Got scammed really bad last night

[Arkham_Harley]

Newbie here. I fell victim to a pretty bad scam last night. The guy sent me amazon prepaid debit giftcards that were totally fake, but the email looked friggin legit. I didn't apply it to my account right away and should have. I got a fake $240 from this guy and was on google hangouts with him for 2 hours.
Honestly I just don't know how to feel right now. I thought I was being smart, not giving into empty requests and using my brain, but this hoax was pretty damn good. How can these people honestly sleep at night?
The email he used was:
boobzilla23@gmail.com
and his mfc name is:
smiller460 (but it looks like he already got rid of the profile)

Live and learn I suppose, but I don't even want to cam anymore honestly.

 

[Picnic]

I fell for pretty much the exact same thing when I first started camming. Rushed into it without waiting for the $ to actually hit my account first. It was a silly move, but it happens. You now know better and I bet you'll never fall for a other scam again (I know I haven't).

I say don't let it stop you from camming, but definitely go with your gut

 

[MFCGod]

I think you're brave to come forward with this, as someone who got scammed last year out of a considerable amount of money (non cam related) I felt very embarrassed by it

It's good to highlight these sort of scams and scammers

We all have lapses in judgement, all though this type of thing is very disheartening try not to be too hard on yourself.

I'm not really sure on the protocol in these sort of situations, whether it will help to report it to MFC etc

,

 

[gonegirl2352]

Just don't accept anything but tokens for payment. Offline tips give you more of a placement boost anyway. Fuck that guy and don't let him take away your power, none of this was your fault. Now you have the experience to weed out the scammers.

 

[AlanaLove]

I am sorry about what happen. Sadly in this industry there are alot of timewasters especially which it comes to Skype shows. I actually used to prefer doing shows on skype with guys from CMD and Skyprivate, now all I encounter are timewasters trying to talk to me for along time then disappears when it time to buy a show or I encounter guys trying purchase shows through PayPal or Amazon even though it says on my listings "NO PAYPAL OR AMAZON".

 

[marchards]

This is crappy. I'm sorry this happened to you. I guess you could look on it as a cheap lesson, in that all you lost was your time and your labour. Don't let one bad person alter your plans. If you like camming, keep on camming. If you feel it's about time to stop camming anyway, then stop.

 

[Arkham_Harley]

Thanks guys. I think what hurts also besides the monetary loss, is that he and I talked quite a bit, and he felt very much like a friend at the end of the show, so it was a double whammy. Lesson learned. Life goes on.
I let myself feel sad for a few hours and now I'm getting back on the horse. Learning to cam is a rocky road, but I have made some regulars who I actually enjoy talking to very much. The nerd community is small, but we look out for each other in the end!

 

[kylexy]

Sorry to hear about the scam, I've also been scammed some times, but as a buyer by a cam girl then. I understand what you say when you talk to the other person for a while and get the feeling that it's a nice person, just to realise in the end that it's quite the opposite. Really sucks.

 

[ashtyn_rain]

Yeah, guys like to use either PDFs of giftcards, or already used giftcards. Either you need to be really careful with looking at where the giftcard is from or you need to make sure it gets credited to your Amazon account before proceeding.

 

[Teagan]

AND you have to spend it before the show or goods are exchanged as well. They can get refunds for gift cards even after you redeem them and it shows in your account. They however cant once you spend it.

 

[HiGirlsRHot]

This is crappy. I'm sorry this happened to you. I guess you could look on it as a cheap lesson, in that all you lost was your time and your labour. Don't let one bad person alter your plans. If you like camming, keep on camming. If you feel it's about time to stop camming anyway, then stop.

I think it will help psychologically to think of this not as "fuck I got ripped off for $240", but rather I wasted two hours with some loser. Think of it more as bad date, where the handsome, funny, successful guy on his online profile, turned out to be fat and living in mom's basement. Anyway sorry you got scammed. If you become a verified model, in the models only forum, you'll be able to read how pretty much all the models even the top ones have been victimized early in their camming career.

Does misery really love company?

 

[Snowie1969]

I hate scammers.. at least freeloaders are honest in their intentions Seriously: I hope his balls will fall off and his penis will shrink painfully to the size of a grain of sand.

 

[fandango]

Im sorry this had to happen to you, some of these guys make it a sport to scam new models and take advantage of their naivety. Sadly there are many assholes out there but I do believe that the good outwiegh the bad and hopefully next time instead it will be some monster tipper that finds you.

 

[TacoBelle]

I just wanted to give two quick pieces of advice:

1) I don't think amazon has an option for a user to buy a prepaid visa from their site. I could be wrong, but I've never heard of it. Most of the time, they will send amazon giftcards, but they will only say "member name has sent you an amazon gift card." NEVER open an attachment in an email (if it has an attachment, it's fake and probably a virus as well). Just copy and paste that little code into your amazon account to redeem it.

