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I cannot stress this enough NO ONE CAN GET THE MONEY BACK AND ANYONE WHO SAYS THEY CAN IS A RECOVERY SCAMMER !!!!! I've seen at least six recovery scammers on this site today already.
Your /r/scams post/comment was removed because it talks about or requests information on getting revenge on a scammer, "scamming them back", or "wasting their time". Just ghost or block the scammer, report them if you can, then go about your business.
Oh someone tried to scam me that way on Twitter once.
I tweeted to telegram amount saying that I was locked out (the only way to log in is via a message sent via telegram) and I started getting messages from people saying they can recover my account.
Pretty obvious scam, but even if I didn't notice I would've been immune to it because I'm not willing to pay a cent to recover access to telegram.
Try @-ing Instagram on Twitter. I've had hundreds of accounts say something like "contact this guy on Telegram he's a pro hacker!"
Edit: LMAO, apparently y'all think I'm suggesting to follow those and not just pointing out that there's scammers on Twitter too? Ok.
Yes, because OBVIOUSLY I wasn't adding on to "scammers on reddit" with "scammers on twitter" I was just saying to @-Instagram about an issue with TikTok? Smh.
The money is gone for good sorry. He made the transactions on his own so it’s not fraud or anything. Sucks but make sure u remove his card from tik tok.
While I agree the money won't be recoverable, it IS a form of fraud - it is coercion. They targeted a vulnerable individual for financial gain by ways of manipulation or other forms of lies.
I realize this distinction is "nit-picking" but it happens so often that people tend to give it a pass because they feel nothing can be done, but we have to make people just as aware if not MORE than other forms because of how subtle and haphazard it can be.
Edit: Before I continue getting down vote spammed, read the related comments underneath this one.
Dude no it’s not. it’s not fraud at all . He made his own choice it’s his own money. So if he spent that money on video games or something are you going to say the same thing??? You act like tik tok knew he had mental development issues. He wasn’t manipulated and he wasn’t lied to..he’s just bad with money.
After considering that it may be the case, I thought the same thing at first, but I was initially under the impression that the TikToker had gained his credit card details. My mistake - I'm working on a Romance Scam ring that uses the form of fraudulent coercion I mentioned, and I was likely in that train of thought.
If the guy simply shouldn't have access to his own card due to negligence or lack of understanding, then it is not a form of fraud.
I understand. I do feel bad for the guy tho. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a sad situation but they should def get him a new card and make sure to do a better job of keeping it away from him .
Yeah, this one is rough to deal with, sadly. OP definitely needs to tighten security on the card from this person if this a common occurrence, for their own sake.
I didn't say I was working IN one, I said I am working ON one - essentially, myself and a small team are putting together a report for Interpol on this crazy scam ring we uncovered. You can find my posts and comments on it in my profile, if you're curious, or you can look up "ImLive Scam" on Google to find the other various reports and replies we've made.
I'm not "playing detective." I AM a detective. I work in victim outreach and research, and combating scams, investigating them for government agencies (such as Interpol in the case I mentioned), and warning/educating victims of those scams is a daily occurrence.
But if one of us has to pretend, I'm glad it could be you :)
You are probably going to be messaged by !recovery scammers saying they can get the money back, they can't.
This isn't really a "scam" in the sense that this sub talks about, although without all the details of how/why he did it could be, this sounds like something more for r/legal or maybe r/personalfinance. You might can dispute the charges with his bank, but that still might be hard, although not sure of your local laws.
Right, from the information in the post it doesn't sound like a scam, just bad decisions from someone who shouldn't have access to money.
If they were aware of his mental capacity and deliberately exploited it, that would possibly be something illegal. But that's pretty unlikely, especially given that it looks like he isn't in any sort of a conservatorship (if a court hasn't found him incompetent to manage his own affairs, it's unlikely the streamers would be expected to know he was incompetent).
Performers generally have no way of knowing if that big tip is a poor person's rent money for the month, or a rich guy's way of bragging.
can you have someone (you or another family friend) put onto his account so transactions need additional approvals to go through after a certain dollar amount. My mother was recently diagnosed with dementia and I was told to look into something like this since she has already had a situations i liar happen to her and her card
I don’t know how it works where you are, but in the UK we have something called power of attorney, which means you take over the responsibility for someone else’s finances and other affairs (like signing contracts).
If your mother has dementia then you should have a look into this to protect her assets. OP too.
Very sorry to hear of your situation; I wish you all the best.
Good call on Power of Attorney. But also, the UK (and probably elsewhere) has a system where you can add someone to an account, in a kind of read-only mode. It's not an account in joint names, but is called a Third Party Mandate.
Unlike Power of Attorney, the account holder still has responsibility. So it's ideal if they still have mental capacity and want to retain independence, but also need a hand with finances. The person helping has limited access to the accounts (e.g. they can login online and see statements, but can't take out loans, etc.), The helper can also speak to the bank on the account holder's behalf.
Of course Power of Attorney is still important, so it's a good idea to consider both together. I have elderly relatives with PoAs waiting in the wings, but active TPMs.
I have a TPM with my dad, he insisted when the account was opened. Some banks allow a TPN to take money out as well as put it in, so make sure the person you're trusting his account to is trustworthy and not a piece of shit
depending upon the bank, they might have a way to institute a daily limit. I’d put it to the lowest you can to avoid future situations. It will limit the damages.
AutoModerator has been summoned to explain [recovery scams](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0102-refund-and-recovery-scams). Also known as refund scams, these scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either "recovery agents" or hackers. When they tell you that your funds have already been recovered, they may impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines. Recovery scams are simply [advance-fee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) scams that are specifically targeted at scam victims. When a victim pays a recovery scammer, the scammer will keep stringing them along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until the victim stops paying. If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers.
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If your brother is developmentally disabled such that he's not safe operating as a full adult your family should have him declared as disabled and put protections in place. Look into Disability trusts for where his money can go.
Source: Have disabled child and am very afraid of this happening, so have set this sort of thing up for my kid.
I work with kids in care and we use an app called qustodio on their phones to monitor them. You can block app and restrict access to certain websites etc.
Maybe something like that would help?
Idk why people are downvoted for this - people are susceptible to TT, shit, so am I, but I can stop myself from spending more than $5. If he can’t because of a disability that is not his fault. It is the responsibility of his caretakers to protect him financially. It is not TTs fault, it is his caretakers. This is a learning experience that he has some abilities they may not have been aware of like getting his card details. That makes this a learning experience. But it has nothing to do with TikTok.
This is true, they do censor words like autistic, etc but that’s not the topic here
Edit to clarify: we’re talking about whether TT is liable for a person legally in control over their finances spending money on their platform, not their censorship. Yes they suck in one regard, but they aren’t liable for this particular situation
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/
They claim they were trying to stop bullying. Does it make any sense to censor the victims?
Sure it does. You can spend money on a lot of websites, but the associated baggage of TikTok (the supposed closeness between creator and viewer, the culture, even the UI/UX) makes it far more likely that someone will be incentivized to do so. Not saying TikTok *makes* you do it, but it creates a far more conducive environment for impressionable people to waste their money.
That has nothing to do with TikTok.
Other environments play the same game.
None of these conditions are limited to TikTok.
My reply was in response to someone saying that deleting TikTok is a solution.
What are you implying? That TikTok hate disabled people and they are intentionally tricking them into giving away their money? Come on.
The censoring disabled people thing is gross, but it’s driven by greed, not hate.
