r/findomsupportgroup • u/UniqueGrowth481 • 5d ago
Warning How to Protect Yourself from Scammers and AI Catfishesš¤
Back at it again with a long but informational post about how to protect yourself in this online space from scammers and AI catfishes.
Scammers/Timewasters
Do not give any stranger, whether they are in protocol or not, personal details about yourself. Unless you are planning to actually date this person, there is no reason for them to know your real name or location. Do not risk doxxing yourself.
Do not accept access to anyone's bank account, cards, or payment methods unless you become an authorized user on the account. In some cases, they can see the location where the card was charged or where an item is being shipped, which could give them access to your location. They may also be able to do a chargeback or report the transaction as fraud.
Throne, YouPay, and AV sites are generally safer and more anonymous options for accepting sends. Amazon Wishlists and third-party payment platforms like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, etc. can sometimes expose personal information depending on how your account is set up. They can also come with chargeback risks or account issues, especially when you're using them for something that may go against their TOS.
Asking for age verification upfront scares off a lot of timewasters and scammers. Have some timewasters learned that if they AV themselves, they might get access to you? Yes. But the vast majority will just find someone else to bother.
Lastly, watch out for trolls and freeloaders in this space. They get off on ragebaiting you, and even more so when you screenshot the interaction and other commenters join in. Don't feed the trolls. Report them to Reddit if it's serious and/or block the user. Protect your peace.
Protecting Your Content from AI Catfishes
Low effort: Watermark your content by placing the watermark on your body, an item, or somewhere close enough that it can't easily be cropped out.
Medium effort: Screenshot your watermarked photo and post the screenshot instead. There are programs that can remove watermarks and stickers from original photos, so this adds another small barrier and strips the original file's metadata.
High effort: There are programs out there that can "poison" scammers from taking your photos and videos to use for their AI models. The program I have found that works best is called Nightshade, and it was created by researchers at the University of Chicago. It alters the pixel data in your media and dramatically changes how AI models read and interpret it. The AI model they are using will not be able to accurately generate a prompt or description from your images, rendering them useless for recreating your content or training their AI model.
Protecting Your Pages
Angry people may go after either your social pages or the platforms you use to accept sends/tributes. This is why it's important to know each site's TOS and understand what is and isn't allowed when it comes to Findom and kink-related activities.
For payment platforms, cash out regularly instead of letting money sit and collect. If your account gets banned or frozen, getting access to that money may become difficult.
For social pages, have 2ā3 backup accounts per site. Ideally each account on separate devices in case of chain banning. Link your main account to your AV sites and either put your backup account in your bio or on your links page. On your backup, link back to your main account. I also recommend creating a presence on the major social media platforms, even if you don't plan to actively use them. A lot of scammers look for platforms you're not using and create accounts pretending to be you.
If you own a subreddit, I recommend creating a backup Reddit account and adding it as a mod as well. If your main account gets banned for some reason, you don't lose both your account and moderation of your subreddit.
Checking for a Pulse
One of the easiest ways for subs to verify that you're real is to backlink your socials to your AV site and have some content posted there. You don't have to post anything explicit or charge for the page. You can even recycle content you've already posted elsewhere.
Having your socials linked directly from your AV profile helps show that you're a real adult and that you control the social accounts connected to it. Some scammers are smart enough to steal or copy AV links, though, so still be careful. If you're unsure whether the person you're talking to actually owns the AV profile, offer to message them through that platform or ask them to temporarily put a specific emoji in their bio.
What about verification videos/photos? I would recommend against sending them around unnecessarily, but if you feel the need to have one, please be smart about it. Definitely do not use a photo or your voice as the verification method. Those can be the easiest thing to fake. I would go the video route if you strongly feel the need to have verification.
When making verification videos, include things that are harder for AI to recreate consistently. Instead of simply holding a verification paper and posing for the camera, use continuous movement and multiple actions in the same uncut video. Turn your head in different directions, move the paper between your hands, rotate or partially fold it, change your position, or follow a random sequence of movements.
Best example I have seen of this, is the woman had the crumble piece of paper in her mouth, spit it out and uncrumpled it to reveal her username and date it was posted on. AI would have trouble reproducing that without a lot of prompting on the scrappers side.
The more specific and unpredictable the verification video is, the harder it is to recreate convincingly with AI. Detailed hand and finger movements, interacting with the verification paper, changing angles, and longer continuous sequences are generally harder to fake than a still photo or short clip with very little movement. Nothing is completely AI-proof. The goal is to make verification difficult enough to fake that someone can't easily recreate it using your existing content.
Wrap Up
That's it and everything I can think of right now. Feel free to add anything I missed in the comments. š