And I want to publicly put on blast that this is a goddamn SCAM. I’m 30 fucking years old and chronically online. I’ve been around the fucking block. Do not fall for this bullshit here, on Steam, anywhere. No random account knows any details about your Tumblr. There’s no way someone accidentally reports you when you “meant to report someone else”. It is a multi-step window.

just rewatched jaiden’s 15 minute complaint vid and realized why everything feels like it doesnt work the way its supposed to anymore and why everything feels so forced and distrustful and why everything you own is boiled down to a “subscription service”.

its a scam. theyre scammers. literally almost every subscription service that seems irrelevant and unnecessary is because it is irrelevant and unnecessary. its a fucking scam. youre not supposed to have a subscription service for a car or a fridge.

we are in a time where scammers are running rampant, living in a world where the rich have power more than they ever did before, and because of that, they dont care about the people down below, they dont care about society if they can just throw money away and at the problem if it means its gone.

more money means less problems, which means more freedom for people to do what they want, thus, less people to keep an eye on whos actually doing legitimate and harmful crime, thus, more scammers

(and also more racists and how ice got involved. ice is government funded so if it means keeping the poor people out then yeah theyll pay into it)

so how do we stop this? how do we avoid scammers and otherwise solve this problem?

well you cant. at least not simply. im not gonna get out there and say you can fix the everyones problems all on your own, thats stupid.

but i will say you can get out there and fix your own problems, and show everyone by example on what to do, what not to do and how to do it. lead by example. share with the community. you start with one set of people, it grows into a group, moves to another group, grows into a society, and so on

so here are my personal rules of thumb that i follow and other things that i notice or what otherwise give me the heebie jeebies when i see em:

