#i am very very tempted to try making a tumblr scam checker bot

[astraltrickster]

Oh boy. Wanna guess what tumblr crowdfunding scammers are up to now?

I just got an ask from a user who claimed to be from Palestine, trying to pay for insulin for her diabetic mother while sheltering from the bombs.

Of course, when I went to the blog to vet it (remember, you should be suspicious ANY time a stranger messages you to share their crowdfunding post), every single red flag for a crowdfunding scam was there - most tellingly, as usual, the blog was nothing but a few high note count reblogs, presumably from the trending page, reblogged over the past day. As a subtler detail, the user's alleged worldview based on those reblogs was also...surprisingly US-centric for someone in Palestine, much like what should have tipped people off about hivliving sooner, though that may have been a coincidence from carelessly reblogging randomly from the trending page, as some of the other scam blogs I've seen and reported have reblogged hardcore leftist posts AND pro-Tr*mp posts back-to-back...

So, after seeing that, in knowing that a lot of people on tumblr are very inclined to try to help in disasters on an individual level, I felt the need to use it as a safety reminder.

Remember: there are assholes in the world who are NOT above using real-world disasters to try to grift you. Please remember to be skeptical of ANYONE who "cold-calls" you for help with a crowdfunding campaign. Check how old their blog is. Look deeper than just "does it have posts and a bio?" to figure out if this is a real person. If they have no other original posts, not even an "about me" or anything, and all their reblogs are a day or two old, IT IS A SCAM. Do not do anything they ask. Just report them.

#internet bullshittery warning #internet safety #i am very very tempted to try making a tumblr scam checker bot #a webpage and/or browser extension that looks at the contents of a blog and tells you if the behavior on the blog #is more likely to be a legit user vs. a scammer #because some scammers are more convincing than others! #i don't know how I could come up with a way to flag the REALLY elaborate grifters like hivliving #but i know that i could at least make a bot that goes to the end of someone's archive #and if it sees no other original posts #and a ton of reblogs that all likely came from the trending page #while the blog is less than a week or so old #it could certainly throw out a little “PROBABLE SCAM” warning