Antis planning bogus merch sites - Stay Safe
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2025 8:48 pm
I was alerted to a post on Kiwi Farms where the poster talks about making fake merch sites to target the MAP community.
https://mapsupport.de/system/media_atta ... d4bc5.jpeg
Screenshot from Kiwi Farms
Screenshot from Kiwi Farms: I'm going to make a public post about this, because I think it would be helpful if everyone (including the wider pediverse) saw it. After Sly Boy made his (Katie Cruz) exposé nearly 2 weeks ago, there has been a conceited effort across a few different mastodon servers to take advantage of negative PR for their own benefit. The rationale is that if Katie decided to abandon her MAP activism, that would also entail her shutting down her online store, and by shutting down the store, that creates an opening to scoop up the MAP merch market share that's being abandoned. That reasoning makes perfect sense, and led me to begin thinking of starting a merch store of my own. Why, you ask? Because in order for a MAP to purchase merch, I'll need their payment processing information. I'll need the name and address of the recipient in order to ship the product. Hell, I'll need all sorts of personally identifiable information that MAPs will seemingly just give me for free, rather, in exchange for a hoodie with some horizontal red, white and blue bars on it. And as someone who doesn't particularly like sexual predators, there's a whole lot I could do with information like that. I could certainly do a lot of things they wouldn't like. The pedophiles would effectively be phonebooking themselves in exchange for a hoodie, and I'd make a profit doing it. Imagine freely giving personal information to someone who hates you. Nobody would want to do that, pedophile or not. So even if I don't do anything, this post still serves as publicly available evidence that this strategy is being seen and considered by thousands of other Kiwifarms users, which is guaranteed to sow distrust among pediverse users and disrupt funding within their communities. Because if a potential form of monetary support puts you in jeopardy, then you'll be less likely to use it, plain and simple.
I am no longer in charge of MAP Merch Shop, so even if I leave the community, it will continue to operate. MAP Merch Shop is in good hands. But I have no plans of leaving the community. MAP Merch Shop is located at https://mapmerch.shop and https://mmsnw.com
https://mapsupport.de/system/media_atta ... 3bc2e3.png
Screenshot From MAP Merch Shop
Screenshot from MAP Merch Shop: Alert! Antis may be creating fake merch sites for the MAP community. Verify the legitimacy of new merch sites with trusted community members or trusted MAP sites before handing over your personal data. Stay safe.
If a new merch store pops up, verify the legitimacy with trusted members of the community or trusted MAP sites before handing over your personal data. Stay safe.
https://mapsupport.de/system/media_atta ... d4bc5.jpeg
Screenshot from Kiwi Farms
Screenshot from Kiwi Farms: I'm going to make a public post about this, because I think it would be helpful if everyone (including the wider pediverse) saw it. After Sly Boy made his (Katie Cruz) exposé nearly 2 weeks ago, there has been a conceited effort across a few different mastodon servers to take advantage of negative PR for their own benefit. The rationale is that if Katie decided to abandon her MAP activism, that would also entail her shutting down her online store, and by shutting down the store, that creates an opening to scoop up the MAP merch market share that's being abandoned. That reasoning makes perfect sense, and led me to begin thinking of starting a merch store of my own. Why, you ask? Because in order for a MAP to purchase merch, I'll need their payment processing information. I'll need the name and address of the recipient in order to ship the product. Hell, I'll need all sorts of personally identifiable information that MAPs will seemingly just give me for free, rather, in exchange for a hoodie with some horizontal red, white and blue bars on it. And as someone who doesn't particularly like sexual predators, there's a whole lot I could do with information like that. I could certainly do a lot of things they wouldn't like. The pedophiles would effectively be phonebooking themselves in exchange for a hoodie, and I'd make a profit doing it. Imagine freely giving personal information to someone who hates you. Nobody would want to do that, pedophile or not. So even if I don't do anything, this post still serves as publicly available evidence that this strategy is being seen and considered by thousands of other Kiwifarms users, which is guaranteed to sow distrust among pediverse users and disrupt funding within their communities. Because if a potential form of monetary support puts you in jeopardy, then you'll be less likely to use it, plain and simple.
I am no longer in charge of MAP Merch Shop, so even if I leave the community, it will continue to operate. MAP Merch Shop is in good hands. But I have no plans of leaving the community. MAP Merch Shop is located at https://mapmerch.shop and https://mmsnw.com
https://mapsupport.de/system/media_atta ... 3bc2e3.png
Screenshot From MAP Merch Shop
Screenshot from MAP Merch Shop: Alert! Antis may be creating fake merch sites for the MAP community. Verify the legitimacy of new merch sites with trusted community members or trusted MAP sites before handing over your personal data. Stay safe.
If a new merch store pops up, verify the legitimacy with trusted members of the community or trusted MAP sites before handing over your personal data. Stay safe.