• a business that once readily gave you a product now withholds it from you or forces you to go through an entire process such as calling customer service to/or having it sent to your personal address
  - this is a scam for a multitude of reasons. a business that advertises itself on a product that is readily available should have a product that is readily available for you at the time of your arrival, or at the very least, have an arrangement ready for you to pick it up at a later time so that they can prepare it for you if they need to set things up. there is absolutely no need for a legitimate business, legal or otherwise, to get you to sign off on permission for your address. the only time you should ever be giving out your physical address to anybody at all is for your mail.
  - (i will say if you absolutely have to give out your address, you dont have to let any moral obligations stop you. whether its for convenience or because you physically cannot go places, that is for you to decide, but opening up your address and your email does give scammers a lot of access to personal and private information, so please be careful about who you share these with)
  - a business should also not have the ability to waste your time. if they are running behind, then it is understandable, these are real human beings behind these machines. they are only able to work as fast as they can, but anything that should not take longer than five or ten minutes should not have you waiting longer than five or ten minutes. if it does, then there need to be more or less people on the job, depending on the service, and if that is a business that is not capable of being able to predict how busy it can get, then that is a business that relies solely on its employees, not its work ethic or its boss, and it is considered by law and definition, unethical.
  - (be responsible about this, as some locations are dependent on places like these being the sole heart of jobs and imported goods in certain towns and cities, as well as being generally mainly well-liked. for a lot of you, you will have to play it by ear, but generally, if there is more than one steady source of mainstream income, and the environment of the business is actively harmful or dangerous, then it might be in your best interest to) report the establishment to your local business bureau and leave it to them to decide. if all else fails, rally your community and try to get that place shut down.*
• a doctors office that charges you a late fee if you do not show up on time but then holds you over for longer than when you were supposed to show up
  - this is a complaint ive seen not only very often, but has happened to myself, and has been one ive been on the receiving end of as ive worked for multiple doctors throughout the years and i gotta say…yeah that late fee is bullshit. there is no need for it, and while it does not keep people from coming in on time, there is absolutely nothing stopping them from coming in late either or not coming in at all. we’ve had to deal with multiple callouts, multiple reschedules, multiple no-shows, and every time we just had to grin and bear it, meanwhile, our doctor is either taking their sweet merry time with the patient, or being held over because the patient keeps talking and its against bedside manner rules to tell them to shut the fuck up and move on. regardless, it does not matter. a good doctors office will be sufficient, and efficient, and will have you in and out within a timely manner. a good doctors team will have all their papers organized and have the patient within the exam room with their vitals recorded within 5 minutes or so. a good doctor will not let the patient talk over them or run on and will find a way to keep in the most talkative yappers focused and on track while also engaging them in conversation without being rude or insensitive. you are not just a patient when you enter a doctor’s office, you are also a customer. just like a doctor is not only a doctor when they are providing care for your health or comfort, they are also a salesperson. they are running a business that relies on your health, but they are also there because they want to help you. a good doctor will help you and send you on your way. a bad doctor will rely on you and make sure you keep coming back.
• your household appliance or everyday use item that usually would not need an outside source to work now needs an app to do so
  - for us older folk, this is a bit of a no-brainer. you could just push a button and the god damn thing would work, and for the younger kids, you can do the same thing, just that the buttons in a touch screen.
  except, when your household appliance breaks, its now a matter of a software issue, instead of a hardware issue. with a hardware issue, you could just get your neighbor jim from down the road to come on by and fix it or your uncle bill with his blackstone cigarettes. with software issues, a lot of the time its a lot more complicated than that, because in order to try and access whats broken, you have to access the ui. which is normally the thing thats broken. and if the ui is broken, you cant access it. but in order to access the thing thats broken, you have to access the ui. you see where im going with this?
  companies are still making appliances that dont require a software to operate. if you see a household appliance or item with a software installation, dont buy it, because a. not only is it likely a scam, but b. computers are not a perfect a substitute for human error. they will always need a real human being to check their work.
• an insurance decides they wont cover your medication because its too expensive
  - this is literally the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. you are paying them money every month to make sure its not expensive. if they do not have the money to cover your medication, then where is it going? your payment plan, your moms payment plan, your friends, your cousins, all the other members that supposedly make up the biggest insurance company on the planet? all that money? where is that going? where is that going that suddenly you cannot afford an $800 medication in full when you are making at least $5 million a month from insurance premiums alone (definitely bigger. im just making a generalization here). biggest and clearest scam ive ever heard and seen. do not fall for this. make them pay for it. they can, they just dont want to
• your service goes out and you can only ask one company in your area to fix it
  - this is fishy as hell. depending on the service you own, it might be Convenient for you to get it fixed by the company who installed it, but you should never be full-on barred from getting help from another company who can get the job done just as well as the people who originally installed it. are they gonna know the ins and outs as well? are they gonna have the specialty knowledge of the way they installed things? are they gonna have the secretive handshake to unlock the door and woo the magic mage thats inside so you can live on the internet for the next thousand years? well no, obviously not, but a service is a service, man. if a specialist can get it fixed, you can call any company to get it done, and if the company you get your service from has it specifically locked so that theyre the only ones who can fix it, then that is a scam in the making. thats like the definition of a toxic relationship. apple is literally a company that does this with their technology and im typing on one of their computers. the irony

i think ive given more than enough scenarios here, but if anyone else wants to add to this, please feel free to do so. this is all a lot of work, and you dont all have to do this at once. no one expects you to.

just choose one, and try it.

trust me, just the one will make a world of difference, and you’ll see the world in a different light

*BE WARNED. NOT EVERYONE WILL LIKE THIS AND SOME WILL TRY AND TURN AGAINST YOU. SOME WILL WARN THE BUSINESS OF YOU. SOME WILL HURT YOU. SOME WILL HURT THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE. BUT YOU MUST KEEP FIGHTING. FIND A WAY TO GET THROUGH TO THEM WITHOUT ANYONE GETTING HURT. DO THAT, AND YOU WILL FIND YOU HAVE A STRONGER BOND AND COMMUNITY THAN MONEY CAN EVER BUY.

PSA to the followers & friends of Tumblr user @/deeptrapvow : their blog has been hacked and is being used to scam/hack others!! Do not answer any of their messages!

The hacker is doing a common scam where they’ll message you, tell you they accidentally reported your blog instead of another one, that Tumblr is going to delete your blog without notifying you, and that you need to appeal by contacting the specific person assigned to your case (an email address or a Discord account usually).

