Enough is enough!

[Wayne]

I am sick and tired right now, to the point of actually having considered shutting down the site. Yes it's that bad. Let me tell you the reasons why.

Our phone numbers are for the police or media to contact us only, and only at certain times. Some people however feel it perfectly fine to call me at 3am simply because they couldn't be bothered reading. And yes, this is almost always a victim of sextortion. How difficult is is to see the large "BLACKMAIL/SEXTORTION HELP" button? What do you want me to do, make it flashing?

Likewise we have people who come into our live help room, having totally ignored the message saying to go to http://www.blackmailscams.com first. It's there in big red letters. How can you miss it? What do you think we're going to say there that isn't already covered in the link? We wrote everything there. We're only going to quote it back to you.

Regarding the live help room, we're not there to spend hours holding your hand, telling you the scammer has moved on. That's already answered in our steps. We're also not there to argue with you over how long you need to deactivate your social media accounts, or if you need to deactivate them at all. Do you know how many times a day someone has tried to justify reopening their Facebook profile to us, despite our explicitly saying to never do that or saying "well I blocked them, that's fine, right?" No it isn't. If you don't want to listen to us then that's your problem not ours.

Let's talk about those who write on the forum, then PM or email EVERY SINGLE ONE of the staff here with the exact same thing. We have lives. We have jobs, families, need to sleep, eat, even have time to ourselves occasionally. We are NOT at your beck and call, expected to reply to you within seconds of your asking a question. We're also not going to tell you anything different if you ask all of us, in the same way that we're not going to tell you anything different if you try to reword your question. 2+2 will always equal 4, no matter how you phrase the question, and our answers will always be the same no matter who you ask or how you ask it.

Those who lie to us, or decide to not bother actually putting any details into their form. This site relies on the exchange of information. If others hadn't followed the rules, you wouldn't have found us. What do you think makes you so special that you can take everything from here while giving nothing back. People who do this are pretty much the lowest of the low in my eyes.

And the straw that broke the camel's back. Donations. We don't treat anyone differently according to if they donate or not. Last month, we had 1 donation for every 200,000 visitors to our site. That's why we have ads on the site. However, if you DO make a donation, don't then decide a few weeks down the line to file a dispute with Paypal over it. Yes, that's happened, and more than once. Most of the time we barely have pennies in our account after having paid the site fees. When someone files a dispute, that amount is taken out of our account, leaving us in the red and meaning I have to put money in OUT OF MY OWN POCKET to deal with it. If we decide to fight the dispute, we have to pay Paypal £20 which again COMES OUT OF MY POCKET. So now I'm expected to give up hours of my time for free, be available as and when anyone wants, plus pay for the site? Oh hell no! Not happening.

So here's the deal now. This all changes. It all changes or I close the site down. No more help for anyone because of a selfish few. How does that sound to you all? I'm sure I can find things to fill my time, like being able to watch TV with my wife, relaxing or just about anything else. So now the onus is on you. If you want the site to continue, you treat this site and those who volunteer here with respect or no one gets anything.

[WhatAHeadache]

Hey Wayne,

I just want to say thanks for this site. Your site helped me months back. I do understand your frustration 100% but I have one though and that is that most people who initially come to this site are probably in a state of panic at first, so carefully reading for the freshly scammed is probably their last priority on their mind. So, I looked at a few of the pages and though of some ideas:

As far as the phone number goes, you might consider getting a Google Voice with a voicemail for those purposes.

Regarding the landing page: Under the large text for "Sextortion" you might consider adding in parentheses in smaller text "Sex related webcam, video, blackmail scams/sextortion, etc...Start Here first"

For the forms, you could set it so that when they are submitted a validation runs to check and see if the fields are filled in, if they are not, then a dialogue box could be presented stating "If you do not have this information, please supply the field with 'N/A' as your response" or something to that effect.

