YouTube or Twitch, etc, make a note of how they format the email. This could be why he claimed my Paypal link wasn’t allowed’ without my email, he couldn’t send me those fake emails
Check the person’s profile. I feel it’s important and can have some red flags. This guy had no activity on their page and it looks like they made their page last year or so. I get not everyone uses Facebook as I do. At most you share photos. This guy came off as an influencer. Why wasn’t he using a Facebook page? On pages, especially business ones, you can leave reviews and write on the wall. This guy knows if people they’ve previously scammed left reviews, others will see it and block/report the page. It’s hard to get a personal account down for scamming.
The guy was being dodgy. Acting like it was life or death getting the codes, didn’t back his claim of needing the gift card. Meaning showing a screenshot, linking a help article from Paypal, etc
Then things get dodgier when I bought the first card and send the code, he said I needed the receipt and the code was ‘invalid’ I tried to use it and it said the code
had been claimed already. So it’s possible he was giving these codes to someone else and then tried using it on his stuff to mislead me into thinking the code was defective.
This guy was asking for personal information claiming Paypal ‘needs it.’
Like the guy claimed Paypal need to know if I had a car and what type of Driver’s License I have. Why would Paypal need that information? If I was a business perhaps they’d need it to confirm my ID. But why would the guy need MY details?
The number 1 rule of any social site is they never ask for personal information. For those of you that are streamers and such and use Paypal to accept tips, I am sure the person sending the money never needed your car information. If you are an artist and clients pay you via PayPal, you can also provide some insights.
I bought masks from someone and paid them via Paypal and they didn’t have to give me their car info, a gift card code, and all of that shit this guy claimed was needed.
This is for in someone like this guy comes to your page.
When in doubt, find a forum on Reddit or something to get information.
Not only is this about the guy who scammed me. Someone like him can come to your page and make these claims.
Scammers only care about themselves. They do not care how they are affecting the people they are fooling.
The guy sends a screenshot claiming to be from people he previously send money to. unless the person vouches for someone, chances are the screens are fake. Notice how he didn’t send those people to vouch for him. If someone was skeptical of me if I would show reviews people left on my stuff.
If these people were streamers/lets players, most creators shout out those who tip them. Did this guy support other streamers/YouTubers? Now he was asking for personal info, right?
I doubt that those people want to give a stranger their personal information. Although iI don’t have proof of whether or not he faked the screenshots. No one in their right mind would give some stranger their personal information.
His asking for personal information for ‘Paypal’ is what made him dodgy. He was suspicious from the start but why would a crowdfunding app wanna know about your car?
Save the screenshots so if someone else got scammed by the same person, maybe ya’ll can figure something out
When in doubt, contact support for whatever site you’re getting sketchy email’s from.
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