Inside a Reddit witchcraft scam: why you shouldn't message people who ask for DMs
January 2023 (1900 words, 11 minutes)
Clickbait title: I got scammed so you don’t have to. What happened next will ^not shock you!
How it starts…
People often come to reddit for spiritual help: asking how to cleanse a space; worried that someone has hexed them; wondering how to break it off with a partner. When we really need it; when we’re scared, and desperate, and just want to get out of a frightening situation, that’s when we’re most vulnerable.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen more and more comments like this on posts asking for help:
Telegram @[REDACTED]
Dm me.
I can recommend Lady so-and-so to be of such help.
You need reading for yourself and cleansing to clear bad energy
In the apast @[REDACTED] who do you think tele gram best way
Yes, inbox.
Is called consultation reading and cleansing to clear off bad energies and create inner space for happiness and peace.
Absolutely there is 👇🧍 that you can find help around
Haven’t seen any yet I could easily link you if you want
These are ALL SCAMS, and they all come from confirmed scam accounts, even the ones that seem benign! We remove these messages on sight, when they’re not already yoinked by the Reddit spam filters (don’t worry, we double-check first; your good-faith comments are safe). If you see a message like the above, (1) do not message them!!! and (2) report, selecting the reason Spam -> Harmful bots or Spam -> Other!
Here’s what happened when I reached out using a scambaiting account…
Scammer #1
I introduce myself and ask for help: someone might have hexed me. I’m new, and I’m scared, and I’m desperate. Not too far from the truth for some people.
I pretend I did an incense burning and bowl reading; I send over a picture, asking for interpretation. In fact it’s the crumbled corner of an expired biscuit sprinkled on top of world-famous New York City tap water in an IKEA bowl. I just needed an excuse to send a grabber link that captures the scammer’s IP address and device information. The scammer clicked on it and I got a peek at their information. They claimed to be from Nashville, Tennessee, but they are actually located in Lagos, Nigeria.
After some vague sense of urgency and some back and forth, the scammer says I need to buy some items to do a cleansing and get a consultation reading. I dodge the money requests. Apparently I need eggs, black rope, green witch leaf, and a photo of my right palm. I tell them I don’t have the eggs because they rotted in the fridge (true story!). Witch leaf I assume means witch hazel.
I send a flipped photo of my left palm to keep things moving. Don’t actually do this part if you believe there’s any spiritual risk involved. But I wanted to see where the scam went. By the way, if you do scambaiting, make sure your fingerprints aren’t in the photo - not for any magical reason, but it just strikes me as a bad idea to send a known scammer your biometrics.
They don’t charge for services — but they need a “donation” to put on the altar for 7 days. The donation is for the gods, and apparently they need it PayPal-ed ASAP. Man, the spirit realm isn’t what it used to be. A few US dollarbucks should definitely help. By the way, what I just said is total BS. You don’t need any experience to get started with deity work!
Oh, by the way, they already started on the spell work. This will be relevant later.
After some more vague sense of urgency, as well as some negotiation about payment methods — they take neither FundThrust nor CoinSquirt apparently — I’m ready to pay!
So I reveal that I know they’re a scammer, and that I won’t pay a dime. Well, apparently, saying that I won’t pay unlocks the next phase of the scam.
Vague threats about the palm I sent them. They’ve already started on the spell work, and they can’t stop now, or else bad things happen! Meanwhile I’m trying to get them on a call to practice my voice acting.
Actual threats ensue. My right hand will rot, and I will die soon. Or will the scammer die soon? It’s not clear.
We go back and forth on this, and we seem stuck in a loop. I want to get them on a call, they want me to pay, and the goddess just wants that effin’ incanatation done already. That’s impressive multitasking!
I try to get some more information on the scammer or the operation, but the well seems to have dried up. They keep asking me to pay, I keep saying no, and the goddess just tells me to get the hell to sleep because it’s 4 AM. Onto the next person…
Scammer #2
The second one goes similarly, except I ask for a cleansing and they ask for money up-front. In Bitcoin. Alongside some really creepy messages telling me to take a bath and be naked in my room. I try to entice the scammer with a “naked photo” of myself (actual contents: cute raccoons). No dice! (N.B. Scammers do this either for personal titillation or for future extortion. Either way, yikes!)
I think this is the same person, or part of the same operation but I don’t know for sure. I did get the Bitcoin wallet address. The scam seems to be pretty successful: dude got around $1000 over the last 2 weeks, scamming amounts between $25 and $100. Hard to tell with bitcoin bouncing all over the place.
I wish I could pay, but apparently I’m having bizarre error messages written in crayon. And this scammer won’t take CoinSquirt or FundThrust either! Oh well, you can’t win them all…
At some point they sent me a photo of a smoke cauldron they nicked off Google. I didn’t get a chance to screenshot it; they deleted it right after. I suppose you could say that image… went up in smoke :)
They’re now asking for gift cards, but I’m all out of Steam. Time to wrap this up.