Points of note:

• The scammer insists on the urgency and how you’re going to lose your blog
• The screenshot of the “report email” they’ll show you says that Tumblr will NOT notify the reported user of their having been reported and their account’s upcoming termination… Yet advises the reported user to contact a specific person within a short time frame to appeal.
• The report email will have vague but serious phrasing like “we were unable to confirm the user’s innocence”.

If you are contacted by @/deeptrapvow, or anyone else sending similar messages, DO NOT ENGAGE!! Block, report, and spread the word!!

If you do follow through and contact the “”“Support Executive Staff”“” whose email they give you, that person will ask you to click a link that will give them full access to your account and lock you out of it. It’s happened to one of my friends, and it’s terrifying, but IT IS FIXABLE!!

If you have been hacked this way, contact Tumblr staff THROUGH TUMBLR’S CONTACT FORM, and inform them of the situation.

Never, ever contact a support official through an email address, phone number or link given to you by someone. That also goes for your bank, your phone company, anything. If someone (even someone who appears official) tells you “there’s a problem with your account, you need to follow this link/contact this person to solve it”, thank them politely and go through the official contact channel instead to enquire about the “problem”. That can be the bank’s official phone number that you’ve saved when you signed up, an official contact form on the website, accessing the site by typing in the address you know and not following a link, etc.

Stay safe out there!! ❤️

Polisi Gerebek Lokasi Jaringan Love Scamming di Sleman

POLRESTA Yogyakarta menggerebek sebuah ruko di jalan Gito Gati, Sleman, Yogyakarta pada Senin (5/1). Dalam penggerebekan itu, puluhan orang dibawa untuk diperiksa.

Menurut keterangan warga, sejauh yang ketahui rumah atau tempat itu sebagai kantor salah satu perusahaan. Namun ternyata menjadi lokasi pengendalian kejahatan ITE love scamming.

Selain membaw sejumlah orang yang bekerja di lokasi tersebut, polisi juga menyita sejumlah barang bukti berupa telepon seluler dan sejumlah unit komputer dan laptop. Barang-barang itu ada di sejumlah ruangan di lantai satu dan dua.

Ironisnya meski sudah beroperasi sejak setahun lalu, warga tidak menduga tempat yang diketahui sebagai kantor PT Altair Trans Service itu menjadi kegiatan kejahatan ITE. (AGT/N-01)

When the dm gives you gambling so that you can get rid of your exorbitant funds, and you end up exploiting your party to get ahead anyways: OoO

I may have lost nearly 300 gold, but I gained 3 high-level magic items for orders of magnitude less than their actual value.

People need to chill when scamming or phishing

DroidLock malware locks you out of your Android device and demands ransom

Researchers have analyzed a new threat campaign actively targeting Android users. The malware, named DroidLock, takes over a device and then holds it for ransom. The campaign to date has primarily targeted Spanish-speaking users, but researchers warn it could spread.
DroidLock is delivered via phishing sites that trick users into installing a malicious app pretending to be, for example, a telecom provider or other familiar brand. The app is really a dropper that installs malware able to take complete control of the device by abusing Device Admin and Accessibility Services permissions.
Once the victim grants accessibility permission, the malware starts approving additional permissions on its own. This can include access to SMS, call logs, contacts, and audio, which gives attackers more leverage in a ransom demand.
DroidLock also leverages Accessibility Services to create overlays on other apps. The overlays can capture device unlock patterns (giving the attacker full access) and also show a fake Android update screen, instructing victims not to power off or restart their devices.
DroidLock uses Virtual Network Computing (VNC) for remote access and control. With this, attackers can control the device in real time, including starting camera, muting sound, manipulating notifications, and uninstalling apps, and use overlays to capture lock patterns and app credentials. They can also deny access to the device by changing the PIN.
The researchers warn that:
“Once installed, DroidLock can wipe devices, change PINs, intercept OTPs (One-Time Passwords), and remotely control the user interface”
Unlike regular ransomware, DroidLock doesn’t encrypt files. But by blocking access and threatening to destroy everything unless a ransom is paid, it reaches the same outcome.

Urgent
Last chance
Time remaining {starts at 24 hours}
After this all files wil be deleted forever!
Your files will be permanently destroyed!
Contact us immediately at this email or lose everything forever: {email address}
Include your device ID {ID}
Payment required within 24 hours
No police, no recovery tools, no tricks
Every second counts!

