I just wanted to say that I think KeralaDee/BaileyDee is scamming mutual aid.
https://hexbear.net/post/8998152
This is at least the third time - with months apart - I’ve seen someone post that they have a life threatening tooth abcess and need thousands of dollars. It’s always the same post, although the previous ones appear to have been deleted, the payment methods requested are sometimes the same as those used for the poster BaileyDee who is always claiming to be having hypoglycaemic episodes and in desperate need of money.
Other people have made posts explaining why this person’s behaviour is scammy, someone named sphere said they asked a doctor about this and BaileyDee would have to be treated for free at a hospital for hypoglycaemia and that would last for weeks, they would not need to make posts like this.
Someone named blockocheese already reported baileyDee and KeralaDee for being alt accounts for the same person and scamming mutual aid but nothing was done.
They also appear to have had another alt account, CassandraD, asking for money for food and using BaileyDee’s paypal account. The CassandraD account was banned.
Also these accounts don’t engage with hexbear in any way other than to ask for money. All of their posts are just mutual aid requests. https://hexbear.net/u/BaileyDee
Please ban this person as their scams mean other genuine people go without help.
The situation is critical. A tooth abscess isn’t just extreme pain—it is an active, spreading infection.
LLM-powered scam
This isn’t the first time. I know the mods don’t want to make judgement calls and have a “donate at your own risk” attitude, but that is literally going to kill the comm, since no one will want to donate if it is just full of someone scamming. And if other scammers recognise that this is a place that won’t do anything about it, they’ll also flock to it and just drown out the whole comm, I know a few users here have stopped using it entirely because their needs are constantly being overshadowed by this person.
I notice their newest grift is to post, then delete the post a few hours later, presumably so people don’t ask the questions about how they still have the same emergency despite getting the money, which is what tipped people off to them last time. No respect for anyone here.
Just finished sending you a reply to your message so I have just noticed this post. I’ll share it here as well since it’s pertinent.
Hi. I am currently tracking this issue and am working to handle all the sock puppet accounts as they pop up. User sphere compiled and submitted a case that this person was working a scam in our community and after an admin review we have agreed with the case levied against whoever is behind these sock puppet accounts and decided to permanently eject this person from our site.
Thank you for your compassion for the mutual aid community as well as taking your time to message me with your concerns. Please always feel free to message me whenever you do have concerns so we can quickly address them and ensure the best possible outcome for everyone participating in the mutual aid comm
to da admins for dealing with this problemdeleted as I appear to have been wrong about something.
Rachel actually was the first person to accuse this person of scamming; her post is what led to the rule changes in the mutual aid comm. I have never seen anything to suggest that Rachel is anything but genuine–her requests have never been claims of emergency medical issues but rather ordinary stuff.
OK I’ve deleted my last post.
allthetimesivedied and allthetimesivedied2 have also reached out to the admin team regarding concerns about how KodyGerba was interacting with the community
thanks admin. when we deal with the cops you’ll be first, as a mercy
Thank you for posting this, this has been going on for a long while and it’s been rough to watch someone take advantage of the rule not to criticise anyone asking for mutual aid. They had even more accounts as well, like KodyGerba.
On one of them they once posted a blatantly ChatGPT generated text that must have had “appeal to commies” in the prompt, it was one of the worst things I’ve ever read, in service of obviously scamming people with good intentions
I understand why the rule is there, but fundamentally on an internet forum (rather than a real community with names and faces) I feel like scrutiny is necessary for basic functioning.
Thanks for posting this. I recently submitted some of the same information you’ve documented here to an admin, who shared the info with the rest of the team; they determined that it was appropriate to ban BaileyDee and CassandraD, and have since banned KodyGerba and KeralaDee as well (both other alts of the same person).
To any donors out there reading this: please know, if you were among those who gave to this person, that you are not alone. I myself gave this person a total of $275 over the course of a few months a couple of years ago, when they first started posting here.
I gave them like $10. The thing is, “mutual” means mutual. And that means if they’re a frequent poster here who’s absolutely up against the ropes, I might cover a month’s rent, but if they’re not really a Hexbear poster, the budget is less than a meal.
It’s hard to think of many things worse than scamming the people of this community
Feel like it’s a no win situation. Gave a couple times to this account when they were claiming imminent death from hypoglycemia - at least enough for a couple meals and to get out of immediate danger. I got absolutely blown up over the next couple days with repeated “i’m going to die of hypoglycemia, please give more” messages. Felt pretty suspicious, sad to see it’s been a recurring problem
I don’t know how you can prevent scams without leveling unnecessary scrutiny at people who really benefit from mutual aid.
Yep, same. I donated once and was inundated with Venmo requests for months afterward–sometimes several per day. Super glad to see this finally addressed, as it had gotten very obvious. This is the downside of the rule we have about not questioning any mutual aid posts (which is still probably the right rule to have).
I felt bad about that account’s posts, but also wondered how they aren’t dead yet.
I mean how many days of life-threatening seizures can you have in a row?
Also, are we meant to pay for their every meal? They were asking for money for fruit juice, and saying that they don’t have anything. Like, hexbear can’t bankroll someone’s entire dietary intake.
Also if my need were that urgent to not die and the solution was some oj and a snack id just panhandle for it.
I don’t know how you can prevent scams without leveling unnecessary scrutiny at people who really benefit from mutual aid.
also if you wrongly ban someone from their only source of financial aid, you could kill them in extreme cases
Exactly what I was thinking
You think Reddit cares about this as much?
no, but hexbears are better people than reddit mods
EveryTimeIDie literally called them out for this like a year ago
Yeah iirc she knows them personally
Thank you for having the courage to post this.
All I knew was that hypoglycemia does not work that way (living with several diabetics), but I just eventually blocked these accounts and then felt bad about it. Also noticed the same paypal doing rounds for separate requests.
It’s great that these are addressed as these have probably eroded trust in the mutual aid space.
And also diverted thousands of dollars that would have gone to other people. People in real need no doubt went hungry, maybe homeless and without medical treatment and other things because of this.
I had suspicion of this as well. I didn’t report it or investigate much because I try not to assume the worst of people but it does make me sad as someone that has given and received a LOT of mutual aid through this site.
I’ve thought for a while they were scamming but today was the final straw as I know they have posted the tooth abscess request, word for word, on at least three separate occasions over a period of months.
That really is unfortunate and shitty of them. My material conditions have improved (modestly) so that I rarely need to fall back on a mutual aid request anymore, but there have definitely been times I’ve gone to post for something that maybe wasn’t critical, saw one of these posts, and decided my need was too trivial to dilute the donor pool.
They posted again today. I had them blocked, Sphere brought it to my attention they might be scamming hb
Honestly thought this person was already called out a while ago.
I believe they were multiple times but still allowed to keep posting until yesterday.
