Another Interesting Day On The Blockchain — Ben Schwartz
I don't usually share warnings about sketchy people — they're everywhere. Growing up in a city during the crack-era, I've become conditioned to be not only vigilant, but somewhat numb to the presence of snake-oil salesmen. And having quite a few friends who've slipped into the other side of drug-misuse and addiction; I've seen ugly face-to-face so many times I'm not even triggered anymore.
What makes me share this post today is that one such desperate broken soul has schemed upwards of $5000 (probably way more) from beloved witnesses of our block-chain (and many others.) Witnesses are responsible for the well-being our investment by upholding the technology that runs this Steem experience. How we respond to these matters deeply effects the trust others put in one another and into this platform. And so for this reason, I feel called to step in.
THE REPORT
Name: Ben Schwartz (maybe, who knows)
Known Steemit Accounts:
@fatpandadesign
@getslothyy
@unmentionable
@gamersunited
@croftj0827
@psychsherpa
Know Discord IDs:
slothyy#2322
Panda#3993
psychsherpa#3610
Reports:
https://steemit.com/scam/@neoxian/scam-warning-fatpandadesign-getslothyy-ben-schwartz
https://steemit.com/abuse/@therealwolf/warning-ben-schwartz-is-a-scammer-who-owes-me-2600-sbd
Testimonials:
https://steemit.com/scammer/@drawingly/my-experience-getslothyy-experience-rant-scammer-alert
Who Got Jammed:
@therealwolf - 2600 SBD
@reggaemuffin - 500 STEEM
@neoxian - 1000 USD
What I'm Doing (And What You Can Do)
I know my posts usually only garner between 1-10 dollars but I've made the 3 above the payout beneficiaries of this post. I believe the @steem-plus plugin that gives me the beneficiaries feature takes a small 5% off the top as well. That's fine. When this post pays out, it will pay out to beneficiaries directly.
The reason I only chose the above persons to be included and not others is because I'm confident Mark will look out for others, I'm sure of who they each are (witness) at least as far as them being verified witnesses, and I believe what they're saying is true because, well, they have screen-shots.
You can do the SAME.
You can raise awareness about this person's proactive sketchy behavior and also help repay the guys above by making a post and doing the same thing. If you cannot or will not make a post, I would be very thankful if you resteemed this one or up-voted it (it's rare I ask for votes.)
I realize the above witnesses don't need the reward money and that this is insignificant support at best. It's however GESTURAL of solidarity.
More Opinion
You may be wondering why in my beginning paragraph I referred to this man Ben as a desperate broken soul and not a scammy evil douchbag. I'm very careful with those words for a number of reasons. While as Neoxian pointed out in his report, this person does have a strategy to his scheme; to me (and this is subjective) this is everyday bootlegger shit. This is not a diabolical madman sitting in his lofty suite somewhere tapping his fingers like Mr. Burns (see Simpsons cartoons) and plotting devestation. No. I believe he's your everyday run-of-the-mill bottom-feeder.
I don't pity him. If you do some intuitive research on the links provided, look through the commentary, listen to the video and so on you will likely come to the same conclusion.
- He is homeless a.k.a. "travels a lot"
- He is a recovered heroin addict a.k.a. nobody recovers from heroin (you only stop, you're addicted forever.)
- He is a gambling addict a.k.a. addict again a.k.a. addictive personality traits
- His appearance, rooming, etc... unkempt
- People have met him in person, in the past
- He's on multiple occasions appeared to be jonesing, unstable, and strung out
It's my experience and observation that those who are JONESING — that means obsessively fixated on their object of addiction — will say or do anything to get a hit (a temporary relief though satiation and enabling of their addiction.)
People this deep in despair are mentally ill and need professional help (like a psychiatrist.) Do not attempt to help them yourself. They will not, of their own accord, make the choice best for themselves (or others.)
Oh but the trickery! Indeed. Many people in this condition are otherwise functional as long as they're not on a bender. They can seem high on charisma, manic, and like they're flying. I think the guy really tried to do the gaming thing and stuff. I'm not defending his shit choices in the end and I'm not saying he's not dangerous (to your wallet - and mental health — because he is) only sharing that I'm personally of the opinion that he's mentally ill. With that said, do not approach. But beware of giving this guy too much credit. Fear can control you.
Even More Opinion
I've been thinking about doing some posts about red flags of unstable persons. Being here awhile longer, I've come to notice there are many persons in the crypto-space that are great at protecting their wallet keys, but not so great at protecting their heart's keys. I've simply refrained because I'm not a doctor.
I mean no insult in that respect. I'm a mother. I tend to care a little too much sometimes. And I intimately understand as well, because I was once upon a time a HEAVY drinker. I see people like Ben and think, "Man, that could have been me." Slippery slope.
Watching the video of Mariza speaking about how she hopes he does the right thing made my heart break a little, because I'm fairly certain he won't. Maybe I'm wrong, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure he not only will continue this scheme but be back with new accounts.
Remain vigilant. Never forget that the world is a Jungle. There are many beautiful sunrises. There are also tarpits. If we watch for tarpits too much, we will miss many sunrises. If we watch sunrises too much, we could step in a tarpit. Live and learn I guess.
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I've seen fatpanda around for a while, I used to follow him. I quit following him a while back.
A lot of people followed him. I've not been active here long but I recognize the gamersunited user.
It is so damn simple to fall into these traps and also to become the trapper yourself, the slippery slope is always trying to pull you in!
This auto payout to them is a cool system. I am always amazed how many great apps you know even though you are so short only on steemit
No doubt the guy "posed" as a therapist, as a guy named joe, as a web designer, etc. He was without question playing people and taking them for granted. However, the more I research the situation, the more I'm convinced that his addictions got the best of him and he became more and more desperate for money.
Addiction is insane. People do heinous things to other people without any conscious. Priorities change. It's like becoming a zombie. In our ANGER we must remember that it can happen to anyone.
Yeah, the beneficiary thing is really nice.
I had been talking to (In this case) Slothyy for the past few months and I helped him build Gamers united from a certain point, he even made me a mod on the discord server.
I do think he let himself be drowned by the addiction because I still believe some of the character he had built up. The backpacker who traveled a lot and was staying in a hostel in mexico... But his addictions got him, he gambled way more than he could and got money out of a LOT of people, including myself and a lot of Gamers united members.
He just seems like such an unstable person trying to do way more than he could grasp, leading to his demise and what has been happening since his story started to crumble down.
I'll write a post in a few so I can explain a little bit from my perspective since I considered him a friend.
Thanks for your feedback and I'm glad you say this because it makes me feel as though I wasn't too far off in my assumption. Still, I feel as though folks would be well off not to trust him going forward. What's a bit sad is that his behavior reflects poorly on the community of gamers that was developed. I think it will take a lot of transparency and refraining from profiteering for that community to rebuild it's name separate from him. I hope some of the gamers - perhaps even yourself perhaps - would consider doing some streams with face in window, so folks know those streamers are not Ben hiding under another name. It's devastating how reputation and trust can be damaged by association. I hope for everyone in that community and others he was involved in that were hurt by his actions, fully recover and go on to having an even better community. ♥️
We're all building something better and DIFFERENT plus we do want to keep transparent since we don't want our members feeling nervous or afraid again, that's totally what we want to avoid.
We already have some people who stream with webcams so their faces are recognizable and we can get accustomed to them being the faces of the group in some kind of sense.
Thanks for the support, Omi! We're just picking up the pieces and trying to make it even better!