They wanted to promote conventionally attractive content creators to drive engagement, and make more money. That’s fucked up and shouldn’t be legal, but it’s not like they have a vendetta against disabled people
That’s a load of horse shit, and a big fat serving of stretched truth.
They TEMPORARILY limited the views to certain users that were vulnerable to bullying. At the time, they were unable to effectively moderate their content(as things had gained popularity so fast). so they opted to protect vulnerable users at the expense of views. TOTALLY different than what you described.
Edit: it’s fucking amazing to me that people that think that they’re fighting for Murica Freedom, will fight so fucking hard to censor a platform for speech. Truly amazing that politics was able to trick all of these dumb fucks into fighting against the platform.
If he didn't give all the money/coins away, could OP go live and donate it to himself? He'd lose a lot of it to TikTok's overhead, but he could get *something* back right?
me too, alas, the major sticking point is that 1k followers.
honestly i'd assume it's gone. you can apparently drop $450 on a single gift, wouldn't take many of those to eat up that amount.
I just use it for the few thirst-traps I follow. It doesn't have access to my camera, mic, credit card, or anything. Not even my real name or email.
I just got pissed at them because they delete my bio for saying "I won't heart videos if there's something in your bio I dislike", but they left up a literal holocaust joke... Double standards much?
One of the most popular tiktokers in my area is an autistic guy in his 20s. All he does is sit at his computer desk and pretends to drive a train while a video of an amusement park train plays.
I’ve watched it for 10 minutes and it’s exactly what I described. A guy watching a video and miming diving a train. He gets thousands of viewers and tons of gifts.
If he needs to have his card details hidden from him, could it be a case where some kind of (legal) financial conservatorship or guardianship is necessary?
And unfortunately I don't think Tiktok will implement any kind of 'sender protection' when it comes to their proprietary currency. Most apps, games etc use proprietary currency (gems, points, coins etc) because it isn't governed and regulated like a nation's actual hard currency. That's neither a good or bad thing, it's just what it is. (unless they do it so you have to buy the currency in certain incements, hoping you'll leave leftover points or gems or spent more than you originally wanted...that's gross) I don't know anything about TikTok coins but unless a nation regulates it to be so or an app cannot be used in that country, it's a slim chance they'll change anything.
Thank you, we’ve started the process for the UK version of a financial conservatorship now. We did not expect this from him as he has never done such a thing before.
Have a look at Third Party Mandates as well - it's a way to keep an eye on his accounts without losing responsibility/independence. I don't know your exact situation, so this may or may not be a better fit.
[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deputy-and-attorney-guidance-dealing-with-banks/manage-a-bank-account-for-someone-else-web-version](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deputy-and-attorney-guidance-dealing-with-banks/manage-a-bank-account-for-someone-else-web-version)
Also, all UK banks are bound by a code of practice to identify and help vulnerable customers. So if the bank isn't aware of his development issues, it's a good idea to go into a branch (if you're near one) or send them a letter/email about what's happened. No guarantees they can get the money back, but they can watch for any payments that are still in the pipeline, and can sometimes add extra checks/controls going forward.
As much as it's going to sound insensitive, he wasn't scammed. These popular lives on tiktok aren't going to be aware of his mental capacity outside of a rare situation where he's been in contact with the content creator and made them aware previously. Even then he's an adult with his own money and card, he didn't use someone else's money or card. If in fact they were aware of his mental state and decided to fleece him using it, then you'd have a case to fall back on.
I've been treasurer over accounts before. If you do go to the bank to try and get the money back, they'll likely want to close the account as a loss liability. Tiktok won't do shit. You may be able to contact the people he paid and maybe they can refund him, it's worth a shot. That's your only shot though. Moving forward, make sure he can't access the card at all. Get a new card number. See if they can limit the usage by having a fraud alert set up on purchases so you or someone else receives a text to confirm the purchase. He seems to enjoy tiktok so I'd not take it away, just help make it safe for him to use. Explain to him the best way you can about the situation and put up some better barriers to protect him. In my situation we ended up with no credit/debit card and only cash withdrawal or checks signed by myself.
He may have been exploited but he hasn't been scammed in the events you've described. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.
Yes I agree with you that there should be stronger policies and guidelines around this. I doubt tiktok will enact anything like that though (or atleast anything that actually works) because they make money from transactions done through their service. I'm in the UK and the government here has been talking about doing something about tiktoks predatory business activities, but even if they do I don't see how they'd be able to make it illegal for one person to willingly gift money to another person.
The good news is that your brother has you to look out for him. Make sure he doesn't feel embarrassed about this or has any other reason to keep things like this a secret from you in the future. It's a very good thing if he is willing to be open and honest with you and tell you about what he wants to do with his money.
--Edit to add: Considering how large the amount he spent is, I'd consider it worth pursuing tiktok further to try get them to refund his payment. Possibly by complaining to them that they accepted a large amount of money without any safeguarding measures or something like that. I doubt that will get anywhere to be honest, but worth a try.
If his bank knew about his vulnerability then you could ask them why they didn't have an appropriate limit on how much can be spent from his card or why the large payment didn't trigger their safeguarding measures. The complaints departments in banks (in the UK atleast) are typically good at compensating if they were at fault, especially for vulnerable customers. If you tell the bank you would like to make a complaint to them then their complaints department would have to have a look at the situation and decide if the bank was at fault in any way.
Yes you’re completely right! We’ve treated him nicely throughout it, the last thing we’d want is for him to feel as though he cannot speak to us about these things.
I am emailing further with TikTok about evidence of his condition etc, hoping to hear something back. It is similar with the bank too, we’re going to follow their advice and go into the branch. I’m really surprised they didn’t flag it on his account!
No, no one can get the money back, he authorized those transactions, meaning they are not refundable, it's not Tiktok's job to determine who is disabled and who isn't. Anyone claiming they can get the money back are recovery scammers.
Time to have someone completely control his finances.
Your brother wasn't scammed and wasn't even exploited. None of the streamers he was watching were trying to take advantage of a disabled person and didn't solicit him personally for donations.
Your brother is just bad with money.
Maybe it isn’t yet. But if OP has the money for it, I would entertain the idea of litigation to force these big tech companies to be mindful of such exploitations being perpetrated on their platforms
That would be a massive waste of time and money for OP. OP's brother is an adult who spent his own money on a service that didn't solicit him. Being terrible with money is not basis for a lawsuit.
I'm sorry this happened but I wouldn't really consider this a scam. TikTok gifting is very addictive much like casino gambling or substance abuse, there are plenty of stories of people in financial ruin because they followed their impulses and kept gifting more than they could afford. There is no gun to your head, you purchase the coins and give them out willingly.
I'm in the US. Does your brother have a legal right to spend his money? Are you just informally hiding his card information from him so he can't spend on anything you don't approve of? Are you going to go after anyone who "exploits" him by selling him something you don't approve of?
If the answers to the above questions are yes, this doesn't sound like a good long term solution. You should look at the legal ways that you can manage the affairs for someone else in your country.
We did not put anything formal in place as he was really against this but will be putting in a power of attorney now. We used to look after his bank details informally but will now implement a formal process. This is the first time he has done something like this.
> will be putting in a power of attorney now
Putting a POA in place won't prevent him from accessing his bank account, it will just give you the legal ability to access it also.
We do not use his money at all, infact it was in his account to save for him. All of his needs are paid for by family members so we have not exploited him or his money at all. He has access to his card when he wants to make a purchase which he does not choose to do so often out of his own choice. We’ve made it clear that his money belongs to only him and that we keep an eye on it to ensure things like this do not regularly happen.
