Yes, you guessed it—I encountered another scammer on Substack recently. You can find my previous post here.
This guy pretended to be someone famous in the Bitcoin world, where people labeled him as the 'crypto god.'
He DM'd and chatted with me in June but disappeared for two months, only to return and chat with me again in August. When we moved to chat on the phone, I noticed some red flags. Not long after we started chatting there, his Substack account was gone.⬇️
I was pretty sure he deleted the account, thinking he got the target 'me'! Or maybe Substack deleted it because they found his account suspicious!
Of course, I had already done my due diligence by Googling him when we first chatted in June. This time, I had to do more checks on him.
There were tons of 'real Teeka Tiwari' videos online, including one that made me believe the guy I was chatting with was a fake one.
As always, I give people the benefit of the doubt until I have some proof. After watching that crucial video, I decided to test him by requesting a voice call. I blocked him immediately after the call.
I am 97% sure you don’t like me, but I am 100% sure I don’t care
These are my conclusions on how I identify the red flags.
There is no profile picture on the phone app.
Usually, the phone number is from overseas.
They prefer to use someone famous who has a very private personal life. It is easy to access and use the content of these famous people posted online.
They are most likely accessing it from a different country than the one they claim to reside in. For example, they might live in Florida but have their Substack accounts open in South Africa.
They might tell you that they have been cheated on or betrayed by their previous partner.
They will love-bomb you with daily greetings, sweet talk, and constant praise or compliments for the simplest things.
When you request a voice call, they won’t agree immediately but will schedule it for a later time.
When you call them, they won’t answer but will call you back.
They most likely won’t sound the same as the person they claim to be (if you have a reference for comparison).
When you request to switch to a video call, they will refuse and accuse you of being unreasonable for making request after request.
They will always insist on postponing the video call, giving excuses.
Observe their attitude and behavior when you talk to them, and note whether there is a difference between texting and voice calls.
I think having a video call is very important because it reveals their true appearance.
Trust your gut feeling. If you sense that they are not genuine, you are most likely right.
You might wonder why I would continue chatting with him since I don’t feel right.
Well, there is nothing to lose, I don’t have money or anything to be scammed and I’m too curious to find out what he wants from me. The more I interact with him, the more it sharpens my ability to spot the red flags. Maybe his motive was trying to ruin the reputation of the real ‘Teeka Tiwari’. Who knows?🤷♀️
One thing I’m glad about from going through this episode is that I’ve indirectly removed him from our Substack community. This makes me feel kind of proud of myself.😉
My various encounters with these scammers have definitely polished my skills in recognizing the warning signs!✌️😏
Don’t tell people your plans, show them your results
Let’s end this post here with another song, I believe in me ft. Rachael Schroeder.
May you have a wonderful weekend ahead with love and light!💕✨🙏😊🌻
If bitcoin comes up in the conversation, then it is a scam. The end! :-)
“As always, I give people the benefit of the doubt until I have some proof.” I would say the opposite for anyone online.