As far as the repetitive questions and fears: Some websites do a cliff notes version of the steps on their landing pages but add a note saying "See the forum for advanced information." You might consider doing something like that, for instance and example for sextortion:

QUICKSTART GUIDE TO SCAMS:

1) DO NOT PAY THE SCAMMER
2) BLOCK CONTACT AND DO NOT CONTACT
3) DEACTIVATE SOCIAL MEDIA - 2 WEEKS MIN
4) CHANGE PHONE, E-MAILS ETC AS NEEDED
5) FILL OUT OUR FORM COMPLETELY
6) READ OUR FORUMS FOR DETAILED INFORMATION

Just some friendly suggestions that might help alleviate some of the items you mentioned on here.

You're doing a great thing here and it can be extremely frustrating, but you're transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, this is no small feat you have going on here.

Again, thank you, and I hope these suggestions help.

[Wayne]

Hi. OK, let's answer these for you.

As far as the phone number goes, you might consider getting a Google Voice with a voicemail for those purposes.

We use Skype. I have a UK and a US number. The page with the numbers not only says not to use them if you're not the media or law enforcement but even shows the time in the UK so people will know when to call. Some people just don't bother reading though, which is the crux of the problem.

Regarding the landing page: Under the large text for "Sextortion" you might consider adding in parentheses in smaller text "Sex related webcam, video, blackmail scams/sextortion/sextortion, etc...Start Here first"

I would have thought would be enough. There's only so much you can fit in those boxes.

For the forms, you could set it so that when they are submitted a validation runs to check and see if the fields are filled in, if they are not, then a dialogue box could be presented stating "If you do not have this information, please supply the field with 'N/A' as your response" or something to that effect.

We already do that. You'll notice that when we post up the forms, some questions have an asterisk next to them. Those are compulsory parts, but people still type garbage into them or deliberately misspell names to avoid actually giving us information.

As far as the repetitive questions and fears: Some websites do a cliff notes version of the steps on their landing pages but add a note saying "See the forum for advanced information." You might consider doing something like that, for instance and example for sextortion:

QUICKSTART GUIDE TO SCAMS:

1) DO NOT PAY THE SCAMMER
2) BLOCK CONTACT AND DO NOT CONTACT
3) DEACTIVATE SOCIAL MEDIA - 2 WEEKS MIN
4) CHANGE PHONE, E-MAILS ETC AS NEEDED
5) FILL OUT OUR FORM COMPLETELY
6) READ OUR FORUMS FOR DETAILED INFORMATION

If we did that, people would only follow that and miss out some of the more important parts. We've tried to make the steps as easy to follow as possible, even using pictures when needed. Some people just don't want to read. It's a minority, but it's frequent enough to drive us absolutely nuts when you consider we've just this week dealt with our 15,000th case. I mean, even today we had 2 people in a row who didn't bother following instructions before entering the live help room.

Just some friendly suggestions that might help alleviate some of the items you mentioned on here.

Oh if only it were that simple. I've ran forums and sites for around 10 years, and I swear these past 6 months have been the worst for people just not reading anything.

You're doing a great thing here and it can be extremely frustrating, but you're transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, this is no small feat you have going on here.

Again, thank you, and I hope these suggestions help.

Thank you. We do what we can, but we can only help people if they're willing to help themselves.

[SlapHappy]

The Honeymoon is over for blackmail victims who do not follow the rules. So, here are the rules that all blackmail victims will follow, or they will not remain on our forum, nor get any help. They will be strictly enforced. Calm down, read what we give you and do it, and everything will be easier on you and us.

Do not abuse the staff or waste our time on the forum by ignoring our replies to go to links or read links, but instead ask questions that are in the links we already gave you. If you do, your member account will be terminated.

All members who are blackmail victims or post in the blackmail forum will fill the scammer details form at http://blackmailscams.com. There are no exceptions. If you do not, your member account will be terminated.