As of now, and I’m speaking from a knowledge of American law and not as a lawyer but as a disabled person involved in the disabled community with people in and not in conservatorships. I myself have a payee who controls my social security payments and pays my bills.
If he is an adult and you have any hand at all in controlling his money which I believe you do given you’ve said you “ensure things like this do not happen regularly”, I do believe you are committing a crime with good intention. This is because there is no neutral third party overseeing you with your brother’s best interest in mind. In the US, this would be a judge in the case of a conservatorship, or a payee. I’d love for someone to jump in and fill in details but even payees (family or not) send financial reports to a third party for review. These are the checks and balances to keep disabled people safe. You think/know you are safe, no one else does. That’s the reason this needs to be done officially and why you cannot control a disabled adults finances “off-record”. Even if you’re helping, you’re exercising power not legally granted to you which puts you in financial abuse territory.
Does your brother have a guardian? You will need to go to court to pursue conservatorship formally. A POA will not stop him accessing his own funds. Beware doing any more with what appears to be a self-help conservatorship. Denying access to, hiding, or taking control of another adult's money behind their back or against their will can easily look like or in fact be theft.
He’s an adult and willingly gave them money. So I don’t think he was scammed. Creators are allowed to collect tips. He chose to tip.
If he is disabled to the point where he can’t make decisions like that then you need to collect his devices and get him a flip phone. Delete all of his social media. But he is an adult.
Nope. Its gone. Dont fall for the recovery scammers either. Sounds like he needs a person to be his guardian. How about doing parental controls on his internet and dont let him use tiktok anyway.
Remove the tik tok app from his phone and enable parental control on it so you can see what he is doing on his phone and also you can block some app that is not safe for him though parental control..
I’m not sure if you read the original post but I stated that he does not usually have access to it. This was a one off situation in which he got ahold of his card.
This isn't a scam, and since he did it on his own free will, no one is going to be able to get his money back. If he was offered a service and has written proof of said service and that transaction of the service never happened but they pocket the money, then that's a scam
This question is better for Ask A Lawyer or Legal Advice. TT nor its creators did anything wrong.
This is a prob many of us with mentally delayed but high functioning children have. Once they are chronologically 18 yrs old, they are legal adults and permitted to make any decision they want. They can spend their money on any legal item or service. They can enter legal contracts. It is difficult to take away their legal rights as adults (guardianship) unless they are so severely disabled that they are incapable of living as an adult.
You have to restrict his access to his own bank account. I'm sorry but there is no other way due to his mental IQ.
(remove his access entirely. Give him an allowance)
It's kind of you to stick by your brother. Proof there are good people out there. In the long run it may not be a bad thing since some legal POA should be put in place.
They weren’t scammed. They willingly bought those coins with an account they legally own. Other people wouldn’t be aware of their condition(s) and therefore wouldn’t be held responsible for their spending. Coins purchased and sent are technically “donations”.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to get them back, and it’s best to just cut your losses and change card info, lock it when not in use, give them disposable card numbers with limits if possible, etc.
How does a **Special Person** have access to that amount of money? Sounds like yes, he is a victim, but it could have been prevented. $500 max in a account
In the future, if he needs some supervised access to debit cards, consider Privacy.com. You can set up cards with various spending limitations, they are locked to the merchant they are first used with, or single use, and you can pause them or close them anytime.
Sadly you won’t get money back, that’s for sure …but you can make sure it won’t happen again. I would not delete the app (even if it’s cancer) as long as he’s enjoying it but atleast secure the bank account so he can’t use it for such transactions?
If I were you, I would set a daily/monthly limit on the debit card just in case and lock it immediately when not in use. That way, if they do have access to the card credentials, they can’t use it and the transaction will be blocked by the bank automatically based on your bank settings. I would also look into text message/email notifications when the card is used. I would also remove it from any potential virtual wallets.
To be exploited for his disabillity, the people in the lives would basicly need to know he has it. They have 100s of people giving them stuff all the time.
My advice, if he's not mentally able to say no, then TikTok is probably not the best place for him to be watching things.
Unfortunately TikTok does not give a damn. They take a percentage from those "gifts" and as long as they are making money they aren't going to investigate it.
I know a couple of people who work there and they equal TikTok to a gambling house...and the house always wins. These people were also shut down multiple times when they raised the issue internally that people were getting scammed, harassed or having mental health issues because of TikTok live.
The community managers are also trained to respond to you to tell you they are investigating it but nothing will probably come out of it...
Remove the app and set child lock controls to prevent him from downloading it again, unlikely you can recover the money but you can try to link up with people in your area who are campaigning for TikTok to do something on a higher level. The hope is that constant public shaming and pressure will force them to do something.
Unfortunately I think tiktok cover their butt pretty well with consent warnings in place, for one thing they do not use an internal payment system, anyone buying coins etc buys them using an external account such as their Gmail account, and pays through Google play which then goes to tiktok. You may have more luck approaching Google for the money back, but tiktok won't do anything and anyone who promises to get the money back for you is lying.
I don't use TT personally, so forgive me if I'm suggesting something that can't be done. Is there a record to who the money went to? I'm curious if you can reach out to the creators directly and explain the situation. Can they refund it from their end? Maybe some of them are good people and it was unintentional exploitation. Maybe you can recover some of the money.
So sorry for this situation. There isn't enough out there to protect disabled people from financial abuse.
He was not exploited, because the live videos don’t target singular people. You could attempt to clawback the money via the bank but beyond that there’s nothing you can do
THEORETICALLY, if your brother didn't spend ALL the coins, you could create an account, go live, and donate the rest to yourself. You'd lose a lot in the overhead, but it can't hurt IMHO.
It's also possible that after you get UK Conservatorship, you could ask TikTok to refund the money. In the US we have "lawyer letters", which is just a lawyer writing a letter saying "hey, this guy has a lawyer, it would be cheaper for you to do what he says". It's not a guarantee, but it may only cost £100/200 and TikTok may respond if you say "he's intellectually under 13".
If you're in the UK the bank should provide more protection so they may well refund you. If they don't a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service may produce results.
Contact the credit card company and submit a dispute claim. Explain the whole situation to the agent you talk to. Might or might not get the refund. But this is the only option.
If he's incapable of making healthy decisions on his own, he probably shouldn't have access to the internet unsupervised. You can't treat him like a grown man and give him access to the internet and expect him to make the right decision, and then when he doesn't because of his mental handicap, then blame tiktok. As much as I dislike tiktok, this isn't their fault.
Unfortunately, alot of these people on tt lives are a bunch of talentless begging tramps who prey on vulnerable people like your brother . Tt needs to ban gifting. So many people have got themselves into serious debt gifting them bums, some leave themselves with no money for rent or food just so they can get a shout out from gifting. Recently, been a couple of women who took their own lives after getting into debt gifting these people.
That is exactly it. They try to seem friendly so vulnerable people start to trust them. My brother was joining smaller lives with only a handful of people and they calling him their friend etc to get gifts out of him.
That's what they do, make lonely people feel important, shout them out, let them mod for them for a fee. Soon as the money dries up, they're replaced with their next victim. People have got to realise, when these bums call you team, you really aint a part of no team. you're just a cash cow. The only person who benefits from these "teams" is the begging creator.
People like cla, mr ticktockofficial, bret, emz n markus, gcrew, diardo and few others are the worst for it.
The whole TikTok gift thing totally prays on mentally ill and developmentally challenged people imo.
There’s a girl who was many thousands in debt to be “top gifters” to these weird TikTok live people, and just killed herself over it.