Yes, there are WAY more threads about how to tell the reals from the fakes, how to properly redeem them on your personal private amazon account workout giving your details to sender, and more in models only. You'll be able to see those when you're verified.

2) I'm assuming that you and the member sent messages back and forth to set up the Skype. His username will always update in your mfc mail (inbox AND sent), his pm archives and chat logs. I'm on mobile or I'd link it for you. But you go to the homepage, then my account, then chat logs.

 

[Rose]

AND you have to spend it before the show or goods are exchanged as well. They can get refunds for gift cards even after you redeem them and it shows in your account. They however cant once you spend it.

That!

I deal a fair amount in gift cards so it's second nature for me to pause communications, quickly use the funds, and then continue communications to fulfill the agreed upon arrangement. It's smart to keep things you'll use regularly (like toilet paper, shampoo, cleaning products, body wash, dog food, etc) in a wish list that you can quickly buy from if presented with a situation like this again.

Always test your preferred method of payment before performing anything (chatting, shows,whatever). The legit guys will understand and the time wasters will flip out, thus saving you time when they call themselves out.

We all get scammed at least once. It happens. You just learn from it and move on.

 

[Coog]

Getting scammed sucks, try not to beat yourself up over it and put it down to a learned experience that you're not going to repeat because you're that bit smarter.

Any guy who is serious about skype shows and using gift cards or payment types other than tokens (probably even tokens too), will be prepared to let you have some prep time to do your thing whether that's getting things/toys ready or even just verifying he's paid So don't be afraid to say you need a bit of time to get prepared, any reasonable guy will be cool with that.

 

[dilligaf0]

Sadly, there are many people who's only goal in life is to take advantage of others.
On camsites as well as in real life.
All you can do is learn from your trusting the wrong person and move on.
Karma will deal with them eventually.

 

[caireen]

I think it will help psychologically to think of this not as "fuck I got ripped off for $240", but rather I wasted two hours with some loser. Think of it more as bad date, where the handsome, funny, successful guy on his online profile, turned out to be fat and living in mom's basement. Anyway sorry you got scammed. If you become a verified model, in the models only forum, you'll be able to read how pretty much all the models even the top ones have been victimized early in their camming career.

Does misery really love company?

Wait.. how do you know she can read about that in models only??

 

[HHC]

Scams are everywhere. Very sorry this happened. As nice as it is to get gift cards and use Amazon, get the money. Keep it simple and focus on your tokens.

 

[LittleLei]

Gah! I'm so sorry that happened to you girl. Sending some love your way and hope you can recover the lost wages in your next shows.

 

[Miss_Lollipop]

Newbie here. I fell victim to a pretty bad scam last night. The guy sent me amazon prepaid debit giftcards that were totally fake, but the email looked friggin legit. I didn't apply it to my account right away and should have. I got a fake $240 from this guy and was on google hangouts with him for 2 hours.
Honestly I just don't know how to feel right now. I thought I was being smart, not giving into empty requests and using my brain, but this hoax was pretty damn good. How can these people honestly sleep at night?
The email he used was:
boobzilla23@gmail.com
and his mfc name is:
smiller460 (but it looks like he already got rid of the profile)

Live and learn I suppose, but I don't even want to cam anymore honestly.

I just signed him up to a whole bunch of gay male mailing lists.

 

[Arkham_Harley]

I just signed him up to a whole bunch of gay male mailing lists.

You.....are fucking amazing and I love you. I still have his skype address too.

 

[SaphiraCourt]

So I realize you got scammed a few weeks ago now, but I feel like posting and bumping this because I feel for the exact same thing on Sept 3rd.... I was having a super slow night so even though my alarm bells were ringing when the code didn't work on my amazon account, I still skyped with this loser for an hour and a half.

Lacey, I am SO glad you have signed him up for some useful mailing lists. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. and I'm thinking that boobzilla23 just might become my throw away email for anything and everything now haha.

In my case I didn't miss out on quite as much money for this terrible "date" with a loser, but the conversation with him left me feeling pretty terrible and mad at myself for falling for one of the oldest scams in the book. I did find out from the amazon help chat that you can forward any scam emails to stop-spoofing@amazon.com

Hope you don't let one asshole stop you from camming if it's really something you want to do.... and realize that we all make mistakes time to time, even if we know better. :hug:

 

[Rubysexx]

Newbie here. I fell victim to a pretty bad scam last night. The guy sent me amazon prepaid debit giftcards that were totally fake, but the email looked friggin legit. I didn't apply it to my account right away and should have. I got a fake $240 from this guy and was on google hangouts with him for 2 hours.
Honestly I just don't know how to feel right now. I thought I was being smart, not giving into empty requests and using my brain, but this hoax was pretty damn good. How can these people honestly sleep at night?
The email he used was:
boobzilla23@gmail.com
and his mfc name is:
smiller460 (but it looks like he already got rid of the profile)

Live and learn I suppose, but I don't even want to cam anymore honestly.

