KillerIsJed
Member
As you may or may not know, I currently stream a lot of Pokémon X/Y. Today I woke up to various messages telling me be careful of donations from a user named JethYo. Luckily I checked and haven't received any donations from this person, but many of my peers and friends have.
Apparently many streamers whom are taking donations through PayPal have had donations from this person charged back today, totally supposedly around $11,000, after the money had been donated for at least 50+ days. PayPal is listing the claims as unauthorized payments, and they are currently being disputed by multiple streamers.
From doing a bit of research on PayPal, they seem to almost always side with the "buyer" or this case donator, so for a lot of streamers who are just starting out this hurts their career deeply.
For instance, CENSORED BY REQUEST is a 14 year old from the UK whom had used the money to get a capture device for his 3DS as well as a monitor. Now he has his PayPal account basically closed and owes them $720 he can't possibly have, as he wasn't partnered and this was his only form of income.
PayPal has supposedly told Derpanite that this isn't the first time this has happened with this account and the first time was around $5,000.
The person who has been donating is a bit of mystery, though had been in contact with many of the streamers he donated to on Skype, having blocked them all this morning. I've reached out to his supposed Skype name with no answer. Upon doing some research I've found his supposed Twitter, where he states that he turned 15 at the start of this month.
People are theorizing this is really just a teen using his parents credit cards to provide unauthorized donations. This really leaves streamers, many of which have already spent this money on stream expenses, in a bad position. Many streamers have a negative amount on their account with no way to pay it, at least immediately.
While streamers are fighting this, the history of PayPal seems to point this not being in their favor. It is a really awful situation that makes me personally sad to see my peers and friends struggling with this issue that happened out of no where. Many of which say they don't know if they are going to accept donations from here on out, and if they do they plan on not spending the money until months after the donation has been given.
Here are some statements from streamers themselves:
14 year old CENSORED BY REQUEST had this to say:
MittenKiss, a 22 year old variety and Pokemon streamer explained her involvement with the issue and what she has heard / experienced with this person.
I'd also like to encourage readers to donate to help these streamers out of debt and to allow them to continue to do what they love, as well as potentially keep their livelihood in general. I've made a list of people and their amounts lost (if known) below.
CENSORED BY REQUEST: $750
WidditSama: $610
MittenKiss: $150
a_playa_named_john
http://www.twitch.tv/Gohan15243
Just2Lumpy
Mikasa1337
Wally92x
Duddi123
xChrisKobain
Pokeballler
LolRazor
xMetrikTV
InsaneVampenese
Please let me know if you were affected by this and the amount you lost, as well as your Twitch URL and I'll get you added. I hope people out there provide financial and legal help / advice to all of you. It breaks my heart to see fellow streamers who are legit and entertaining struggling because of someone else's mistake. Much love, as always.
UPDATE #1: Someone has provided me with a Facebook page that matches the e-mail that was used to donate. It appears that the case is this is indeed a case of a minor using someone's credit card. A question still stands though: Why did PayPal accept up to $11,000 in donations if they knew this person had done the same thing to the tune of $5,000 in the past?
Apparently many streamers whom are taking donations through PayPal have had donations from this person charged back today, totally supposedly around $11,000, after the money had been donated for at least 50+ days. PayPal is listing the claims as unauthorized payments, and they are currently being disputed by multiple streamers.
From doing a bit of research on PayPal, they seem to almost always side with the "buyer" or this case donator, so for a lot of streamers who are just starting out this hurts their career deeply.
For instance, CENSORED BY REQUEST is a 14 year old from the UK whom had used the money to get a capture device for his 3DS as well as a monitor. Now he has his PayPal account basically closed and owes them $720 he can't possibly have, as he wasn't partnered and this was his only form of income.
PayPal has supposedly told Derpanite that this isn't the first time this has happened with this account and the first time was around $5,000.
The person who has been donating is a bit of mystery, though had been in contact with many of the streamers he donated to on Skype, having blocked them all this morning. I've reached out to his supposed Skype name with no answer. Upon doing some research I've found his supposed Twitter, where he states that he turned 15 at the start of this month.
People are theorizing this is really just a teen using his parents credit cards to provide unauthorized donations. This really leaves streamers, many of which have already spent this money on stream expenses, in a bad position. Many streamers have a negative amount on their account with no way to pay it, at least immediately.
While streamers are fighting this, the history of PayPal seems to point this not being in their favor. It is a really awful situation that makes me personally sad to see my peers and friends struggling with this issue that happened out of no where. Many of which say they don't know if they are going to accept donations from here on out, and if they do they plan on not spending the money until months after the donation has been given.
Here are some statements from streamers themselves:
14 year old CENSORED BY REQUEST had this to say:
CENSORED BY REQUEST said:
MittenKiss, a 22 year old variety and Pokemon streamer explained her involvement with the issue and what she has heard / experienced with this person.
MittenKiss said:
I'd also like to encourage readers to donate to help these streamers out of debt and to allow them to continue to do what they love, as well as potentially keep their livelihood in general. I've made a list of people and their amounts lost (if known) below.
CENSORED BY REQUEST: $750
WidditSama: $610
MittenKiss: $150
a_playa_named_john
http://www.twitch.tv/Gohan15243
Just2Lumpy
Mikasa1337
Wally92x
Duddi123
xChrisKobain
Pokeballler
LolRazor
xMetrikTV
InsaneVampenese
Please let me know if you were affected by this and the amount you lost, as well as your Twitch URL and I'll get you added. I hope people out there provide financial and legal help / advice to all of you. It breaks my heart to see fellow streamers who are legit and entertaining struggling because of someone else's mistake. Much love, as always.
UPDATE #1: Someone has provided me with a Facebook page that matches the e-mail that was used to donate. It appears that the case is this is indeed a case of a minor using someone's credit card. A question still stands though: Why did PayPal accept up to $11,000 in donations if they knew this person had done the same thing to the tune of $5,000 in the past?
