Well... It's been a while since my last post, but I come today with what may be an obvious warning to anyone who plays #steemmonsters.

Long story short, I got scammed today because of a foolish mistake... I'm already poor af, and I've had more than a couple setbacks in my real life lately. Desperate times will make you do stupid things, and not think things through clearly. Today was one of those days where I've screwed myself even further by trying to get ahead...

In a nutshell, @pizzachain sums it up pretty well here:

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Allow me to start with a bit of background.

STEEM has been awesome to me over the past year and a half or so. I've made a fair amount of money via blogging on @Steemit, which helped a lot with paying bills last year. When the "crypto crash" came, and that earning fell to nearly nothing, I picked up more "real" work, and had much less time to write. What I have had time for, is @Steemmonsters.

I have been buying packs of cards since the beginning (albeit very few, due to my usual lack of funds), and selling the more rare cards while building up a modest team to battle with. I cash out much of the profits I make, and squirrel it away toward getting "back on my feet"

I've done fairly well, and if I sold my entire collection, I could probably net what I would consider a decent amount, but I'd never gotten really lucky with the cards I've received. However, the other day, I finally caught a break; I bought three packs from cards sold overnight, and got my very first Gold Foil Legendary!

I'd lowered the price bit by bit every day or so, but had hovered around $500 for the last day or so. There were only 13 in existence, and I figured this might finally be my chance to earn a chunk of change for all the time I've put in!

I planned to sell the card, buy the "100 pack promo", and cash out the rest to the squirrel fund. The 550 cards I would have gotten would allow me to continue trading and buying packs, and probably allow me to add another hundred or more to savings.

To say I was elated would be an egregious understatement. I literally jumped up and down telling my fiance I'd be able to sell this card for hundreds of dollars, bringing us closer to getting out of her parents' house...

Today, however, I had to explain to her that through rash action, and trusting strangers, we would not be receiving the boost I had been talking non-stop about for the last two days...

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Here's how it played out:

I spoke the SM Discord again this morning about trying to sell the card, this time for $450.
I soon received a message from "Crypto Twizh":
^{He changed his username to " -_- ", and his avatar to the doge once he was called out for scamming.}

I was straight up with him from the beginning. I was trying to buy more packs, and pay some bills with the rest of what I needed to get from this card, but this guy isn't just gonna give up, oh no, he's got what I'm after...

Holy shit!, I think. This dude's got 1300 Alpha packs! Even still, that's only part of what I planned to turn the card into, though they are alphas... I resist at first,

but then like most impoverished people, I thought for two damned seconds about what I could do with Alpha Packs, without thinking much about the risk, and I wavered, telling him to "give me a number".... He had me, I just didn't know it yet.

300 Packs?! Just like he said, that's about $900 total! I knew that I could sell them to others for about $3 each, so even if I opened 100 of them, I'd earn about $600 to put into the squirrel fund! Hell Yeah!, I thought.

"I want some cash too" = RED FLAG (ignored)

"I'll make a quick sale" = RED FLAG (ignored)

^ Me sealing my fate like a boss ^

I don't normally trust people, and certainly not strangers. I choose a great fucking day to change that, and decide to have a little trust in humanity. I reasoned that one of us was going to have to trust the other. Had @twizeh sent me 300 packs of cards first, he would have about as much of a guarantee that I'd send the card, as I had that he'd come through on his end once he had my card in his possession.

I went out on a limb of stupidity, and of course, it cracked, and I crashed... Nearly 20 minutes of refreshing Steemmonsters.com and Discord on my phone, I inquire with a simple question mark, because "wtf?" comes off as confrontational and accusatory to most.

Hahaha, Steem passwords are hard to remember! Now I'm laughing, the guy's normal, just like me, right? No need to worry that he might actually be siting in his cave waiting for me to stop responding...

I'M STILL IGNORING RED FLAGS!!

So, of course, the dude never replied, and the next time I messaged him, I get a lovely message informing me that I'd been blocked... Now I'm pissed off!

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To Discord we go!

At this point, I already know I've been had. I've willingly sent my first and only gold foil legendary card to someone who had no intention of trading anything for it...

I learned that the community that has grown around SteemMonsters are great people overall, but I should have already known that, as Steem seems to bring just a few types of people, and most of them are very caring and engaging, while a few just want to rip and run.

To @bafi, @crystalhuman, @themarkymark, and others I can't find to tag, thank you for all of your advice, kind words, and understanding. Any of you could have ignored me and laughed at such a stupid mistake, but you didn't.

We all watched as the card that was stolen from me popped up in the market for a measly $250... @twizeh had passed it around to an alt account, and was trying to grab a quick buck and run. He didn't just send to one, though, and through the explorer on @peakmonsters, members of the Discord community picked up the trail, and watched as @twizeh passed the card over to his alt account @twzh. Then gifts it to another account called @realtwzh, and once again to @smileb4moon.

We all watched as @twizeh continually altered the price of the card, seemingly according to the conversations we were having in the Discord...

Yeah, he was just sitting there listening to us talk about him, and making moves like sending specific cards to people that had been mentioned during the conversation. Just playing with people...

Finally, the card gets put up and sold to @holozor (the first smart person to come along and buy a SUPER CHEAP gfl) for $250.

It's all over. Scam successful. What a dummy @thatsweeneyguy is for just handing his card over like that! HAHA!

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As it turns out, @twizeh is somewhat infamous for this kind of bullshit....

A few people reached out on Discord explaining that the same guy had tried the exact same game with them. Luckily, they were not as desperate as yours truly to unload their card.

From what I know, he hasn't been able to steal anyone else's card in this manner, because most people would not be so stupid as to give their card to a stranger hoping they'll be honest and true.

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I've seen an incredible amount of generosity from the @Steemmonsters community since this post was originally published!

I've had people send me gifts as a show of condolence, while others had offered to buy the card back from @holozor, and return it to me! I could not imagine someone going that far out of their way to make up for something I pretty much did to myself... Then something really awesome happened.

I lied down for a nap yesterday, and woke up to a transfer of 500 SBD from @yabapmatt.........

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A developer of the game just gave me what I was asking for the card in the market! If anyone has ever questioned the integrity or generosity of the team behind this project, don't.

I could never have expected any of this, and my recently wavering faith in our beloved blockchain has been restored by the group of people that have culminated around this game.

As a show of gratitude, I will be spending a good amount of time helping @steemmonsters in any way I can. First and foremost, I'm going to be conducting a SteemMonsters Trivia Contest. Answer questions about the official background lore before anyone else, and you'll win a booster pack!

I'm still writing up trivia questions, so expect the contest to start in just a few days.

Until then, thank you very much for reading, and thank everyone who has been involved with all of this over the last couple days, you're all awesome, except that shit head @twizeh...