It happens to the best of us! Don't let this jerk ruin your vibe! You're Beautiful!!

 

[mav2199]

AND you have to spend it before the show or goods are exchanged as well. They can get refunds for gift cards even after you redeem them and it shows in your account. They however cant once you spend it.

Damn, I didnt even know that. Thanks for the info....

 

[IndySolo]

I know this thread's been dead for a while, but I'm so glad I found it (and SO sorry you had to go through that!). Pretty sure I just got smacked with my first scammer tonight, just a week into camming. He was very hasty about wanting to do the Skype thing ASAP, and claimed because he was from the UK and currency conversions, etc., it would take up to 24 hours to apply to my account. Now that it's done and over with, I'm smacking myself upside the head for believing the moron! Somehow, he managed to get my real name as well, which he didn't mention until after the fact.

Now that I'm done having a mini panic attack, I've screenshotted everything and am doing some heavy research on how to know what's for real and what's not. People are just plain AWFUL sometimes.

However, I did laugh pretty hard at the email thing. Great job!

 

[AmberCutie]

He was very hasty about wanting to do the Skype thing ASAP, and claimed because he was from the UK and currency conversions, etc., it would take up to 24 hours to apply to my account. Now that it's done and over with, I'm smacking myself upside the head for believing the moron!

The golden rule is to never perform/send content without payment first. And in the case of gift cards and off-site payments, sometimes that means waiting a while and/or redeeming gift cards immediately before the show/content is sent. But it's worth it to stick to this rule unless you are 100% comfortable with the person after knowing them on the cam site for a while and knowing they're good peeps.

I'm going to sticky this thread for a while. I'd love for other cam girls to chime in with common scams that have happened to them and ones to look out for so that we can spread the word (without having a "blacklist" of names, because that does no good other than cause drama) to newcomers on how to avoid being scammed.

What are your experiences? Feel free to be vague with personal details, just enough info to share knowledge and prevent others from falling victim.

 

[AmberCutie]

Also, remember we have a very short/general list over at our Cam Girl Wiki - https://www.camgirlwiki.com/wiki/Scams

 

[IndicaDesires]

So I realize you got scammed a few weeks ago now, but I feel like posting and bumping this because I feel for the exact same thing on Sept 3rd.... I was having a super slow night so even though my alarm bells were ringing when the code didn't work on my amazon account, I still skyped with this loser for an hour and a half.

Lacey, I am SO glad you have signed him up for some useful mailing lists. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. and I'm thinking that boobzilla23 just might become my throw away email for anything and everything now haha.

In my case I didn't miss out on quite as much money for this terrible "date" with a loser, but the conversation with him left me feeling pretty terrible and mad at myself for falling for one of the oldest scams in the book. I did find out from the amazon help chat that you can forward any scam emails to stop-spoofing@amazon.com

Hope you don't let one asshole stop you from camming if it's really something you want to do.... and realize that we all make mistakes time to time, even if we know better. :hug:

Be careful about forwarding emails sent to camgirl related accounts to them. You don't want to draw attention to what you use your wish list for. They don't really allow for camgirls to use it for adult content and such. They'll delete your account and wish list if they notice what's up

 

[MsAllyCat]

When I started camming I was scammed.

Basically I was running a Highest Tip = 10min Skype in my room. So that all happened, very exciting, and it was a great token night. I got the dude's Skype to add him via MFC PM. I log off MFC and into Skype and see that he had already added me. Did the Skype. Then I realise that the person who added me, and who I did the show with wasn't the high tipper. It was a total scamming Basic who had been watching the whole night, the whole exchange. He quickly made a Skype account with my high tippers user name, found me on Skype and added. The usernames were the same, except for a _ at the end of the scammer's. He did a good job of guessing, but it really isn't rocket surgery to know most guys are going to have the same user name for MFC and their sexy Skype account.

I felt like such an idiot! But it was a pretty good scam. I gave the scammer a huge piece of my mind and we got in to a bit of back and forth. He said he had fooled many many models the same way.

Some things could have prevented this.
1) *I* should have added the High Tipper to Skype. I should not have accepted the request. I implemented this as standard practice straight after I was burnt.
2) I could have paid closer attention to verifying the skype user name (not Nickname) was the same as what my HT gave me.