#sick pet scam

[cellarspider]

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN:

It's scamuary, everyone!

I just received an ask from a blog I've never seen before:

This is a scam.

The blog made its first post on January 5th. Within the day, it had made its pinned post appealing for donations.

This is an attempt to create a cursory appearance of genuine behavior, so that someone who goes to this tumblr will believe it is a regular user. This is the exact same playbook used by a different account that tried this shit on me early last year:

Rambles Far Too Much

Okay. Looks like it's that time of year again, when scammers may be wandering Tumblr, claiming to have sick pets. This is an unfortunate phe

A full analysis of that particular scam account is included in the link. A similar account tried pulling this on Diane Duane last year as well, which fortunately got the scathing response it deserved.

As the good author says in her post: report blogs like this under "Illegal Behavior", then "Phishing". Report their Paypal accounts to [email protected], letting them know you've found a charity scam.

As a general note: I do not, and will never circulate appeals for donations from people I can't personally vouch for, because of shit like this. Everybody be safe out there.

[wlwkara]

Yo hi! I’m very sorry to bother you, just reaching out if you’d be so kind to check the post that I pinned on my blog and maybe give it a little help by boosting/sharing it? it’s for my cat who is in need of dire help. It would really mean the world to me if you do and I understand if you don’t, still appreciate you and stay safe! Btw, please do send me a msg to reply or answer the ask privately instead as I dont want other blogs to think im a spambot or what, once again im sorry for asking this, praying you’d consider! 🥲

no actually i won’t consider! because this is a scam and you’re a massive piece of shit! isn’t it so weird that your wording perfectly matches all these other posts called out for spam?

genuinely go fuck yourself you’re taking advantage of people who actually give a shit about animals unlike yourself. there’s a special place in hell for people who scam people out of money while pretending to have a sick animal and babes you’re headed there <33

for anyone who receives asks like this asking for money, the warning signs to look out for are

- new blog (this one is only a day old)

- only accepts paypal

- asks you not to answer the ask publicly to avoid detection

report them for spam and let anyone you see reblog the posts know about this genuinely disgusting person or groups of people who keeps trying to scam tumblr users.

[moogfox]

Tiktok sick pet scam

Hey y'all i recently found out about this scam on tiktok and its making me so angry - this person is using photos of an injured cat claiming they need money for vet bills but.. the photos are on over 100 accts with slight variations to the name, the name/age of the cat changes randomly (she's 3, no now she's 5! she's lily.. no.. she's named mama now), the day of the injury changes (she was attacked july 1st... july 22nd... august 4... whatever is most recent) and they are using 3 or more different venmo's and then deleting them as they go. its stealing from good hearted ppl who want to help a sick cat. PLEASE tell people about this and don't let your family or friends be scammed.

Sick behavior to scam people using photos of this poor cat. ITS A SCAM. #petsoftiktok #catsoftiktok #awareness #fyp #scammeralert

[darael]

Yo hello there! I’m very sorry to bother you at this time of the day, just reaching out if you’d be so kind to check the post that I pinned on my blog and maybe give it a little help by boosting/sharing it? it’s for my cat as he struggles to breathe :((( and we need help to get him the tests that she needs. It would really mean the world to me and I understand if you don’t, still appreciate you and stay safe! Btw, please do send me a msg to reply or answer the ask privately instead as I dont want other blogs to think im a spambot or what, once again im sorry for asking this, praying you’d consider! 🥲🙏

Given there are multiple blogs with identically-worded posts to be found, including one instance that's six years old

And given your blog consists largely of reblogs from Staff

I think you are a spambot and people should be aware that this scam is going around again.

So no, I won't be answering privately.

And also, fuck you for trying to exploit people's goodwill this way. Reported and blocked.