#also these are the worst kind of scum to create these fictions & prey on folks

[autumnslance]

Once again, if you're getting desperate Asks in your inbox begging for money for medical help, for refugee help, for pets, etc:

No legitimate blog should ever be asking for money that way. They'll make a public post and have people share it.

(Also please check the various charity subreddits for aid, and there are some specific blogs on Tumblr that do check and promote actual donation posts.)

These scammer blogs will look legit at a glance; they have icons, headers, descriptions, and seem to have a lot of posts. What they're counting on is you not being able to read the language of their description (when you can, it's often a repeat of their donation request), and see that they have many reblogged posts.

But the only original post is their pinned donation request. Maybe a pet post. They reblog a lot, but many of the reblogs are repeats, and they only began reblogging them a few days ago--they count on you not scrolling far enough, especially if Tumblr's giving you issues.

The timestamps on the earliest several posts of the one that just messaged me, for instance:

They have dozens of reblogs, most of them for an hour on Wednesday morning. They have a few from today, changing up from a spate of Palestine-related posts to a few random other things. None of the posts they reblog are more than two months old (easily nabbed from the top of tag searches) and most are only within the last couple days, just grabbing what's on top of the searches and tabs.

They never have a custom blog URL, making going to the archive to check difficult, too.

If they're actively monitoring the blog replies, they block and hide replies and reblogs that point out the scammy appearance of their blog and posts.

They are relying on emotional manipulation and general kindness to get you to donate money to them by pretending to be in desperate need, but nothing in their behavior indicates they're a real person from a war-torn region, or in dire medical straits.

It's an update of the "please help save my pet" scams. Don't fall for it, keep your accounts safe, and use your money and reblogs to help those actually needing help.

Report and block them and delete from your inbox.