Twitchis a platform with millions of streamers and among those streamers instances of fraudulent donations are unfortunately common. Dealing with so many streamers, it’s easy to see howTwitchcan make mistakes from time to time, or how even large Twitch streamers might fall through the cracks as the platform deals with instances of fraud. Such is the case withMinecraftstreamer Verloren, who recently shared a story about dealing with not only a massive fraudulent Bit donation but Twitch’s imperfect response.
In a threat of posts on Twitter, Verloren described a complicated situation that started with a fraudulent donation of Bits,Twitch’s in-house donation currency. Verloren describes receiving an anonymous donation of 120,000 Bits, which is valued at $1,200. Verloren explains that, having dealt with a fraudulent donation before, they contacted Twitch immediately and requested their account be frozen until the legitimacy of the Bits could be confirmed.
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Twitch then responded aggressively, according to Verloren. Instead of simply freezing his account,Twitch blocked and suspendedVerloren’s account without notification or contact. Verloren, understandable, says he wrote a “lengthy email” about his frustration and, to Twitch’s credit, got a response back within an hour. Twitch re-enabled Verloren’s account, unfroze his payments, and removed the fraudulent Bit donation. However, it did keep one limitation Verloren’s account had no access to receiving Bits anymore.
In an email Verloren would later receive from Twitch, his account had been flagged for “engaging in or supporting conduct” that violatedTwitch’s Terms of Service. As such, he was removed from Twitch’s Bits program. Even though Verloren reported the fraudulent Bit transaction himself and Twitch appeared to initially acknowledge his account was in good standing, something behind the scenes remained in error. This incident apparently happened two months ago, and Verloren has been stuck this way since.
The good news is, however, that sharing his experience online has forcedTwitch supportto acknowledge the issue. Verloren posted a follow-up confirming that Twitch has since reached out and acknowledged its error. Following an investigation into the matter, Twitch support has turned Verloren’s ability to earn Bits back on.
Verloren is ultimately just another example of how some Twitch streamers fall into a gap in Twitch’s support. It’s impossible to say how much money he wasn’t able to earn due to not having Bits enabled, but if Verloren’s account of the problem is accurate then it’s fair to say Twitch messed up here. As ever, Twitch streamers andTwitch’s community continue to ask for improvements in transparency and communication. Fraud, particularlysurrounding Twitch Bits, needs to be taken very seriously, but Verloren did everything right and was still punished.
