before i say much of anything let me start out by saying yes. yes i do realize just how stupid and naive that I was trusting before having a reason to do so. I'm entirely to blame & it's a lesson i've definitely archived in the front, middle and back of my brain forever..
i met a dude who did streams on discord & seemed super cool. He had "sponsors" who claimed to be stake affiliates but not direct employees of stake (from what I understand... and that's very little about all of this, clearly.) He had his followers send funds to his sponsors for the stream & then the sponsors matched what they sent - & whatever was won at the end was split between the streamer & those who funded. I had just had a freaking fantastic run on here so I was able to do so easily & not be strapped stressing on the return. the first time i evidently sent a venmo ltc address that updated before he sent. 2500$ gone. he said he put a ticket in with his team to recover the funds... but it's pivotal to realize this is around 4/5/2025. Long story short I really wanted to be able to stream and gamble myself instead of paying someone else to hopefully do well (when i hadn't seen any positive results myself...only heard about past experiences). I expressed this to the sponsor and he tells me if Im willing to put in the work & meet all requirements he would get me a job with his company doing the same thing the other guy was doing. I was thrilled. From his advice I bought a brand new Macbook to work on, I paid the sponsor's people who run a business that grows your fan base & promotes your affiliate link to gain sign ups...when i say i sent THOUSANDS at a time (with the promise to get to start that week pending these all but guaranteed results) He disappeared for WEEKS . he eventually came back and said his daughter had been in & out of children's with a liver infection. Streamer friend also was supposed to have missed his pay from the company as well... resulting in a massive decline in his mental health and well being in general. he's openly told sponsor that he's suicidal & homeless now because we're owed thousands each and was ghosted for months.
we've still not seen or heard anything worth anything other than "i'm trying to get you two paid out." oh, and he told me that I was being a bit much - the streamer friend was suicidal & going through some real 💩. paraphrasing what he said, I was told I needed to be understanding and loosen up. I wasn't as bad off as the other guy & he's waiting just like I am.
Is this common? I spoke with Ivanna from support about it several weeks ago and although it was a fantastic & inspirational conversation, she immediately agreed it was a scam.. Has anyone else fallen victim to this? I bought it all & even felt like I could trust these people beyond a business aspect but with my personal past as well, which is not something that I often do - mainly for safety purposes. I just felt so comfortable and relaxed with them.. I was so sure this was going to end up as a career that I had just had the conversation with my parents about giving up my SSI check so that I could be eligible to be employed by them.
I've pretty well accepted that I'll never see any of that money... & if I do I promise i'll be the very first to tell everyone that I was wrong & they were actually legitimate. But until then, if my story can warn or save one person from funding their schemes then I'll continue to repeat this extremely long story.