But wait! There’s more! The guy finally clicked on my naked pic (that is actually cute raccoons). Different IP address, but the same ISP in Lagos, Nigeria. And same model of Android phone, running the same browser. Could be the same person, could be the same call center. One thing is certain. You can never have too many cute raccoon photos.
What to watch out for
Okay, so what can we learn from this? Scammers are absolutely everywhere in witchcraft communities. They prey on new witches and on vulnerable people. They perpetuate the idea that you need a professional to do witchcraft: that it won’t work if you do it yourself.
1. If someone messages you out of the blue saying they can solve your problems, it’s a scam! If they comment on your post with a telegram, instagram, or similar, or they’re asking you to DM, it’s a scam! If it’s a new account or doesn’t have a history of positive contributions to the community, doubly so!
2. Scammers claim to have done a reading and found a hex on you, or someone wishing you harm (if you already feel that way, then you’re gonna be inclined to believe them). They use the 1-2 punch, the carrot and the stick: there’s bad things happening, but they can fix them. Your life will be awesome, and positive, and good, if you do what they say. And bad, if you don’t.
3. Scammers will give you a false sense of urgency; you must do things quickly and everything will be all right; or, if you don’t act fast, bad things will happen. The more you wait, the more likely you are to catch on to the scam: they want your money right now!
4. Scammers may offer to start the work now and you can pay later. They might say it’s totally free! It’s a trap! Rest assured, the request for money will come sooner or later; they might guilt you into paying, since “they’ve already done the services”. They might send a photo they found on google as proof. It’s all fake.
5. Beware of people asking for “donations” instead of payment — like the first scammer who asked for “donations” as an offering to the gods. They might say that you only need to pay for supplies, but you can’t buy them off Amazon, you must use a sketchy website or send them the money. Red flag!
5. Never, ever pay in Bitcoin, gift cards, Zelle, CashApp, or Paypal using “Friends and Family”. There’s no way to recover that money! That’s why scammers use these methods. In fact, just don’t pay someone you don’t know and trust!
6. If all else fails, scammers will try to manipulate and blackmail you into paying them. If you’re already scared and emotionally vulnerable, they’ll take advantage of that. Notice how they tried to use my palm photo as spiritual blackmail. They really wanted to have something of me to work with — something they can try to use as leverage later.
7. Scammers will try again and again to get you to pay them. Even in the face of irrefutable evidence that it’s a scam, they will still deny it. They can be very convincing; maybe they believe it themselves.
If you’re familiar with scams, you’ll recognize some of these indicators. This follows the script of a lot of scams, but with a witchy twist.
Scams aren’t all the same though, so don’t assume that it’s not a scam just because it doesn’t have the above red flags! Don’t assume that just because the mods didn’t catch it, it means it’s safe: we can’t catch everything!
What if I got scammed?
You realize you got scammed, or are being scammed right now. Now what?
1. Take a breath.
2. If you’re being scammed right now, the first thing you should do is disengage: they’ll try to threaten you, intimidate you, spiritually blackmail you, or similar. You won’t come to spiritual harm if you stop paying them.
3. Follow these instructions if you got scammed. Here’s another helpful link. They walk you through actionable, practical steps that you should take as soon as possible.
4. Do whatever you need to do to take emotional care of yourself. Perhaps talk to a friend or therapist. Ground yourself. Take a relaxing bath. Most importantly, rest assured you are spiritually safe, even if you gave the scammer “esoteric ammunition” like a photo of your palm. If it helps you feel better, you can cast protection, or do a cleansing — but do it yourself, or with a trusted friend; watch out for people who claim they can help protect you from the scammer… for a fee.
5. That’s right, scammers that target scam victims. The lowest of the low. People saying you can get your money back, or that they’ll cast a ward to protect you from the previous scammers; these scams come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t fall into a different scam trying to emotionally recover from the last one.
You might feel guilt, or embarrassment, or shame. It’s not your fault. Scammers prey on people having vulnerable moments. It’s disgusting.
Being scammed is emotionally traumatic. I don’t have good advice here. A therapist can definitely help, or a good support group: friends, family, loved ones.
Sometimes, people who’ve gotten scammed think about ending their life. Here’s a link with helplines in many countries.
End
I hope you found this helpful and entertaining, or at least cathartic. Don’t believe anyone who says that you can’t do spells yourself. We all start somewhere. Witchcraft isn’t scary, and it’s not full of bad things ready to happen at the slightest mistake. You’ve got this! Go out and experiment: you don’t need someone on Instagram to do the spells for you. You’re a witch!
And remember, the Goddess will never ask you for Steam gift cards.