$1,000 donation scam
| The $1000 Donation Scam | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rambles video, "The $1000 Donation Scam" |
| Related | No Fake Donations Policy |
| A story DarkViperAU has retold on stream about two separate $1,000 donations he received. One came from a minor using a parent's card and was charged back. The other, despite heavy suspicion, turned out to be real. | |
The $1000 Donation Scam is a story DarkViperAU has retold multiple times on stream and in his Rambles videos, about receiving two separate $1,000 donations within a short span of each other. Only one of them turned out to be genuine.
Background
DarkViperAU has long enforced a strict no fake donations policy on his channel. The policy exists because of a recurring type of troll who would change their display name to resemble a real donation alert and type messages like "I'm donating $5, best of luck streamer," before being banned. Because of this history, any unfamiliar viewer announcing they wanted to donate was treated with immediate suspicion.
The first donation
While DarkViperAU was streaming a 100% completion run of GTA V, an unfamiliar viewer entered chat and said they wanted to give him money. Assuming it was another fake donation troll, especially since the viewer did not appear to be following the stream's content, he banned them on the spot.
About fifteen seconds later, a genuine $1,000 donation came through from that same account. DarkViperAU unbanned the user but remained highly skeptical, since he had never seen them before and doubted they were actually watching. The donor offered to send more, which he declined.
Several viewers reportedly tracked the donor to other streamers' channels, where the same account handed out smaller donations of $100 to $500 across multiple streams. On one of those streams, the broadcaster invited the donor into a voice call. A clip of the call circulated afterward revealing the donor to be a young child, who was overheard apologizing repeatedly once a parent discovered what had happened.
As expected, the donation was charged back roughly a week later. DarkViperAU returned the money without contest, noting it had not been given to him willingly and that keeping it would have made the situation a scam on his own end as well.
The second donation
About an hour and a half after resolving the chargeback, DarkViperAU received a second $1,000 donation. Given what had just happened, he assumed it was another fake or stolen donation and questioned the sender directly. The donor insisted the payment was real and offered to provide PayPal confirmation. The account's follow age was only a few days old, which did little to ease his suspicion.
The donor described themselves as around 19 to 20 years old, said they made money reselling items on Amazon, and said they simply enjoyed his content. Despite remaining wary, no chargeback followed. The donor returned to the channel a handful of times afterward, and DarkViperAU later apologized for having been so skeptical toward them, an apology the donor accepted without issue.