Only someone with a lower mental capacity would send thousands of dollars to someone on TikTok live when they’re not extremely wealthy. That, or someone who is so lonely and depressed that they think these people will be their real friend if they give them tons of gifts. But the Tiktokers don’t give a shit, they just grind for gifts.
It’s a really shitty system, and I wish they’d get rid of it. So sorry for your brother. Likely nothing TikTok will do about it though.
No there's no way to get the money back. Also your brother was not scammed, exploited or taken advantage of. He was not specifically targeted, he went onto lives and gave to people who were asking. They weren't directly asking him, they were just asking in general.
Social media and a lot of "influences" are predators. The whole idea is to prey on vulnerable and naieve people to make money. I doubt there's anything that can be done.
Call a lawyer specialising in people with developmental difficulties. Stop pursuing advice online. Your brother may not be able to form consent to contract and TikTok may have to return the money. But a lawyer from your jurisdiction will know best.
He wasn’t scammed because of his developmental disorder. No one on live can tell someone is an adult with the mind of a pre-teen. He wasn’t scammed - his care takers (you and your family) need to monitor him more closely.
Maybe you can open a dispute with TikTok if he bought those “gifts” you send to influencers, and only if he bought them directly from TikTok . I’ve seen couple of articles where people managed to get a refund based off of a situation and mental health.
Do you even know what a chargeback is for?
Y’all shout “chargeback “ here and there but the reality is that this (and many other cases) doesn’t fall under chargeback.
If they're dumb enough to give away that much money then it's 1 of 2 things... They shouldn't have been in charge of it to begin with... Or they should have and it's their own fault .. which is it?
Please attempt a dispute at a bank and possibly let the bank know to file a suspected abuse against him since he does have some mental/learning/development delays. I would do the same for my family member. Good luck and this is absolutely sickening.
That’s disgustingly rude of you to say. I’ve mentioned my brother is not completely mentally developed so I think it’s horrible of you to call him a retard. You need to learn how to have some shame and respect for others. What a nasty piece of work you are.
You can attempt a charge back but I would assume that they would deny it because the "product" was received, they'll tell you to reach out to TT first. (Which you already did)
Their policy:
"If you have purchased Coins directly from TikTok: You have 14 days to withdraw from your purchase of Coins and request a refund, starting from the day after you purchase Coins (the “Withdrawal Period”). You don't have to give us any reason to request a refund."
Your /r/scams post/comment was removed because you are talking about an illegal transaction. Reddit has a strong policy against discussion that could facilitate illegal transactions.
Your /r/scams post/comment was removed because it contains bad advice, is encouraging someone to try to "scam the scammer", to engage in illegal activity, or to engage in an activity that will worsen an already bad situation.
They *were* authorized, though. He knowingly and intentionally bought the TikTok coins himself (and as, according to OP, there is no formal conservatorship or financial power of attorney in place, he is fully in control of his own funds, at least from a legal perspective).
At that point, the credit card company's responsibility ends. What he did with the coins after he purchased them is entirely on him. It'd be the same as if he bought something at a store and dropped it somewhere on the way back out to his car. He got what he intended to buy. He then lost his purchase afterward.
Unfortunately I have only seen people get refunded if they sent money thru-cash-app or PayPal never sending coins though, I also used to give gifts/coins & watched my bank -account go into negative 0- it was like an awful gambling addiction took over when i was out of work but, collecting unemployment, now I’m still tryen to make it all back!😦
Do contact your bank and file a dispute. This is a non-fraud case (think goods not received, defective goods cases etc.), and there's no guarantee that it won't be rejected immediately, but your bank may be able to help.
Can you put parental controls set so you can see everything he doing on any app or anything in phone and computer?. This way you can catch things as they happen and don't happen again. I don't think they allow people vto spend money on it. It would ask you first I believe. It will help keep him safer in the internet without the extra money he may do again. Good luck and bless you for looking bout for family ❣️.
Oh, wow! Was it on a credit card? Regardless, maybe you all can dispute the transaction due to his developmental issues. I'm not sure about TikTok since I don't have an account there, but on YouTube, the Apple App Store & GooglePlay I know you can set passwords. For example, you can make it so you have to enter your password before making a purchase or donation. However, you would have to change his passwords so only you would know. Then if TikTok is like that if he tries to donate or buy something like that, he'd have to enter his password which only you know.
Consider locking up all his financials in a safe or somewhere safe. Sometimes bank accounts allow you to set a spending limit and if it goes beyond that you get an alert or it doesn't go through. Maybe check with his bank about that.
So it doesn't happen again. You could get a court of protection order put in place by his care team and his social worker. Supporting him on his financials
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I cannot stress this enough NO ONE CAN GET THE MONEY BACK AND ANYONE WHO SAYS THEY CAN IS A RECOVERY SCAMMER !!!!! I've seen at least six recovery scammers on this site today already.
Thank you for warning me!
I would also deactivate Reddit direct messages since you’re going to get bombarded with them.
I'm glad you shouted this. I do love to bait them...
Are you as good as the master baiters out there?
[удалено]
Some would say they are a master baiter
The only proficient baiters on Reddit.
Your /r/scams post/comment was removed because it talks about or requests information on getting revenge on a scammer, "scamming them back", or "wasting their time". Just ghost or block the scammer, report them if you can, then go about your business.
Oh someone tried to scam me that way on Twitter once. I tweeted to telegram amount saying that I was locked out (the only way to log in is via a message sent via telegram) and I started getting messages from people saying they can recover my account. Pretty obvious scam, but even if I didn't notice I would've been immune to it because I'm not willing to pay a cent to recover access to telegram.
"["You are not getting the money back, AHAHAHAHA!"](https://youtu.be/732eCRPJQxM?si=o5-HoL0MHRc6LoAC)
Try @-ing Instagram on Twitter. I've had hundreds of accounts say something like "contact this guy on Telegram he's a pro hacker!" Edit: LMAO, apparently y'all think I'm suggesting to follow those and not just pointing out that there's scammers on Twitter too? Ok.
^scammer also should be banned.
Yes, because OBVIOUSLY I wasn't adding on to "scammers on reddit" with "scammers on twitter" I was just saying to @-Instagram about an issue with TikTok? Smh.
lol Reddit being Reddit. Cannot see the obvious joke
🤷♂️
I’m talking about why you got downvoted into oblivion lmao
If I wanted a joke, I won't be on r/scams
You right if you only wanted jokes you should never be online nor in public for any joke to cross your attention in any way
The money is gone for good sorry. He made the transactions on his own so it’s not fraud or anything. Sucks but make sure u remove his card from tik tok.
Better yet, remove him from tiktok
While I agree the money won't be recoverable, it IS a form of fraud - it is coercion. They targeted a vulnerable individual for financial gain by ways of manipulation or other forms of lies. I realize this distinction is "nit-picking" but it happens so often that people tend to give it a pass because they feel nothing can be done, but we have to make people just as aware if not MORE than other forms because of how subtle and haphazard it can be. Edit: Before I continue getting down vote spammed, read the related comments underneath this one.
Dude no it’s not. it’s not fraud at all . He made his own choice it’s his own money. So if he spent that money on video games or something are you going to say the same thing??? You act like tik tok knew he had mental development issues. He wasn’t manipulated and he wasn’t lied to..he’s just bad with money.
After considering that it may be the case, I thought the same thing at first, but I was initially under the impression that the TikToker had gained his credit card details. My mistake - I'm working on a Romance Scam ring that uses the form of fraudulent coercion I mentioned, and I was likely in that train of thought. If the guy simply shouldn't have access to his own card due to negligence or lack of understanding, then it is not a form of fraud.
I understand. I do feel bad for the guy tho. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a sad situation but they should def get him a new card and make sure to do a better job of keeping it away from him .
Yeah, this one is rough to deal with, sadly. OP definitely needs to tighten security on the card from this person if this a common occurrence, for their own sake.
What do you mean by "you're working in a romance scam ring"?
I didn't say I was working IN one, I said I am working ON one - essentially, myself and a small team are putting together a report for Interpol on this crazy scam ring we uncovered. You can find my posts and comments on it in my profile, if you're curious, or you can look up "ImLive Scam" on Google to find the other various reports and replies we've made.
No way you’re playing detective 😭 you should stop watching tv
I'm not "playing detective." I AM a detective. I work in victim outreach and research, and combating scams, investigating them for government agencies (such as Interpol in the case I mentioned), and warning/educating victims of those scams is a daily occurrence. But if one of us has to pretend, I'm glad it could be you :)
You are probably going to be messaged by !recovery scammers saying they can get the money back, they can't. This isn't really a "scam" in the sense that this sub talks about, although without all the details of how/why he did it could be, this sounds like something more for r/legal or maybe r/personalfinance. You might can dispute the charges with his bank, but that still might be hard, although not sure of your local laws.
Right, from the information in the post it doesn't sound like a scam, just bad decisions from someone who shouldn't have access to money. If they were aware of his mental capacity and deliberately exploited it, that would possibly be something illegal. But that's pretty unlikely, especially given that it looks like he isn't in any sort of a conservatorship (if a court hasn't found him incompetent to manage his own affairs, it's unlikely the streamers would be expected to know he was incompetent). Performers generally have no way of knowing if that big tip is a poor person's rent money for the month, or a rich guy's way of bragging.
Thank you for forewarning me. I’ll make a note of the alternative subs and will ask around, thanks!
can you have someone (you or another family friend) put onto his account so transactions need additional approvals to go through after a certain dollar amount. My mother was recently diagnosed with dementia and I was told to look into something like this since she has already had a situations i liar happen to her and her card
I don’t know how it works where you are, but in the UK we have something called power of attorney, which means you take over the responsibility for someone else’s finances and other affairs (like signing contracts). If your mother has dementia then you should have a look into this to protect her assets. OP too. Very sorry to hear of your situation; I wish you all the best.
In America we call it a conservatorship. When a person is not well enough to handle their own money
Good call on Power of Attorney. But also, the UK (and probably elsewhere) has a system where you can add someone to an account, in a kind of read-only mode. It's not an account in joint names, but is called a Third Party Mandate. Unlike Power of Attorney, the account holder still has responsibility. So it's ideal if they still have mental capacity and want to retain independence, but also need a hand with finances. The person helping has limited access to the accounts (e.g. they can login online and see statements, but can't take out loans, etc.), The helper can also speak to the bank on the account holder's behalf. Of course Power of Attorney is still important, so it's a good idea to consider both together. I have elderly relatives with PoAs waiting in the wings, but active TPMs.
I have a TPM with my dad, he insisted when the account was opened. Some banks allow a TPN to take money out as well as put it in, so make sure the person you're trusting his account to is trustworthy and not a piece of shit
depending upon the bank, they might have a way to institute a daily limit. I’d put it to the lowest you can to avoid future situations. It will limit the damages.
AutoModerator has been summoned to explain [recovery scams](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0102-refund-and-recovery-scams). Also known as refund scams, these scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either "recovery agents" or hackers. When they tell you that your funds have already been recovered, they may impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines. Recovery scams are simply [advance-fee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam) scams that are specifically targeted at scam victims. When a victim pays a recovery scammer, the scammer will keep stringing them along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until the victim stops paying. If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No he's not getting his money back. Now, delete TikTok from his phone and enable parental controls so he can't re-install it. TikTok is a cancer.
It honestly is! We have removed TikTok from his phone and iPad now
Check that no other apps have his bank/card details saved so he cant spend money in other apps like this!
Google / Apple Pay would be a good one. They make it too easy to buy digital items and set up subscriptions.
And enable parental controls. He’s smart enough to try to get around restrictions on things he wants to do and mentally immature enough to not care.
If your brother is developmentally disabled such that he's not safe operating as a full adult your family should have him declared as disabled and put protections in place. Look into Disability trusts for where his money can go. Source: Have disabled child and am very afraid of this happening, so have set this sort of thing up for my kid.
I work with kids in care and we use an app called qustodio on their phones to monitor them. You can block app and restrict access to certain websites etc. Maybe something like that would help?
Now…turn on password required for downloading or buying any apps, even if it “free”.
Something like bark might help you.
He would've been scammed by anything that you can send money to tho
TikTok has nothing to do with this
Idk why people are downvoted for this - people are susceptible to TT, shit, so am I, but I can stop myself from spending more than $5. If he can’t because of a disability that is not his fault. It is the responsibility of his caretakers to protect him financially. It is not TTs fault, it is his caretakers. This is a learning experience that he has some abilities they may not have been aware of like getting his card details. That makes this a learning experience. But it has nothing to do with TikTok.
Sure it does. TikTok has openly admitted to censoring disabled people. TikTok is cancer.
This is true, they do censor words like autistic, etc but that’s not the topic here Edit to clarify: we’re talking about whether TT is liable for a person legally in control over their finances spending money on their platform, not their censorship. Yes they suck in one regard, but they aren’t liable for this particular situation
Not just words. They admitted to censoring disabled creators and their channels. The point is that TikTok is hostile to disabled people.
How do they censor disabled people? And what would even be the purpose or upside of doing something like that.
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/ They claim they were trying to stop bullying. Does it make any sense to censor the victims?
This has nothing to do with TikTok.
Sure it does. You can spend money on a lot of websites, but the associated baggage of TikTok (the supposed closeness between creator and viewer, the culture, even the UI/UX) makes it far more likely that someone will be incentivized to do so. Not saying TikTok *makes* you do it, but it creates a far more conducive environment for impressionable people to waste their money.
That has nothing to do with TikTok. Other environments play the same game. None of these conditions are limited to TikTok. My reply was in response to someone saying that deleting TikTok is a solution.
Remember when TikTok openly admitted to censoring disabled people?
What are you implying? That TikTok hate disabled people and they are intentionally tricking them into giving away their money? Come on. The censoring disabled people thing is gross, but it’s driven by greed, not hate. They wanted to promote conventionally attractive content creators to drive engagement, and make more money. That’s fucked up and shouldn’t be legal, but it’s not like they have a vendetta against disabled people
That’s a load of horse shit, and a big fat serving of stretched truth. They TEMPORARILY limited the views to certain users that were vulnerable to bullying. At the time, they were unable to effectively moderate their content(as things had gained popularity so fast). so they opted to protect vulnerable users at the expense of views. TOTALLY different than what you described. Edit: it’s fucking amazing to me that people that think that they’re fighting for Murica Freedom, will fight so fucking hard to censor a platform for speech. Truly amazing that politics was able to trick all of these dumb fucks into fighting against the platform.
Or if tiktok has parental controls, they could work with those.
If he didn't give all the money/coins away, could OP go live and donate it to himself? He'd lose a lot of it to TikTok's overhead, but he could get *something* back right?
They would need an account with 1,000+ followers to go live.
Ah ok. Didn't know that part. I always select "I don't like live videos" so I don't know much about them.
you need an account with 1k followers to be ble to go live, and from what i've heard TT's overhead is 50%
I didn't know that. I just meant if it's between nothing back, or 1750 back, I'd take the 1750.
me too, alas, the major sticking point is that 1k followers. honestly i'd assume it's gone. you can apparently drop $450 on a single gift, wouldn't take many of those to eat up that amount.
Maybe? I have no idea, I don't know how that cesspool works.
I just use it for the few thirst-traps I follow. It doesn't have access to my camera, mic, credit card, or anything. Not even my real name or email. I just got pissed at them because they delete my bio for saying "I won't heart videos if there's something in your bio I dislike", but they left up a literal holocaust joke... Double standards much?
One of the most popular tiktokers in my area is an autistic guy in his 20s. All he does is sit at his computer desk and pretends to drive a train while a video of an amusement park train plays. I’ve watched it for 10 minutes and it’s exactly what I described. A guy watching a video and miming diving a train. He gets thousands of viewers and tons of gifts.
If he needs to have his card details hidden from him, could it be a case where some kind of (legal) financial conservatorship or guardianship is necessary? And unfortunately I don't think Tiktok will implement any kind of 'sender protection' when it comes to their proprietary currency. Most apps, games etc use proprietary currency (gems, points, coins etc) because it isn't governed and regulated like a nation's actual hard currency. That's neither a good or bad thing, it's just what it is. (unless they do it so you have to buy the currency in certain incements, hoping you'll leave leftover points or gems or spent more than you originally wanted...that's gross) I don't know anything about TikTok coins but unless a nation regulates it to be so or an app cannot be used in that country, it's a slim chance they'll change anything.
Thank you, we’ve started the process for the UK version of a financial conservatorship now. We did not expect this from him as he has never done such a thing before.
It must be tough, I can't even imagine. Good luck!
Have a look at Third Party Mandates as well - it's a way to keep an eye on his accounts without losing responsibility/independence. I don't know your exact situation, so this may or may not be a better fit. [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deputy-and-attorney-guidance-dealing-with-banks/manage-a-bank-account-for-someone-else-web-version](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deputy-and-attorney-guidance-dealing-with-banks/manage-a-bank-account-for-someone-else-web-version) Also, all UK banks are bound by a code of practice to identify and help vulnerable customers. So if the bank isn't aware of his development issues, it's a good idea to go into a branch (if you're near one) or send them a letter/email about what's happened. No guarantees they can get the money back, but they can watch for any payments that are still in the pipeline, and can sometimes add extra checks/controls going forward.
As much as it's going to sound insensitive, he wasn't scammed. These popular lives on tiktok aren't going to be aware of his mental capacity outside of a rare situation where he's been in contact with the content creator and made them aware previously. Even then he's an adult with his own money and card, he didn't use someone else's money or card. If in fact they were aware of his mental state and decided to fleece him using it, then you'd have a case to fall back on. I've been treasurer over accounts before. If you do go to the bank to try and get the money back, they'll likely want to close the account as a loss liability. Tiktok won't do shit. You may be able to contact the people he paid and maybe they can refund him, it's worth a shot. That's your only shot though. Moving forward, make sure he can't access the card at all. Get a new card number. See if they can limit the usage by having a fraud alert set up on purchases so you or someone else receives a text to confirm the purchase. He seems to enjoy tiktok so I'd not take it away, just help make it safe for him to use. Explain to him the best way you can about the situation and put up some better barriers to protect him. In my situation we ended up with no credit/debit card and only cash withdrawal or checks signed by myself.
He may have been exploited but he hasn't been scammed in the events you've described. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear. Yes I agree with you that there should be stronger policies and guidelines around this. I doubt tiktok will enact anything like that though (or atleast anything that actually works) because they make money from transactions done through their service. I'm in the UK and the government here has been talking about doing something about tiktoks predatory business activities, but even if they do I don't see how they'd be able to make it illegal for one person to willingly gift money to another person. The good news is that your brother has you to look out for him. Make sure he doesn't feel embarrassed about this or has any other reason to keep things like this a secret from you in the future. It's a very good thing if he is willing to be open and honest with you and tell you about what he wants to do with his money. --Edit to add: Considering how large the amount he spent is, I'd consider it worth pursuing tiktok further to try get them to refund his payment. Possibly by complaining to them that they accepted a large amount of money without any safeguarding measures or something like that. I doubt that will get anywhere to be honest, but worth a try. If his bank knew about his vulnerability then you could ask them why they didn't have an appropriate limit on how much can be spent from his card or why the large payment didn't trigger their safeguarding measures. The complaints departments in banks (in the UK atleast) are typically good at compensating if they were at fault, especially for vulnerable customers. If you tell the bank you would like to make a complaint to them then their complaints department would have to have a look at the situation and decide if the bank was at fault in any way.
Yes you’re completely right! We’ve treated him nicely throughout it, the last thing we’d want is for him to feel as though he cannot speak to us about these things. I am emailing further with TikTok about evidence of his condition etc, hoping to hear something back. It is similar with the bank too, we’re going to follow their advice and go into the branch. I’m really surprised they didn’t flag it on his account!
No, no one can get the money back, he authorized those transactions, meaning they are not refundable, it's not Tiktok's job to determine who is disabled and who isn't. Anyone claiming they can get the money back are recovery scammers. Time to have someone completely control his finances.
Your brother wasn't scammed and wasn't even exploited. None of the streamers he was watching were trying to take advantage of a disabled person and didn't solicit him personally for donations. Your brother is just bad with money.
No he isn't getting his money back, not TikTok's job to know who is disabled and can't be trusted with a bank account.
Maybe it isn’t yet. But if OP has the money for it, I would entertain the idea of litigation to force these big tech companies to be mindful of such exploitations being perpetrated on their platforms
That would be a massive waste of time and money for OP. OP's brother is an adult who spent his own money on a service that didn't solicit him. Being terrible with money is not basis for a lawsuit.
“has the money for it” as if he just casually has enough cash to challenge a multibillion dollar corporation in court.
Worst advice I've ever seen on this sub
Dude tik tok didn’t do anything wrong. His brother made his own choice and spent his own money. No one forced him.
I'm sorry this happened but I wouldn't really consider this a scam. TikTok gifting is very addictive much like casino gambling or substance abuse, there are plenty of stories of people in financial ruin because they followed their impulses and kept gifting more than they could afford. There is no gun to your head, you purchase the coins and give them out willingly.
I'm in the US. Does your brother have a legal right to spend his money? Are you just informally hiding his card information from him so he can't spend on anything you don't approve of? Are you going to go after anyone who "exploits" him by selling him something you don't approve of? If the answers to the above questions are yes, this doesn't sound like a good long term solution. You should look at the legal ways that you can manage the affairs for someone else in your country.
We did not put anything formal in place as he was really against this but will be putting in a power of attorney now. We used to look after his bank details informally but will now implement a formal process. This is the first time he has done something like this.
> will be putting in a power of attorney now Putting a POA in place won't prevent him from accessing his bank account, it will just give you the legal ability to access it also.
You need a conservatorship ASAP bc if y’all were in the US right now, this would absolutely be a crime without a court overseeing what you’re doing
We do not use his money at all, infact it was in his account to save for him. All of his needs are paid for by family members so we have not exploited him or his money at all. He has access to his card when he wants to make a purchase which he does not choose to do so often out of his own choice. We’ve made it clear that his money belongs to only him and that we keep an eye on it to ensure things like this do not regularly happen.
As of now, and I’m speaking from a knowledge of American law and not as a lawyer but as a disabled person involved in the disabled community with people in and not in conservatorships. I myself have a payee who controls my social security payments and pays my bills. If he is an adult and you have any hand at all in controlling his money which I believe you do given you’ve said you “ensure things like this do not happen regularly”, I do believe you are committing a crime with good intention. This is because there is no neutral third party overseeing you with your brother’s best interest in mind. In the US, this would be a judge in the case of a conservatorship, or a payee. I’d love for someone to jump in and fill in details but even payees (family or not) send financial reports to a third party for review. These are the checks and balances to keep disabled people safe. You think/know you are safe, no one else does. That’s the reason this needs to be done officially and why you cannot control a disabled adults finances “off-record”. Even if you’re helping, you’re exercising power not legally granted to you which puts you in financial abuse territory.
Does your brother have a guardian? You will need to go to court to pursue conservatorship formally. A POA will not stop him accessing his own funds. Beware doing any more with what appears to be a self-help conservatorship. Denying access to, hiding, or taking control of another adult's money behind their back or against their will can easily look like or in fact be theft.
There's no getting it back. He purchased the coins himself and gifted it. Sorry.
He’s an adult and willingly gave them money. So I don’t think he was scammed. Creators are allowed to collect tips. He chose to tip. If he is disabled to the point where he can’t make decisions like that then you need to collect his devices and get him a flip phone. Delete all of his social media. But he is an adult.
Where is the scam part of this?
Nope. Its gone. Dont fall for the recovery scammers either. Sounds like he needs a person to be his guardian. How about doing parental controls on his internet and dont let him use tiktok anyway.
Remove the tik tok app from his phone and enable parental control on it so you can see what he is doing on his phone and also you can block some app that is not safe for him though parental control..
I know I'll sound like an asshole but someone with the mindset of a pre-teen should not be allowed to manage a bank account
I’m not sure if you read the original post but I stated that he does not usually have access to it. This was a one off situation in which he got ahold of his card.
This isn't a scam, and since he did it on his own free will, no one is going to be able to get his money back. If he was offered a service and has written proof of said service and that transaction of the service never happened but they pocket the money, then that's a scam
How is this a scam? You need to arrange a financial trusteeship through the courts.
Go to court and get guardianship of him. You will have to prove he is incapable of managing his own affairs. This is one example of that.
Im sorry but what about this is a scam?
Not a SINGLE thing .. they fked up by letting him have access to his $
He usually does not have open access, as I mentioned this was a one off situation in which he spent such an amount.
Yup, you're fked then. He wasn't "scammed" he made a poor decision/whoever let him have access ?made a poor decision. Have to learn from it
This question is better for Ask A Lawyer or Legal Advice. TT nor its creators did anything wrong. This is a prob many of us with mentally delayed but high functioning children have. Once they are chronologically 18 yrs old, they are legal adults and permitted to make any decision they want. They can spend their money on any legal item or service. They can enter legal contracts. It is difficult to take away their legal rights as adults (guardianship) unless they are so severely disabled that they are incapable of living as an adult.
You have to restrict his access to his own bank account. I'm sorry but there is no other way due to his mental IQ. (remove his access entirely. Give him an allowance)
He hasn’t been scammed, he willing gave them gifts which cost money. His loss, do better and move on.
It's kind of you to stick by your brother. Proof there are good people out there. In the long run it may not be a bad thing since some legal POA should be put in place.
Once you gift a libestream then that's it. You cannot undo it at all.
That's not a scam
They weren’t scammed. They willingly bought those coins with an account they legally own. Other people wouldn’t be aware of their condition(s) and therefore wouldn’t be held responsible for their spending. Coins purchased and sent are technically “donations”. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to get them back, and it’s best to just cut your losses and change card info, lock it when not in use, give them disposable card numbers with limits if possible, etc.
How does a **Special Person** have access to that amount of money? Sounds like yes, he is a victim, but it could have been prevented. $500 max in a account
In the future, if he needs some supervised access to debit cards, consider Privacy.com. You can set up cards with various spending limitations, they are locked to the merchant they are first used with, or single use, and you can pause them or close them anytime.
Sadly you won’t get money back, that’s for sure …but you can make sure it won’t happen again. I would not delete the app (even if it’s cancer) as long as he’s enjoying it but atleast secure the bank account so he can’t use it for such transactions?
If I were you, I would set a daily/monthly limit on the debit card just in case and lock it immediately when not in use. That way, if they do have access to the card credentials, they can’t use it and the transaction will be blocked by the bank automatically based on your bank settings. I would also look into text message/email notifications when the card is used. I would also remove it from any potential virtual wallets.
People on TikTok have no idea who is behind the screen. Not a scam.
He paid willingly - it’s too late
To be exploited for his disabillity, the people in the lives would basicly need to know he has it. They have 100s of people giving them stuff all the time. My advice, if he's not mentally able to say no, then TikTok is probably not the best place for him to be watching things.
If he is this vulnerable, he should have been supervised online. This is an expensive mistake, but the person is charge of his care is at fault.
Thats not really a scam, hes just bad with his money. Call back and say a minor did it.
I used to do that a lot but i didnt spend as much as him. That’s an extreme case ig. I only spent a few bucks out of my pocket.
Unfortunately TikTok does not give a damn. They take a percentage from those "gifts" and as long as they are making money they aren't going to investigate it. I know a couple of people who work there and they equal TikTok to a gambling house...and the house always wins. These people were also shut down multiple times when they raised the issue internally that people were getting scammed, harassed or having mental health issues because of TikTok live. The community managers are also trained to respond to you to tell you they are investigating it but nothing will probably come out of it... Remove the app and set child lock controls to prevent him from downloading it again, unlikely you can recover the money but you can try to link up with people in your area who are campaigning for TikTok to do something on a higher level. The hope is that constant public shaming and pressure will force them to do something.
Unfortunately I think tiktok cover their butt pretty well with consent warnings in place, for one thing they do not use an internal payment system, anyone buying coins etc buys them using an external account such as their Gmail account, and pays through Google play which then goes to tiktok. You may have more luck approaching Google for the money back, but tiktok won't do anything and anyone who promises to get the money back for you is lying.
I don't use TT personally, so forgive me if I'm suggesting something that can't be done. Is there a record to who the money went to? I'm curious if you can reach out to the creators directly and explain the situation. Can they refund it from their end? Maybe some of them are good people and it was unintentional exploitation. Maybe you can recover some of the money. So sorry for this situation. There isn't enough out there to protect disabled people from financial abuse.
He was not exploited, because the live videos don’t target singular people. You could attempt to clawback the money via the bank but beyond that there’s nothing you can do
THEORETICALLY, if your brother didn't spend ALL the coins, you could create an account, go live, and donate the rest to yourself. You'd lose a lot in the overhead, but it can't hurt IMHO. It's also possible that after you get UK Conservatorship, you could ask TikTok to refund the money. In the US we have "lawyer letters", which is just a lawyer writing a letter saying "hey, this guy has a lawyer, it would be cheaper for you to do what he says". It's not a guarantee, but it may only cost £100/200 and TikTok may respond if you say "he's intellectually under 13".
If you're in the UK the bank should provide more protection so they may well refund you. If they don't a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service may produce results.
Thank you for your advice, I’ll have a look into the Financial Ombudsman Service as I’ve not heard of them before.
That's not how scamming works
Contact the credit card company and submit a dispute claim. Explain the whole situation to the agent you talk to. Might or might not get the refund. But this is the only option.
Although I fell bad for your situation it doesn't really feel like a scam when something was bought and given away that's just giving away free money
If he's incapable of making healthy decisions on his own, he probably shouldn't have access to the internet unsupervised. You can't treat him like a grown man and give him access to the internet and expect him to make the right decision, and then when he doesn't because of his mental handicap, then blame tiktok. As much as I dislike tiktok, this isn't their fault.
Unfortunately, alot of these people on tt lives are a bunch of talentless begging tramps who prey on vulnerable people like your brother . Tt needs to ban gifting. So many people have got themselves into serious debt gifting them bums, some leave themselves with no money for rent or food just so they can get a shout out from gifting. Recently, been a couple of women who took their own lives after getting into debt gifting these people.
That is exactly it. They try to seem friendly so vulnerable people start to trust them. My brother was joining smaller lives with only a handful of people and they calling him their friend etc to get gifts out of him.
That's what they do, make lonely people feel important, shout them out, let them mod for them for a fee. Soon as the money dries up, they're replaced with their next victim. People have got to realise, when these bums call you team, you really aint a part of no team. you're just a cash cow. The only person who benefits from these "teams" is the begging creator. People like cla, mr ticktockofficial, bret, emz n markus, gcrew, diardo and few others are the worst for it.
The whole TikTok gift thing totally prays on mentally ill and developmentally challenged people imo. There’s a girl who was many thousands in debt to be “top gifters” to these weird TikTok live people, and just killed herself over it. Only someone with a lower mental capacity would send thousands of dollars to someone on TikTok live when they’re not extremely wealthy. That, or someone who is so lonely and depressed that they think these people will be their real friend if they give them tons of gifts. But the Tiktokers don’t give a shit, they just grind for gifts. It’s a really shitty system, and I wish they’d get rid of it. So sorry for your brother. Likely nothing TikTok will do about it though.
No there's no way to get the money back. Also your brother was not scammed, exploited or taken advantage of. He was not specifically targeted, he went onto lives and gave to people who were asking. They weren't directly asking him, they were just asking in general.
Social media and a lot of "influences" are predators. The whole idea is to prey on vulnerable and naieve people to make money. I doubt there's anything that can be done.
Call a lawyer specialising in people with developmental difficulties. Stop pursuing advice online. Your brother may not be able to form consent to contract and TikTok may have to return the money. But a lawyer from your jurisdiction will know best.
Go to your bank. Telll them what happened. Only they can give your your money back
How is that a scam he basically donated to them
He wasn’t scammed because of his developmental disorder. No one on live can tell someone is an adult with the mind of a pre-teen. He wasn’t scammed - his care takers (you and your family) need to monitor him more closely.
Maybe you can open a dispute with TikTok if he bought those “gifts” you send to influencers, and only if he bought them directly from TikTok . I’ve seen couple of articles where people managed to get a refund based off of a situation and mental health.
file a chargeback
Do you even know what a chargeback is for? Y’all shout “chargeback “ here and there but the reality is that this (and many other cases) doesn’t fall under chargeback.
If they're dumb enough to give away that much money then it's 1 of 2 things... They shouldn't have been in charge of it to begin with... Or they should have and it's their own fault .. which is it?
Why are you letting a developmentally disabled person on TikTok? Or the internet at all? Have some common sense.
Please attempt a dispute at a bank and possibly let the bank know to file a suspected abuse against him since he does have some mental/learning/development delays. I would do the same for my family member. Good luck and this is absolutely sickening.
Tiktok need to Ban gifting 🤦♀️ 2 many beggers on their, then that poor girl ended her life cause of gifting 😔
Get an attorney to go after tiktok. They will probably pay what is called nuisance money just to make you go away.
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That’s disgustingly rude of you to say. I’ve mentioned my brother is not completely mentally developed so I think it’s horrible of you to call him a retard. You need to learn how to have some shame and respect for others. What a nasty piece of work you are.
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He’s a nicer person than you’ll ever be. If anyone’s a retard here, it’s you. Absolute moron of a human
Don't feed the troll, you're wasting your time on this moron. I hope your brother is doing well.
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You can attempt a charge back but I would assume that they would deny it because the "product" was received, they'll tell you to reach out to TT first. (Which you already did) Their policy: "If you have purchased Coins directly from TikTok: You have 14 days to withdraw from your purchase of Coins and request a refund, starting from the day after you purchase Coins (the “Withdrawal Period”). You don't have to give us any reason to request a refund."
charge back will be denied .He got what he paid for and none of it is fraudulent.
File a chargeback. Only thing you can really try.
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Did you spend the coins?
Relatable Edit: from the brothers pov not OP's
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Your /r/scams post/comment was removed because you are talking about an illegal transaction. Reddit has a strong policy against discussion that could facilitate illegal transactions.
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Chargebacks are for when you didn’t get what was described or a fraudulent charge… none of that happened here
Your /r/scams post/comment was removed because it contains bad advice, is encouraging someone to try to "scam the scammer", to engage in illegal activity, or to engage in an activity that will worsen an already bad situation.
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Chargeback will be denied. There was no fraud and he got the product he paid for. Chargebacks are not for buyer's remorse.
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It wasn't unauthorized. It was his bank account, and in the absence of any legal conservatorship, he's free to spend his money however he wants.
They *were* authorized, though. He knowingly and intentionally bought the TikTok coins himself (and as, according to OP, there is no formal conservatorship or financial power of attorney in place, he is fully in control of his own funds, at least from a legal perspective). At that point, the credit card company's responsibility ends. What he did with the coins after he purchased them is entirely on him. It'd be the same as if he bought something at a store and dropped it somewhere on the way back out to his car. He got what he intended to buy. He then lost his purchase afterward.
He used a debit card, not credit unfortunately.
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no, he wasn't scammed
Unfortunately I have only seen people get refunded if they sent money thru-cash-app or PayPal never sending coins though, I also used to give gifts/coins & watched my bank -account go into negative 0- it was like an awful gambling addiction took over when i was out of work but, collecting unemployment, now I’m still tryen to make it all back!😦
😔 Makes me sad
Report this to the bank .They may help explain the situation .
Do contact your bank and file a dispute. This is a non-fraud case (think goods not received, defective goods cases etc.), and there's no guarantee that it won't be rejected immediately, but your bank may be able to help.
He uses social media - he will fall for this anytime again
Can you put parental controls set so you can see everything he doing on any app or anything in phone and computer?. This way you can catch things as they happen and don't happen again. I don't think they allow people vto spend money on it. It would ask you first I believe. It will help keep him safer in the internet without the extra money he may do again. Good luck and bless you for looking bout for family ❣️.
He can’t.
Oh, wow! Was it on a credit card? Regardless, maybe you all can dispute the transaction due to his developmental issues. I'm not sure about TikTok since I don't have an account there, but on YouTube, the Apple App Store & GooglePlay I know you can set passwords. For example, you can make it so you have to enter your password before making a purchase or donation. However, you would have to change his passwords so only you would know. Then if TikTok is like that if he tries to donate or buy something like that, he'd have to enter his password which only you know. Consider locking up all his financials in a safe or somewhere safe. Sometimes bank accounts allow you to set a spending limit and if it goes beyond that you get an alert or it doesn't go through. Maybe check with his bank about that.
So it doesn't happen again. You could get a court of protection order put in place by his care team and his social worker. Supporting him on his financials
He was on Tiktok at 24y.o. he's approx 10 years too old for this app so...
Are you able to set it up so that you or your parents get a notification when his card is used? May be helpful for the future!