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Note: Everything in this post is my personal opinion. If you don’t agree, set up your own Substack. Or, leave me a comment.
I have long considered myself un-scam-able. I keep up on the latest scam news, I never click on links in emails or texts from people I don’t know. But last week I got taken, hook, line and sinker.
It started with an email that appeared to come from Ali Spagnola’s Patreon account:
At first glance this looks completely legit.
What I didn’t know then, but know now, is that the From: address for emails from Patreon is bingo@patreon.com, not no-reply@patreon.com.
This is an actual email to me from Ali’s Patreon account.
So I wasn’t surprised or suspicious to get an email from her Patreon account
I have supported Ali’s projects in the past, and I was tickled that she had (apparently) reached out to me personally. The Patreon link in the email took me to this year-and-a-half-old comment I had made and a recent response that appeared to come from her.
Again, looks legit other than the fact that she wanted to communicate on WhatsApp, but I was so tickled to be communicating directly with her I went ahead and sent the scammer a message on WhatsApp.
I was so certain I was communicating directly with her that when the scammer told me I needed to pay $55 for shipping for a water bottle and a ring (and a piece of a T-shirt?) I first objected to the price, then ponied up via PayPal.
The water bottle and ring are actual projects Ali completed in the last few months.
PayPal popped up a warning that the payment appeared to be a scam, but I was so convinced I was communicating with Ali I ignored the warning.
I should have gotten suspicious when the scammer then told me I needed to send another $60 via PayPal or Zelle to join the $60 tier in Ali’s Patreon. Yes, at that point I was just that stupid.
All told these assholes took me for $255 before I wised up.
I’m disputing $155 of those charges on my credit card. While they’re investigating they’re not going to charge me interest or ask me to pay the $155.
The investigation is likely to take months. It’s possible I’ll still need to pay it off. I’ll write it off as a major life lesson.
The other $100 is just gone.
PayPal wouldn’t let me make any more payments to the scammer’s account, so like an idiot I sent them another $100 from my Apple Cash card.
At the recommendation of the phone rep for my Apple Cash card I also reported the scam to the Federal Trade Commission.
I’m not sure if that’ll do any good, but at least it’s now on record.
Just so you know, here’s what a creator’s comments look like in Patreon chat:
It’s blue instead of gray and has “CREATOR” next to the name.
I’m aghast that Patreon allows someone other than the actual creator to open an account and post using the creator’s name. But I guess if a creator has a name like, say, Mike Smith, it’s likely they’ll have followers with the same name.
In other comments on Patreon Ali said that these scammers are relentless. Every time she kills one of their accounts they open a new one. So they’re causing her a lot of grief as well.
I take some comfort from something Brian Brushwood says in his podcasts, “We don’t get fooled because we’re stupid, we get fooled because we’re human.”
I broke every rule I have for avoiding scams.
I used WhatsApp instead of Patreon to communicate.
I sent money via a payment system outside of Patreon.
I fell victim to the "Something for nothing” scam.
I also fell for the Sunk Cost fallacy after I’d already sent way more money than I would have needed to just subscribe to Ali’s Patreon at a tier that would have qualified me to receive her current swag.
I KNOW better than this. And yet I took the bait.
Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.
Then again, if you get sucked into a scam, remember you’re human.
I’ve heard of folks who’ve lost their life savings, so if I’m only out $255 or so, I think it’s a relatively cheap life lesson.
Musical Coda:
To the scammers that ripped me off:
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Truth, I have not fallen, yet. I say this not to sound like I am better, truly that "They" have not found my trigger yet. I know "They" will, my only hope is that the more tricks I hear about will save me money. I live in a very senior area and have had a recent friend, 85 years old, get scammed out of $10,000, sadly it was her life savings. She was feeling so stupid, I told her, don't "They" are just that good at getting you. Sometimes the lessons we learn are hard.