If you have not filled it before asking questions, you have ONE chance only to go to the link, fill the form, and follow our advice. If you do not, your member account will be terminated.

If you are told to go to a link by staff on the forum and you do not, but ask more questions instead, wasting our time, or lie about going there, your account will be immediately terminated.

We cross-check member details and form details, so do not think that you can lie and get away with it.

We will not tell you a second time to go to the link on the forum, but we will instantly terminate your account.

If coming into the Live Help chat room:
There are three warnings before coming into the room, that if you are a blackmail victim, you MUST first go to http://blackmailscams.com, completely fill the form AND do all the steps you will see after filling the form BEFORE ENTERING THE CHAT ROOM.

Do not test our patience by ignoring these warnings, or you will permanently banned from the room. There is NO EXCUSE for ignoring them. If you do this, and already have a membership on the forum, your account at ScamSurvivors will be terminated, and you will be on your own to help yourself. If you ignore the warnings for the Live Help Room, get banned from there, and do not yet have a membership on the website, you will not be allowed to have one later and get any personal replies from the staff or forum help from other members, either.

[THE LIVE HELP ROOM IS CLOSED DUE TO REPEATED ABUSE BY WEBCAM BLACKMAILED VICTIMS]

The Key To Happiness for everyone starts here: http://blackmailscams.com
Go there first, and things will work out for the best.

[Wayne]

Due to the amount of abuse this system has had, I've taken to the decision to disable the PM function on the board until further notice. Anyone deciding to email any of the staff with questions that have already been answered here will now have their accounts deleted.

[Wayne]

And still it continues. I'm still receiving phone calls and emails from people who point blank refuse to read instructions. Everything you need is already on the site. I'm not going to pull extra steps out of my ass especially for you if you try to contact me personally. I'm not going to pat you on the head and tell you everything is going to be alright. I'm not going to contact the scammer to tell him to leave you alone. What I am going to do is ignore you, ban you and delete you.

[SlapHappy]

I'm a bit fed up myself, lately. Seems almost every post by blackmailed victims is whining, not taking the first step that is posted all over the forum, or asking the same questions that can be easily solved by actually reading the forum.
I had to clean our recovery topic, because it seems you don't want to whine on your own topic, but clutter that topic up, despite the clear instructions on what is to be posted there and what is not.

First live help had to be shut down because of you. Then the PM privileges. Now some of you feel it necessary to email 6 times!! to Wayne expecting an immediate answer to your whining. This after already supposedly reading the steps, and often days later having plenty of time to read the forum to get your "Immediate!! answer!!"

EDIT: Anyone attempting to PM other members on this site to ask questions that are already answered on this forum, or given to them already by the staff will be deactivated.

I can see what might be coming next. Blackmailscams.com will be 100% self-serve. Click on it or not. We will post the forms to help others, but no webcam blackmailed victim will be allowed the privilege of posting here. There will be no replies on the forum to whining posts as you will not be allowed to post. Maybe this will actually help most of you more, as it will force you to grow up and act like adults, read the forum to find the answers to every question you could possibly ask and solve your own problems this way, like you should be learning to do in the first place.

Remember, we are doing this voluntarily using our own free time. Unnecessary questions and whining has got to stop. If you aggravate me to the point where my diastolic blood pressure goes past 90, you will be shut down from all posts and all replies. It might take Wayne less than that.

[thomasx9999]

Excuse me, i think i did not find the answer to this question....
I follow all the instructions, but i know that yesterday 2 new accounts in facebook with the name "xxx" (my name) were created. This accounts were created the next hours after i closed my account. What should i do? I mean i think they were created to invite my friends to send the video then to them.

[firefly]

You need to report those fake profiles impersonating you to Facebook. You don't need an active profile for doing it.

[Wayne]

Excuse me, i think i did not find the answer to this question....

Really? Because it's clearly covered in the steps you received after filling in your form. What a perfect example of what this thread is about.