avatartobi — Audio Writer

Summary

An individual recounts a close encounter with a scam involving impersonators of well-known Medium influencers, which nearly led to a financial loss.

Abstract

The author shares a personal experience of almost falling victim to a scam orchestrated by individuals impersonating Medium influencers such as Paul Rose, Zulie Rane, and Eve Arnold. The scam began with an engagement on a genuine article by Paul Rose, leading to a deceptive interaction where the scammer, posing as Zulie Rane, offered paid writing tasks. The author's initial excitement and trust in the influencers' identities blinded them to several red flags, including an unrelated response to a comment, a request to send money via PayPal with the 'family and friends' option, and the scammer's Medium account having only two followers. The author's suspicions grew, prompting them to investigate and ultimately recognize the scam. They urge others to be cautious with similar interactions and to avoid using the 'family and friends' option on PayPal for transactions with individuals they do not trust. The author also provides links to report the fraudulent accounts and encourages readers to support their writing efforts.

Opinions

  • The author initially felt a sense of validation and excitement upon receiving responses from who they believed were influential writers on Medium.
  • There was skepticism about the authenticity of the interaction, as the response from the supposed influencer was unrelated to the author's original question.
  • The author was willing to overlook certain inconsistencies due to their admiration for the influencers and the prospect of joining an exclusive writers' community.
  • The request to use PayPal's 'family and friends' option for payment was a significant red flag that contributed to the author's realization that the offer was a scam.
  • The author expresses a sense of vulnerability and naivety, having been relatively new to the Medium platform and not immediately recognizing the signs of a scam.
  • A warning is issued to others about the dangers of such scams on Medium, with a call to action to report the fraudulent accounts to protect the community.
  • The author reflects on the potential financial impact the scam could have had on them, emphasizing the importance of vigilance and caution in online interactions and transactions.

How I Almost Got Scammed By 2 Medium Influencers

fake accounts of these innocent influencers actually**

haven’t been too long on the platform but Paul Rose, Zulie Rane, and of course the ever-writing Eve Arnold content are always flooding my “For You” section.

i read this post by Paul Rose:

and i got curious about Gum Road’s discoverability model for sellers, so I left a comment in that regard.

i was happy when i got a response from what I thought was Paul Rose at the time:

that feeling when someone you look up to, or has lots of influence takes time to respond to you. It makes you feel like your role model has your back. It makes you feel like your crush is crushing back on you. Okay, that’s wild but you get the point?

i had no idea it wasn’t her. The response felt weird and unrelated to my question but I was like, okay, maybe she’s just trying to help me get into the mediumverse. You know, where I can hang out with my fellow writers, where we can do stuff together. You know, just like our own little corner on the internet. A small, almost invisible corner to the rest of the world. So, I thought.

then, I went to Telegram and messaged this scammer disguised as Zulie Rane

at this point, I was excited, right? Like, I was like, wow, I’m messaging the almighty Zulie Rane. She gave me some bullshit intro and how I’ll meet other writers. I was already sold.

then, the juicy part came where she said I’ll be getting paid for writing 3 tasks a week for $35/article. At first, it sounded weird, but I was like, okay, it’s Zulie Rane. Maybe she has a lot of clientele or the other big names in the group have like a lot of clients that they work with and maybe the workload is too much for them. So, they needed helping hands. That’s what I thought. And then the bullshit goes on.

They have a PayPal. I mean, at that point, I was still sold. I had no idea it was a scam. I mean, let’s not say I was totally clueless it was a scam, but I’m, still relatively new on Medium and I didn’t think I’ll experience this. If it was other platforms, I probably would have figured out it was a scam, but this one I didn’t know.

my suspicions began the moment i went back to original comment and saw the scammer had only 2 followers.

i figured even if I send the money via PayPal, I can always retract the money back. The final red flag was when she said to include friends and family in the payment option. In case you didn’t know, once you include ‘family and friends’ in the PayPal payment you can never retrieve the payment.

if you ever have to send money to someone on PayPal and you don’t trust the transaction or the person, don’t include friends and family as an option.

So, yeah, this was my first experience with scammers on the medium platform. I almost fell. $50 would have been a huge loss for me right now because I’m still trying to make some money off Medium.

But I hope this helps someone out there.

ps: this is the telegram of the fraud HERE. You can report the account.

and this is the account of the fake medium account for Paul Rose HERE. Please report it. — [looks like the fake account has been taken down — February 3rd, 2024]

read more here:

if you’re feeling generous — please leave me a TIP:

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