A Twitch streamer from Fortnite was donated $5,100, but the donor requested a refund via PayPal – apparently for sadistic reasons. He wanted to see the streamer suffer. In the end, the streamer seems to have come out on top.
This is what happened to the streamer Jodyx3: The New Zealand Fortnite streamer Jordyx3 has about 25,000 followers on Twitch – so he is rather a small streamer compared to the Twitch giants who earn $10 million a year.
Jordy received a total of $5,100 from the viewer “ChubaPapi21” spread over 4 donations. That’s about €4,500.
That was a real stroke of luck for the streamer, a warm rain.
Jordy writes that the money really helped him financially since Twitch had become his only income. He decided in mid-2018 to switch from carpenter to full-time streamer.
But the luck didn’t last long. About 6 months after the first donation, a chargeback of the full $5,100 occurred. The streamer’s PayPal balance was deep in the red.
The chargeback just fell within the time frame – two days later, a refund of the money via PayPal would no longer have been possible, Jordy wrote on Twitter.
This is what was behind the chargeback: The streamer tried to find out why the donor requested a refund. It could be that the donor himself had fallen into financial difficulties and now needed the money.
After all, Jordy had talked repeatedly with the donor over Twitch in the 6 months following the donations and even met him at Pax Australia. There, “ChubaPapi21” was strange and had disappeared to get drinks but hadn’t come back.
When Jordy began to investigate, the social media accounts of the donor were deleted.
However, a stranger contacted him, asking what he intended to do about the chargeback. He had been waiting in the last streams for Jordy to explain his difficult situation with chargebacks.
Donor turns out to be a strange psycho
After a bit of research, it turned out that the “stranger” was the original donor who had changed his name. The alleged donor made it clear:
- he only donated the money to Jordy to later charge it back
- then he wanted to enjoy the pain he caused everyone
- and would feel the satisfaction of not caring about how others feel
The streamer published the conversation with the “donor”, who said strange things. He apparently takes great pleasure in the whole action and aims for streamers to first joyfully appreciate the donation live on Twitch and then later be just as visible live on Twitch about the chargeback.
The “donor” seems pleased to have this influence on the lives of others.
The streamer then tried to reclaim the money via PayPal, but had no chance.
Jordy also said he discovered that the donor had done this with other streamers like Sodapoppin or LegendaryLea years ago.
This is how it ended: In the end, the story moved so many people that the community helped him out of his PayPal trouble and donated $5,000.
So for Jordy, the matter ended well – unless another chargeback comes along.
What’s this with “chargebacks?” What has the cool-sounding name “Chargeback” in English, means bureaucratically in German, Rückbuchung.
Those who spend their money via financial services like PayPal can also request a refund without providing reasons.
180 days wait after large donations
This is the problem on Twitch: There are trolls on Twitch who have the bad habit of sending large sums of money to a streamer, who are then happy about this donation, but then the rude awakening comes: The donation is suddenly charged back via PayPal.
Streamers who don’t pay attention and happily spend the donated money can get into trouble.
Moreover, it’s simply annoying when money is taken away that one was previously happy about. Especially when one then hears: “Haha, and you can do nothing about it, you victim.”
This is what you can do about it: On reddit, other streamers advise their colleagues: Keep the money from such large donations for now and don’t touch it. You might be trolled. You should wait at least 180 days before you’re sure the money is safe, until the timeframe for chargebacks has expired.
Most streamers, however, only wait 30 to 60 days until they feel that the money is “safe.”
