Twitch streamer who tried to warn about Bits scam gets banned from Bits himself

A Twitch streamer has been banned from receiving Bits, after they say they tried to alert Twitch about a Bits scam in a bizarre turn of events.

One way that viewers can donate to their favorite Twitch streamers is through the use of Bits. This is a kind of alternative form of currency exclusive to Twitch, meaning that donations aren’t made via a third party.

In 2021, though, it was discovered that some streamers were using Bits in a grandiose money laundering scam that saw 40 people arrested in Turkey. The amount laundered was reportedly around $10m.

These Bits scams are now well-known and with action being taken, some streamers are being extremely cautious — but that might not be the best idea, apparently.

On February 3, Minecraft streamer Verloren revealed that he had reached out to Twitch Support regarding what he thought was a suspicious Bit donation, but it ended the response wasn’t anything like he would have expected.

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“I reported an issue 2 months ago about a suspicious donation from an anonymous cheerer that took place off-stream (120,000 bits, yes $1.2K USD),” Verloren explained. “Nearly 2 hours after the donation I noticed it in my StreamLabsOBS alert feed on my 2nd monitor.

“I made a support ticket requesting they freeze my account to ensure that donation was legitimate… I didn’t want to spend money that would be eventually charged back.”

In back and forth emails with Twitch support, they said that his account was back to normal, though he didn’t have the gifted subs/Bits leaderboard when he went live.

Finally, questioning why this was happening, Verloren was frustrated to learn that they had terminated his eligibility for the Bits system, essentially removing the option from his channel forever.

Twitch doesn’t often make a habit of giving public responses to bans, suspensions or other moderation actions, so it’s unlikely we will get a clear answer on why this decision was made.

Verloren and his viewers will be hoping for this decision to be overturned, especially considering his good intentions throughout.