How to stay safe

If this campaign turns out to be successful in Spain, we’ll undoubtedly see it emerge in other countries as well. So here are a few pointers to stay safe:

• Only install apps from official app stores and avoid installing apps promoted in links in SMS, email, or messaging apps.
• Before installing apps, verify the developer name, number of downloads, and user reviews rather than trusting a single promotional link.
• Protect your devices. Use an up-to-date real-time anti-malware solution like Malwarebytes for Android, which already detects this malware.
• Scrutinize permissions. Does an app really need the permissions it’s requesting to do the job you want it to do? Especially if it asks for accessibility, SMS, or camera access.
• Keep Android, Google Play services, and all important apps up to date to get the latest security fixes.

Director found guilty of scamming Netflix out of $11 million

Hollywood director Carl Erik Rinsch was convicted of scamming $11 million from Netflix to spend on luxury items, including five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari, as reported earlier by Deadline. A New York jury found Rinsch guilty of several charges on Thursday, including fraud and money laundering.

Rinsch, who’s known for directing 47 Ronin, was charged with fraud in March after prosecutors say he…

Director found guilty of scamming Netflix out of $11 million

scam alert

dont believe this dude

Everyone report them.

They blocked me.

Asshole…

@moonlitepaws @myclosetisarathole @kale-of-the-forbidden-cities @tacticalsp @fiercestyourmajesty @nirami-blogin @quietrainflower @mori-bound @sol-stars @chaos-triangle @berricats @halfalaptogo @ayyshinyart @shortmomma @carb0n-m0n0xide @charliedrawsbiteof87 @mareepfur @cupcakearcticfox @kitten-kokomo @rustycottoncandy @fluffymintthecat @mellieksstarz @zeesdoodlesnshit @silly-jekinana-blog @kingkit7734 @fefe-the-cat @kittyofthestarz @thatpacificnpc @sk-comix @444annoyingly

Old scam resurfacing

This person just followed me on my tumblr, asking me to message them. When I did, this was the message I was given.

This is an old phishing scam from I think YEARS ago… I don’t know why it’s resurfacing or if it never actually disappeared and I was just fortunate enough not to have anyone try this on me again for so long, but yep.

Let me make it clear that this person here? This blog? They were probably hacked themselves. Whoever owns this account right now IS scamming though - whether that is because this account was originally made for that, or if this account was hacked, I do not know.

Either way; block them and report anyone who sends you messages similar to these. They are a scam.

Stay safe, everybody.

Update: The blog has already been taken down. I called them out and they stuck their tail between their legs and ran lol.

This is definitely a post I did NOT want to make but:

My fiance’s account was hacked, any messages on tumblr of him saying “Hi :C” ARE NOT HIM! until I’m able to give an update about him getting his account back or just an update in general

Update: anerdwithapen GOT HIS ACCOUNT BACK!!! 🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊

Try your best to avoid any messages that are sent and please make sure to keep yourself safe! :C share if you can and spread the word!!! If they ask if they can talk to you on discord DO NOT DO IT! They’ll try to pose as tech support BUT THEIR LYING no tech support should contact you on discord!!

in my african politician era

If you haven’t seen Tumblr’s warning, here.

Apparently, the James Spader impersonators have gone to Tumblr since they are struggling to scam people on Instagram and Facebook due to people reporting them.

James Spader does not have any social media, much less a Tumblr. I assure you, he doesn’t even have an email. Actors like James Spader and Keanu Reeves are usually targets of impersonation because they don’t have social media.

Please report this account and don’t interact with them.

omfg it’s on Deviantart too. I mean…not at all surprising but I think it’s funny that somebody tried to scam me.
The account is deactivated (or banned, idk) I didn’t get to play with them :(

And this is why I don’t like random DM’s yall. If this person tries to DM you please don’t fall for it. This is the second time this has happened to me now.

They’ll try to claim they’re an artist and show you what I’m 98% sure is stolen art that doesn’t even look cohesive to the style and then ask if you want a commission for a ridiculous price.

It’s an idiotically obvious scam but please don’t be like me and engage!

i just deleted the reblog, thank you for telling me this!! and thank you for the helpful advice on vetting, that’s genuinely a really good bit of information