Catfishing Warning!

[Racheal]

First of all, I have received a permission from Key to post this thread in order to alert our community and warn our members, so all of you don't have to go through the same thing. Second, please don't repost my thread or post link to this thread outside YO. We don't need drama in our home.

 

Some of you may have already know, recently, it came to light that one of a popular Author in BL genre has been catfishing and scheming his/her own readers for many years. He/she has caused damage to many of his/her readers financially and emotionally in various levels.

 

As of now, 2 publishings have already terminated their relationships with the said author, and already pulled all of his/her books down from their websites. One of them even offered 5 dollars compensation in addition to readers who bought the author's books directly from their website.

 

For anyone who bought the Author books from Amazon, regardless when, you can contact Amazon and ask for full refund. Tell Amazon that the author participated in theft of intellectual and fraud. and Amazon will give you full refund for all the books that were written by this author you have in kindle library.

 

However, I will not mention his/her name here, or get into the deep details about who did what beside my own experience. For two reasons, I do not want to bring fire in to our community, and I don't want the thread to serve as an advertising for his/her books. I will only give you an outline of his/her M.O. and my own experience with this scheme.

 

If you suspect that you are one of his/her victims, please google the author's name in question + Catfishing.

Here are His/her M.O.

 

1. He/she presents him/herself as a bisexual man, so he can go both way either you are male or female.

 

2. Approaching his/her readers who leave comments for him/her on Goodreads or others social medias.

 

3. Make you feel important, and he/she is really in to you by keep sending you private messages, and follow you on other social medias

 

4. After a period of time, the author starts to stir all conversations into sexual way.

 

5. The author tells tragic stories about his/her life being bisexual man, health problems, relationship problems, and then financial problems that related to his/her health problems in order to get you to share your own stories and support his/her in term of financial.

 

At the moment. there are many victims who have stepped out and shared their own experiences. Turn out not just financial schemes. This said author also uses his readers's personal life as his/her writing materials without permission. In some cases, using their idea for his/her own books without permission, and not giving them any credit.

 

It is hard for me to say(write) it out loud that I am one of his/her victims. It is pretty new to me. I don't think mine is as bad as the others since It just financial without any emotional attach, and I did not realize that I was catfished until recently.

 

It happened around half a years ago, I did contact the author for information of an update of some of his/her books because his/her books were requested, and TBH, I am very new to BL Novels at that times.

 

The author was really nice actually. He/she told me about how he/she decided to quit other job and that the reason he/she opened Patreon acc, so they can write full time. However he/she is really sick right now, and cannot concentrate with the writing. I don't remember the name of decease, but it is something about bacteria in his/her spine causing severe back pain. Also there are some complications with his insurance, so he/ she is in a very tight spot that why the new chapter will be delay. I feel bad for the author because I did share his/her books, and at that moment he/she was seriously in need of money, so I donated to him/her. 300$ in total.

 

Like I mentioned before, I did not know that I was catfished until around last week. Couple of friends I know warned me about the author because I have told them that I donated to the author before when we were talking about his/her books. First I feel embarrassed for being naïve and stupid, and then mad at myself. Apparently the said author has been doing catfishing for many years. If I ever bother to google this author before made a donation, I will at least know what was going on and will not fall in to his/her trap, and then I realized that it is not my fault that I believe in good nature of other human beings. One hundred percent of the fault lay on the one who did it. If you are one of scheming or catfishing victims, you should feel the same, but it is also you who have to protect yourself in the future.

 

 

Is catfishing a crimes?

 

Yes, it is a crime in 12 states to impersonate someone online, but the laws generally don’t apply to creating a fictitious persona. The damage needs to be done for criminal charges to be made against the person who created a fictitious persona.

 

There are law called cyberbullying in 34 states right now that could be used to prosecute catfishers, if it can be proven that the catfisher intended to cause emotional distress.

 

If you live in California, there is an online impersonation law, so criminal charges could be made against a catfisher who shows intent to blackmail, obtain money, or having sex with minors.

 

The law are different in each states and countries. You can contact an authorities in your area for more information about what to do when you're a victim of catfishing and scheming.

 

There are bad people out there, so be alert, and protect yourself. Before getting into a deep relationship with anyone, even with a well-known or famous figure that you are admired, you should at least take time to do a research online about that person first. Go slow, be skeptical, and don't keep thing from you family and friends, so it will be harder for anyone who want to take advantage of you.

 

Also you guys should check out

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there are useful informations and advices that may help you in this Cyber World.

 

I hope sharing my experience will benefit you guy in some way and serve it's purpose I mentioned above.

 

I want to thank Key for all the advice and for being so supportive, Saga for advices and encouragement. I really do need a gentle push sometimes, and Suida for all the advices and for always being so nice and caring.

 

R

[Racheal]

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here is mine, sorry for taking so long. My work is killing me lately.

[littlespiral]

so many catfishing and cyberbullying going on these days. to

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, i'm really sorry to hear what have happened to you and thank you for sharing your experience with us. i hope your story will bring more awareness to our community regarding the danger of internet. some people can do crazy things when hidden behind anonymity (quote from a good friend in this forum ). it is up to us to be smarter when surfing online. as a victim of cyberbullying/catfishing myself, i hope that it won't happen to anyone else in this forum.

[Jochie]

I'm sorry it happened

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and thank you for sharing this

[evjita]

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first of all- I want to congratulate you for having the bravery to share this with us.

It won't be enough to thank you for helping us prevent ourselves. In moments like that one I am grateful for the community here and I'm glad there's a space on the internet where people have good intentions...