The Case of KarlasKrafts Charity Scamming
4 days ago somebody forwarded this post to me:
https://steemit.com/introduction/@karlaskrafts/introducing-myself
That account created by @teamgood
https://steemd.com/@karlaskrafts
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is supposedly the victim referred to in this post:
https://steemit.com/veteran/@ganjafarmer/captian-richard-marcinko-operation-save-a-child-sex-slave
Given that I had resteemed that post, I went ahead with the due diligence to verify the authenticity of the user
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No posts about any concrete craftwork had been posted yet but I reckoned that if it was a scam the crafts would be the monetization/scam angle, then 2 days ago the user posted this:
https://steemit.com/crafts/@karlaskrafts/hippopotamus-family
The craft depicted in the post that was supposedly made in a hospital is this:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/217297232/african-beaded-wire-animal-sculpture?ref=related-6
made by this collective in South Africa:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Hadeda?ref=l2-shopheader-name#about
whose members dont seem to include Karla.
I have contacted the Etsy account to confirm who actually made the craftwork and will update regarding this case as new info becomes available.
My initial assessment is that there is 99.99% chances all of the story is a scam.
Update1: The user has been cheetah snacked, Bon Appétit Cheetah.
Update2: All posts zeroed and invisible, reputation to 8, RIP.
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Update3:
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Source
Update4: Received confirmation from the Etsy Account owner Jens Horber:
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Regards,
Karla doesn't look to be the right Karla.
Oh boy. @battleaxe did @teamgood really make a fake account and post? Or was it in good faith just trying to help a person claiming to be a victim who is supposedly in a hospital with her son... Which just glancing at the account, it should have set off alarm bells to people that an adult is not involved with a 15 year old posting on steemit asking for money and claiming their kid is sick with no pictures or anything.
We created the account because @ganjafarmer vouched for them. When it became fairly certain that the individual was not who they claimed to be, we removed the delegation that we used to create the account. It may be that both he and we were duped. Lesson learned. We won't be creating anymore new accounts unless the person we're creating it for is thoroughly vetted.
Our admins went back and forth about it because either way, we either look like we're involved with a scam or that we're destroying the account of a trafficking victim.
But someone who claims to be a trafficking victim who is just using that to scam money from people is really doing a huge disservice to the estimated 25 million people worldwide who are actual victims of such a horrific practice.
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/human-trafficking-numbers
Thanks for explaining it clearly the intentions are good for sure. Would be cool to see a group jump all over well traveled steemians steemians who can easily be vouched for by large #s if people because they have invested lots of time on the platform and do so still to this day because they are trying to bring awareness to their causes and not even really asking for handouts except for very very specific things. For some reason @thegreens is being looked over by teamgood. If they dont meet what your looking for @lakawero usually needs help delivering art supplies to poor mountian village children the phillipines like most of us cant afford to do much of anything with out help from others, he needs this kind of support that this weird account got. He leaves detailed information and weekly post about what he does with the money and shows you pictures of the kids receiving the school supplies or of the tent that him and his wife use when they have to trek up a mountain and stay overnight while trekking to delivering the art supplies.
I pray for everyone in teamgood who is on the east coast just starring at this monsterous hurricane coming at them. Thank you for your response!
I was looking at @lakawero and sadly he is inactive now. Another inactive acvount😔 I assure you though @thegreens is active
dm me on this, I'll see what we can do or reach out to others networked in to this .....
yeah this is a Category 5 hitting on the American East Coast, everyone be safe! <3 drama llama aside
peace be with you sisters, lets hope that this will jumpstart a new chapter.
this is better than being at war, I looked at the intro and asked pointed questions myself after being in the same community and listening to the podcast and such. I have a soft spot for this issue and was by far not the only person or group that got played..not by a long shot
but regardless this was handled as well as can be expected and now let's make Steem 8 again!(Whatsup's Initiative) at least can it get over a dollar for a week so everyone can sing Kumbaya together for a Dlive
next time ask the questions BEFORE creating the account and all should be good ma'me
nah, I dont think @battleaxe nor @teamgood are involved, they just got taken for a ride.
They mined the account at the request of someone else, they had no reason to believe it wasn't an honest account and as you said battleaxe and teamgood had nothing to do with the scam.
I was the one who blew this thing wide open, it's on the blockchain and took the delegation away as soon as I found and published the pictures and such..... We did the right thing and I flagged and handled myself and tagged steemcleaners.... so I "toilet scrubbed" as did others for the record. again it's on the blockchain. We heard a podcast and further heard that this had been approved by a famous army person blah blah blah , I dug and found this all out, outed this myself for the record as well, yanked delegation and blew the whistle, thanks to those who helped out.
somethings we dont put on the chain battle, nice to meet you.... peace?
rep 7
I don't want a beef with anybody but ya' were leaving stuff on servers to stir me up and members of my group, so if you can stop doing that we can leave each other in peace and all that jazz. We all have better things to do then see beaded hippos be the main buzzzz on the platform
this account had the chance to defend itself and was asked to show some type of id and refused and continues to promote a Facebook page which is all African , think Ghana? flag keychains and it makes zero sense and again the asking of 35k in Mexico and the fact the age of the kid isn't even the same......
ce la vie , was hoping to be proved wrong, disappointment and getting played happens
Received 100% confirmation from the etsy account owner(see update4), Hippo was made by two male artists, Lloyd and David, case closed.
one couldnt script this shit to surmount it , its unbeatable. reality in fact surmounts fiction
yes, they did a quality job, our vetting procedures have been restructured.
sweet, as a data scientist you know Im dead right
The whole thing is really weird. Thank you for handling this situation in a calm and resolving manner!
yeah so I stopped the damn Uber and took away their Uber license. The person who promoted it issued a bunch of posts, it's over with, case closed for the Sherlock Holmes brigade on Steemit, a magical place full of possiblities
no we didn't think we were supporting what looks to be an African beaded hippo scam , lol....jesus
And on this date in Stemit Blockchain History , Hippo Scam came full circle and we all moved on in our lives perhaps a bit wiser :)
I stick with Alpacas and leave the Hippos alone
miss you bro
Im not dead yet
Love you bro. I know we don't always "like" each other, but you're still my brother from some other southern hemispheric mother. :)
liking people is overrated, the most productive relationships are close to the fine line between love and hate, btw are you saying your daddy kissed my mom? :P
I'm not sure. Prolly not. I think he just shot the ingredients for a bun into her oven.
"Love is not a victory march. And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah"
"Well, I heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah"