Scamming on Fedi: Race, Cyberspace and Privacy

I still think that the Fediverse is the place to see digital leftist politic in action; there's so much in the spirit of the network that touches upon the various concerns of leftism and how we move through social media and the downfall of dare I say...legacy social media?

We've just experienced the downfall of Twitter, we know that Facebook/Meta is a nest of fleas, if fleas made nests, and Instagram is part of all of it, too. They're all owned and ran by the same well oiled machines that showed up to the inauguration and then watched their stock decline, we love this for them.

The Fediverse is touted as a potential new haven for social media users, we see this every couple of years when there is a mass exodus from one place to the other. Just a few months ago there was a push of Black users from Twitter to BlueSky, and a conversation on fedi happened about why they are going to BlueSky instead of coming to the Fediverse. For many, it was not only more user friendly but people didn't want to be isolated from their community, and the Fediverse doesn't have the best reputation for Black users and users of color. It is what it is: the turth. And as I have said for many years, an important consequence of there not being many Black users or users of color on fedi means that people can lie and scam, and there aren't enough users that can clock it quickly. Part of that is clever scheming working as planned, and another part is white users who 'mean well' and are staunch in their left politic, but do not know nor engage with communities of color, therefore can't tell a scammer from a real person.

This is dangerous, really.

A couple of OG classic fedi talking points that are pertinent:

always support people in what they say, no matter what

do not ask questions about people's identity or question the legitimacy

feeling valid is most important

identity markers are not just context but also shields from criticism

Now...validity of "intersectional id's" as a currency, or as sufficient legitimacy in a space (digital or otherwise) is a concept that I think we really need to start dismantling. What I mean is that a lot of the undertone of what is discussed in leftist spaces is community, but we don't seem to have a good understanding of what it means to be in community. This is where mistakes and scams can occur.

In every cultural and social space there are issues of scamming, but I really want those in the Fediverse to consider why we have had a certain scammer in our midst, and how they moved in our digital landscape. Why were they able to do what they did for so long, and why weren't others able to comfortably say why they believed this to be a scam. How did we get here? Are we going to be able to stop this from happening in the future?

In a nutshell, this person collected intersectional id's (by the way, I hate this term) like Pokemon and it worked. Security and anonymity culture in the Fediverse is a good value to have, I will not deny that, however, it leaves us vulnerable because the Fediverse is still unable to clean itself up.

The racist history of Fediverse, how it has lambasted Black and Brown users for questioning the race, culture and social dynamics of white passing people, or white people of Latin American descent, or white queer people who have anti-black and colorist is the foundation for what happened in the past year. Pair this history with a continued refusal to ask and answer "who are your people?", and we have "Jay".

This is a double edged sword for me and a few other folks. We see Black users grilled and accused and harassed far too much, but for me, there was always something off. The posts were always in text, there was a cat, there was illness, there was abuse, there was the marginalization of being Trans, Black, femme...there isn't a lot of tone in text but there is nuance and there is language and I knew that they weren't speaking the same kind of language as me. See, there is a massive difference in language when I am with the Dolls, gheys and they's, especially when all of us are Black or Brown in a room together. On Fediverse, that isn't the case, there's a complete different kind of language being spoken, yes this is a IYKYK moment. But Jay didn't speak my language. But I didn't ask where or who are your people. She was vulnerable, and the kind empathetic, particularly white people of the Fediverse wanted to help a disabled, Black Trans femme in need.

But things spiraled. I don't know how Jay got caught but they did. And the account stopped posting. And then another account popped up, with the same Pokemon collection of issues, and they got called out. My website Mistress bestie and I then one day began to talk about these accounts, and we got curious. Several ...SEVERAL hours later, she and I found a trail of scamming worthy of a Keith Morrison narrated episode of 20/20.

Across the ocean, old Fediverse posts, reddit, tumblr, etsy, gofundme and TikTok we found a trail of scams by one person through pictures of...a cat. People love cats.

In all seriousness, we found someone who is disabled and lives in a country in North America who, as they bounced from social media to social media site, their scamming became a more advanced, finally landing on the Fediverse pretending to be a disabled Black Trans woman who was fleeing abuse and trying to survive a fatal illness and it played on the heart strings of many many people. I think collectively, in the Fediverse, we're a digital haven for marginalized users, but we also have an environment where someone was able to pick the dynamic in the space a part and abuse that. I think it is sick how disabled Black Trans Woman was used as a category for a white person to gain sympathy and scam people, mostly other white leftist queer folks, who wanted to help others in their community.

This is high level scamming (I haven't checked to see if they are still scamming to be honest). And I have seen how others hide behind picrew images, painting themselves darker than they are in order to allude to being a part of racialized communities in a way that is dishonest- or just negate the nuance of ethnicity and race - there is something about the presentation of oneself, the dynamics of the cyber and race that really needs to be explored. I have done this but in the future I will do more robust work, if I can ever find the time. Such a large part of my writing during PV days was about this very subject.

And I really do believe that what occurred during the days of PV and how white people engaged with the few visible Black and Brown people in the Fediverse created a space in which this scam could happen. We were ignored, lied on, stalked and abused, then a flip towards wanting to outwardly and visibly support us meant that a liar could pretend to be us and no one would question it. Because questioning is still frowned upon, and fellow PoC don't want to also add more stress to someone else's stressful situation. There isn't a remedy for this situation in hindsight. I just see how desperate and cynical this is and don't know where I land.

I think that people should know what happened. This person, for years, scammed across many platforms, pretending to be others, tugging at the heart strings of well meaning folks.

I know that I am not a valuable member of my community because of what I produce, but my participation and what I give and receive with my community is what makes me and others valuable. I don't think presence is enough, I don't think that feeling valid is enough. I am valid, what's next? We should engage more- and seeing how that account was so one sided with their engagement in their multiple communities- should have given us more pause.