The Membership Giveaway Scam of The Other Club
Update: @ProGM246 re-opened their account.
Update: If the images are cropped, drag them into a new tab. You'll be able to see it in full.
Edit: I'm not going to go back and blur the usernames because 1) So many people have already seen this so it wouldn't do much anyway; 2) I'm sure everyone's moved on; 3) There are a lot of images; 4) IDK if Chess.com even takes action about this sooooooooooooo
I can try and work on not doing stuff like this but IDK really know how to...
Today, on November 4, 2023, it was revealed by @Kyu13 that @Dancemaster_13 scammed The Other Club with a membership giveaway. @Dancemaster_13 used the giveaway to get more members. The Admins advertised the giveaway in multiple clubs, including a couple that I have joined. None of them were aware that the giveaway was a scam, so please do not blame them. @Dancemaster_13 was banned for abuse. @ProGM246 closed their account because of the scam. @Scemer is now the Owner of The Other Club.
The scam started with @Dancemaster_13 posting a diamond membership giveaway forum in The Other Club. Multiple Admins and possibly Coordinators and members advertised the giveaway in other clubs. I joined The Other Club and applied for the giveaway. I do not regret this decision, because I was one of the first people to see the note about the scam.
All screenshots are posted in order of when the notes were posted.
Some parts of this story have been left out.
At around 4:00 PM MDT, I logged onto Chess.com. I don't remember how I came to find the note warning about the scam, but this is what I saw when I noticed it:
This is what I wrote in reply:
This is what proceeded to happen:
Then we started talking about what @Dancemaster_13 think when he came back and saw how many members left.
Then we got back on topic. I started reporting the member count. I had The Other Club's homepage and The Other Club's notes page open in separate tabs so that I could easily refresh the homepage to see if people left.
By now multiple clubs had been warned. I warned Union of Chess Masters and The Great and Extraordinary Chess Club, as I was already in those clubs and knew that the giveaway had been advertised there. Other people had already warned them.
I had already warned Duck Hangout (and so had other people), so I quickly joined Bay Area Chess and King's Union and warned them. Both clubs had already been warned, but it didn't seem to be a problem for Bay Area Chess.
A few minutes after this I discovered that @ProGM246 had deleted their account.
@AngelaPlayzChess said that she had seen the audit log and that a lot of people had already left. Here's the screenshot she posted in a forum:
At some point I messaged @Scemer (because I'm in clubs that he owns) and accused him of being a part of the scam.
I later learned that @Scemer was unaware that the giveaway was a scam, as he said in this announcement:
https://www.chess.com/announcements/view/owner-lied-please-dont-blame-me
I later apologized for accusing him and he forgave me.
Right after I announced that the member count had dropped to 316 members (from 330+ members when it started), @Scemer posted this:
@Scemer was now the Owner of the club, and he posted this announcement:
https://www.chess.com/announcements/view/celebration-of-owners-recent-death
We had a mini celebration in the notes and I went around to the clubs I knew had been warned and announced in the notes that @Dancemaster_13 had been banned and that @Scemer was innocent.
I'd like to thank @Kyu13 for warning us that the giveaway was a scam. I'd also like to thank everyone who was in the notes actively telling people to leave. I'm glad I stayed in the club to watch.
@Scemer said he might delete the club. I'll stay in The Other Club even if he doesn't delete it. I believe that while the Owner did a horrible thing, the rest of the club is innocent.
So may this be a warning to all Admins out there: If you scam people to get more members, your account will be banned like @Dancemaster_13.
Well, that was exciting! I'm glad that @Dancemaster_13 got banned. I also think that @Scemer will make a great Owner for The Other Club.
That actually gave me some adrenaline. I think it was because so many people had been involved and the tone of the notes was urgent.
If anyone would like to share their side of the story in the comments, you're more than welcome to do so.
Screenshots from others:
Credit to @Orb
