Gia Skhulukhiya
There was this one character my friends and I decided to back for some live US events. He gets to the states and ships the very first tournament. We relaxed, thinking, "Sweet, at least we won't brick this."
He spent a long time playing out there and even took down another tournament near the end.
When it came time to settle up, he claimed he broke even. "What do you mean!?" we asked, stunned. It turned out he was writing off $1,000 a day for "expenses"! Later, we found out his housing had actually been free. In the end, he never paid us back and vanished. Last I heard, he’s living somewhere in America.
There was another guy who borrowed money from me and then went off to war. It turned out he had borrowed from every single person he knew and then just rode off into the sunset...
I saw a funny story in a underground poker club. A guy won $30,100 and was getting ready to leave. The owner of the club suggested they throw the dice for that last $100 just to round off the amount. They threw those dice for a long time; meanwhile, the rest of the table kept playing, and other people started joining the dice game. They were playing "Olympic style," where you have to throw in all sorts of ways—behind the back, several times in a row, etc.—and record the results in a table. In the end, they threw for so long the guy ended up leaving exactly even.
A friend had a case where they were playing Dice Chess for cash. A guy opens a briefcase and shows the stacks. They spent a long time playing, and the guy ended up 300k in the hole. He says, "I'm going out for some air," and leaves the briefcase. The guys wait and wait, eventually go outside, and he’s gone. They open the briefcase, and instead of money, it’s all prop filler. My friend never got paid. The kicker? The guy was actually wealthy with a successful business.
Dima DimaDima – Coach at EnigmaMTT
I met a girl on a dating site, and we moved over to Telegram. A "suggestive" correspondence began, during which I sent a few explicit photos and videos. After that, the lady writes, "Wow, you’ve got a huge one," followed immediately by saying she already tracked down my data and was going to leak the photos to all my contacts.
I replied by offering to send her the contact info of the people who hadn't seen them yet so she could send them there, too. The lady realized her threats weren't working and didn't send anything. She admitted that only married men or the overly modest usually fall for that scam.
Alexander Rock1
This happened about 11–12 years ago when I was living in Thailand. I was exchanging likes with a girl named Lera on social media. We had followed each other for a year or more. After one mutual like, a dialogue started. We began messaging regularly, exchanging photos, and calling. At some point, we became almost best friends, sharing our most intimate secrets. Lera was even "present" via phone at some of our home parties and knew all my friends, and they knew her. A real pen-pal romance.
Lera lived in Moscow and worked for her dad's firm. She planned to fly to Thailand to see me, but something always came up. This went on for a year. Finally, I went to St. Petersburg, planning to fly to Moscow from there to meet. Upon landing in St. Petersburg, I suddenly get a message: "We shouldn't keep talking, period."
A few days later, I forced a clear explanation out of her. It turned out Lera wasn't Lera at all—it was Yulia from Chelyabinsk. All the photos she sent over the year were just lifted from some other girl's Instagram. I Googled them later; it was a girl from Perm, a photographer, I think. It’s such a strange feeling when you look at a photo of someone you loved and felt close to, and they are actually a complete stranger who doesn't even know you exist.
I still don't understand the point—either it was mental health issues or a very sophisticated scam that accidentally turned into real feelings, because she never tried to get anything out of me the whole time. I didn't stick around to figure it out; I just stopped talking and blocked her
That one was rough.
Dima Toiama
I could write a three-volume set on scams, but it's mostly sad stories.
There’s a funny one I heard third-hand. A guy came to settle his debt for a game. He brought the cash, they counted it, and said everything was okay. He then takes the money back, shoves it down his underwear, rubs it around, and puts it back on the table.
Oleg Wh1teBaron
In Havana, Cuba, I was walking with a girl in the city center. A young couple approached us in a park; we started talking, and they were obviously dancers. They insisted we had to try a "real Cuba Libre" in the "right place." I love Coke, so while chatting, we inadvertently wandered deep into a neighborhood that looked like something out of an American action movie.
"When do we get there?"
"Any second now, almost there..."
My anxiety was rising, but I figured, "What's the worst that could happen?" We got to the place: a strange bar, half-dead music, and the ill-fated cocktail. I treated them, tried it myself, and made an excuse to bail. I paid about $20, which is higher than average but not a total robbery. It turned out to be a popular local scam, but honestly, they were just lucky I didn't get drunk!
Ilya Pokanuktus
Around 2018, someone messaged me on Skype pretending to be Alexey "Fiat," asking to borrow money.
I jokingly replied, "Yeah, sure, give me your address, I'll drop off as much as you need right now." In response, I got something like, "Go f*** yourself." No one got scammed, but I remember having a great laugh at the time.
Dmitry Johnny-mnemonic
I got scammed on Steam once. A random account writes saying they are from a CS:GO case site and want to transfer me some gloves, but I need to send about $40 first.
I was opening a ton of cases back then; I was in a total degenerate gambling tilt and chasing losses, so I sent the money. Not a massive loss, but a total "donkey" move.
Sergey Radeo
Story #1: I wanted to order some sneakers once—some Nikes that cost about $300, but a seller was offering them for $50, claiming they were the real deal. He had a chat group. The seller was popular, and lots of clones were being made of his page. I never really used the app, so I created a page just to negotiate this deal. I was in an unfamiliar interface and was very busy at the moment.
The joke is that I was talking to the real seller and the scammer at the same time, perfectly aware of who was who. But I said that, in the rush, I sent the money to the "wrong person." I took the payment details and sent them to him. That scammer kept it up until the very end, making screenshots of how he was "going to mail the shoes" and how he "just packed them." Too bad I didn't save the chat.
Story #2: This also happened on the same app around the same time. A friend and I were growing a bicycle business and spent a lot of time on it. I stumbled across a guy who allegedly imported LED lights for bike wheels from China. It looked beautiful on video—you’re riding, and there’s a spinning lightshow on your wheel!
I showed my partner; he was into it, too. And the price? Only $5 for eight wheels, haha. Of course, we immediately took a "trial batch" for $20. We were genuinely dreaming about how we’d flip them for $50 a piece. "Anyone with a bike will buy this. It’s a total "wow" factor!"
Literally 20 minutes later, we realized it was nonsense. There’s no way those things could cost that little, and the guy was acting strange—but for that kind of money, we hadn't checked much.
The funniest part is that the guy ran his shady business from his personal social media page. A real account, not a burner; he had photos with his girlfriend and his mom. The page was public and had been active for years. When I wrote to him something like, "Why are you scamming people? Because of you, people won't send money to legitimate sellers," he just replied: "Go f*** yourselves, clowns," and didn't even bother to blacklist me or private his page.
I never used that app again.
