People try to use donations to support their favorite streamers. While there are people that donate large sums of money, there are those that fake these donations in order to troll streamers and get a reaction out of them. In this article, we are going to go over how fake donations work and how you can counter them.
Note that fake donations through PayPal or credit cards are illegal and we do not encourage these acts. This article is for educational purposes only. While trolling a friend can be fun, we do not recommend using fake donations on streamers.
How Do People Fake Donate On Twitch
There are different ways in which donations can be faked on Twitch. Trolls can use a command in the chat or get a refund on their PayPal or credit card donations. The following is what you need to know about them.
How To Fake Donate In The Chat
There is a way of faking a donation in the Twitch chat. You can use this method to prank a friend as it is safe and has no real-world consequences. You can use the command “/me has donated $10”. This will send a notification to the streamer that you have donated money even though you really have not. You can change the amount of money to whatever you like and you can even change the type of currency.
It is worth mentioning that when a donation is made the message is typically in a red font. In order for your prank to look legit, you need to change the color of your username. To do that you need to click on your avatar and head into settings, then select Prime Gaming. This is where you can change the color of your username.
Do note that if you are doing this to a small streamer that does not have a donation link then it is going to be obvious that the donation is not real.
As a streamer, you can easily get rid of this issue by banning the “/me” command in your chat. This is not commonly used by actual viewers, so no one is going to miss it other than the trolls.
How People Fake Donate Via PayPal
Trolls can donate via PayPal on Twitch. The donation shows up instantly in the Twitch chat. After that, they wait a few weeks and get a refund. This has happened to streamers such as NoSleepTV, Sodapoppin, and Dizzykitten. Since this has become common PayPal may not return the money at all.
A major drawback for the streamer is that not only is the donation taken away but they have to pay a chargeback fee which can range from $20 to $100. The fee is nonrefundable. If the transaction is protected by PayPal’s Seller Protection program then the fee is waived. Furthermore, If a streamer has too many chargebacks in a short period of time, the account can be frozen or banned. This means that people actually interesting in donating would no longer be able to.
Streamers should not use the money that has come through via PayPal for 3 months in order to make sure that it is not going to be refunded. PayPal can take up to 30 days to process the chargeback but if the payment was made via credit card, the credit card company can take up to 75 additional days.
Furthermore, we recommend keeping a record of the donations in order to make things easier down the line and strengthen your case. If you face this issue a lot then you should be part of PayPal’s Seller Protection program so that you do not have to pay chargeback fees.
How People Fake Donate With Credit Card
Similar to PayPal, trolls can donate using their credit cards and then claim that the service they paid for was not delivered. This can be weeks after the donation was made. The credit card company will typically side with the troll in this case.
This means that the troll donated and got a reaction out of the streamer for free since they got a refund afterward. This used to be very common but steps have been taken to avoid this.
Similar to PayPal, the streamer is hit with a chargeback fee which can range from $20 to $100. If the streamer’s account gets too many chargebacks in a specific period of time then the account can be blocked.
Are Fake Donations On Twitch Illegal?
Fake donations are illegal and considered fraudulent activity depending on where you live you could be imprisoned or face a fine or even both. Proving that a donation was indeed faked is a long and complex procedure that can take weeks and the case can even be taken to court.
How To Know If A Donation Is Fake
There are some clear signs that will tell you that a donation is fake. If a new user pops up on your stream and immediately starts donating then that is a red flag. Especially if the new user is donating large sums of money. Furthermore, if there is no “:” after the username then that is a sign as well. A user bragging about the donation made is a sign as well.
It is worth mentioning that people do drop into random streams, see something they like and donate money but that is very rare. Regular viewers are more likely to donate compared to random new users.
Protecting Yourself From Fake Donations
There are a couple of steps that you can take to protect yourself from fake donations and chargebacks.
- Ban The /Me Command – Firstly, you should start by banning the “/me” command in your chat. Secondly, we recommend not taking out or using the money you got via PayPal or credit card. Expecting a chargeback or refund on all of these transactions is a good mindset to be in.
- Keep A Record Of Donations – We recommend keeping a record of the donations that you get. If there is a dispute with the credit card company then your VOD can be used as evidence especially if the user was engaged in the chat. Other than that, you can ban users that make fake donations.
As compared to other forms of donation, Twitch Bits are completely safe and are impossible to fake as they are shown in the chat in the form of animations. Another step you can take is capping the maximum amount of money that a user can donate. Popular streamer Pokimane has capped her donations at $5 per viewer.
Biggest Fake Donations On Twitch
Popular FPS streamer Shroud got a fake donation of $100,000 but he played it very cool. He quickly figured out that this was a fake donation and was being trolled. Safe to say that the troll did not get the reaction that was expected.
Similarly, streamer CohhCarnage thought that he had raised $1 million for his charity streams but it turned out that the biggest donation of $600,000 was actually faked by one of the viewers.
Streamer B0aty was tricked into thinking that he got donations worth more than $700,000. In reaction to this, he talked about how he would quit streaming if the donations were real and which car he would buy with the money.
SummIt1g got more than $80,000 in fake donations. There were a few major legit donations during his stream so things got very confusing and there was no way of telling which donations were legit and which were fake. Mocking comments that followed the donations signaled that something was wrong.
Finally, streamer Dingle Derper was got a fake donation of $70,000. Seeing the huge donation she gasped and was left speechless. The act almost left her in tears but she quickly recovered and went about her stream as nothing had happened. She most likely figured that the donation was faked.
Accept Cryptocurrency To Avoid Chargebacks
In recent years, cryptocurrency has become very popular and it is a fast and safe way of sending and receiving money. You can use this for Twitch donations as well. This ensures that your viewers can send you donations and that you do not have to deal with chargebacks later on.
You can easily set up donations via crypto using Streamlabs or manually add a link on Twitch. You can check out our article on how you can set up crypto donations on Twitch to learn more.
Why You Should NOT Fake Donate To Streamers
You should not fake donations as this is illegal and can be categorized as fraud. You could face fines, prison time, or both. Other than that, streamers have to pay chargebacks which can result in a negative balance for the streamer.
Streamer Kaceytron, for example, got $1,000 in donations that were charged back. This led to her PayPal account being frozen and she could not get any donations in the upcoming two to three weeks.
Wrapping Up
Fake donations and chargebacks are illegal and not something that you should be involved in. If caught, you could end up paying fines or spending time in jail. It also affects streamers as they have to pay chargeback fees which can accumulate and turn into hundreds if not thousands of dollars, resulting in a negative balance at times.
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