Popular Twitch streamer Kitboga took the time to open up about the topic of suicide for his community after a scammer tried to steal his money by threatening to kill himself. Scammers are still an ever-present threat in the world and are known to go to extreme heights to get people to hand over their money. Some will call and claim to be from a bank, from tech support, or even officials from notable companies such as Sony, Microsoft, etc., while others get more creative, like giving advice as a psychic.
This week Kitboga spoke to his fans about suicide after dealing with a particularly notable scammer. On his channel, Kitboga streams his interactions with these thieves over the phone as he turns the tables on them. Without revealing that he knows what they're trying to do, he adopts different characters and forces the scammers to jump through hoops on fake remote desktops while they try to get his money. Recently, one these would-be con artists threatened to kill himself if he was't sent the money, which caused Kitboga to break character.
"Kevin, stop. It’s not funny," he told the scammer. "I know you’re a scammer. You have crossed an incredibly disgusting line, and it is not funny. ...you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself." Kitboga went to on to reach out to this fans after the call ended and talk about people in his life who have "thrown their lives away." His channel is known for its comedy value and sense of justice, but this particular encounter clearly had an effect on Kitboga. Through tears, he told his fans that life may be difficult for some of them but that everything was going to be okay.
Twitch has been in the news a lot, lately, generally for all the wrong reasons. There have been a growing number of controversies over the streaming giant turning a blind eye to select people streaming sexual material on their channels, or breaching community guidelines in various other ways, while other streamers get hit with seemingly inexplicable penalties or bans for similar or less-than infractions. Some believe that the platform is slow to punish these channels because they bring in a lot of views and revenue, and Twitch across the board has a problem with sexual content, but this was a nice moment for the platform which is usually making headlines for streamers using racial slurs or throwing their cats.
There are many people suffering in the world and using the threat of suicide to get anything, let alone steal money, is incomprehensible. Kitboga took time from striking back at scammers to have a real moment with his fans and according to him, the response has been incredible. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
Source: Kitboga