Persistence Pays Off: How I Got My Buy Me a Coffee Account Reinstated

-

This is a story of resilience and persistence. For almost four months, I battled not scammers this time, but the very platform I had once championed — Buy Me a Coffee.

My account was suddenly suspended with no warning and no explanation beyond a vague “risk concerns” email. I had no chance to respond, no examples of wrongdoing, and no transparency. Just silence, delays, and frustration.

What follows is a timeline of what happened, why it matters, and what it says about the inconsistency of platforms that claim to support creators while simultaneously giving scammers a free pass.

The Bigger Context: Fighting Defamation Online

Before we dive into Buy Me a Coffee, let’s zoom out.

I’ve been the target of smear campaigns for years. Right now, there’s a blog on Google’s Blogger platform — dannydehekfacts.blogspot.com — falsely claiming to be authored by me. I reported it.

Google’s response? They asked me to provide company shareholder documentation. Then they told me to “contact the author.” But the so-called “author” is impersonating me.

So, I’m stuck. Even if I manage to get that blog removed, scammers will just spin up another one.

This highlights a paradox:

  • Some platforms refuse to act, hiding behind bureaucracy.
  • Others act too quickly, punishing the wrong people.

And that brings us back to Buy Me a Coffee.

The Timeline: Suspension to Reinstatement

Here’s the sequence of events:

  • June 17, 2025 – Out of nowhere, I got the email:

    “Our moderation team has suspended your account due to risk concerns.”

  • June 16–25, 2025 – I appealed, explaining my mission to expose scams and protect everyday investors.

    “I’m not promoting anything illegal. I’m not attacking innocent people. I’m trying to stop criminal deception.”

  • June 25, 2025 – Response:

    “We’ve reviewed your appeal, and for now, the ban on your account will remain due to the volume and nature of the reports we received.”

  • June 27, 2025 – I sent further evidence, pointing to my features in The New York Times and Bloomberg.

    “This is classic coordinated behaviour: scammers weaponizing your reporting tools to silence an investigative journalist whose work has saved people tens of millions of dollars.”

  • July 3, 2025 – Another reply:

    “While the ban remains in place for now, we’ll follow up once we’ve completed a more thorough assessment.”

  • August 25, 2025 – After weeks of silence, I followed up:

    “The freeze of my account has cut off resources that enable me to continue publishing this work. Could you please let me know where things currently stand in your review?”

  • September 1, 2025 (morning) – Buy Me a Coffee finally confirmed a re-review:

    “We understand the urgency you’ve highlighted and the importance of your work, and we’re giving this matter the attention it deserves.”

  • September 1, 2025 (later that day) – Victory at last:

    “Your Buy Me a Coffee account has been reinstated. You can now access your page and continue receiving support from your audience.”

Lessons Learned: Platforms Act Inconsistently

For nearly four months, I was left in limbo. No details. No transparency. Just vague answers and endless waiting.

That’s one extreme: acting too quickly, suspending accounts without proof.

The opposite extreme is Trustpilot. They seem hell-bent on letting scammers rule the roost. I’ve seen them leave up pages for obvious Ponzi schemes, crypto frauds, and recovery scams, while burying or deleting reviews from actual victims.

So we have two extremes:

  • Buy Me a Coffee: too fast to suspend the good guys.
  • Trustpilot: too slow to stop the bad guys.

Meanwhile, creators like me are stuck fighting battles on both sides.

From Endorsement to Silence, and Back Again

Here’s what makes this sting even more.

Not long ago, I published a blog called Why Every Business Should Set Up a FREE Buy Me a Coffee Account Today!. In it, I praised Buy Me a Coffee as a game-changer for creators and encouraged others to sign up.

At the time, I had Buy Me a Coffee deeply integrated into my ecosystem:

  • Listed on my website
  • Linked at the bottom of every YouTube video
  • Promoted on social media
  • Embedded in over 150 blogs

When my account was suspended, I had to strip it all out. I went through every blog and removed every reference. I edited my website. The only place I couldn’t erase it was my historical YouTube videos, where I still mention Buy Me a Coffee — but for months, I couldn’t benefit from those mentions.

Now, with my account reinstated, I’m grateful to finally reopen that door. If you’d like to test it, my page is live again, and your support genuinely helps me keep exposing scams.

Bigger Than Money

This was never just about donations. Yes, I raised about $3,000 through Buy Me a Coffee and had a base of 125 subscribers. But the platform also gave me reach — another footprint online to share my work, connect with supporters, and strengthen my community.

Scammers like to call me a “beggar on the internet.” The reality is the opposite: if I can make a living exposing fraud, I can save far more people from losing their life savings.

Conclusion: Persistence Works

This blog isn’t just about one platform. It’s about the bigger struggle of keeping investigative content alive while under constant attack from scammers and inconsistent platform policies.

  • Some platforms move too slowly (like Google and Trustpilot).
  • Others move too quickly (like Buy Me a Coffee did).
  • The only way through is persistence.

If you believe in what you’re doing, don’t give up. Keep appealing. Keep pushing. Keep demanding common sense.

I’m grateful that my Buy Me a Coffee account is back. But I also hope platforms learn from cases like mine. When scammers abuse reporting tools, silencing journalists should never be the outcome.

Because every time a journalist is silenced, scammers win.

Disclaimer: How This Investigation Was Conducted

This investigation relies entirely on OSINT — Open Source Intelligence — meaning every claim made here is based on publicly available records, archived web pages, corporate filings, domain data, social media activity, and open blockchain transactions. No private data, hacking, or unlawful access methods were used. OSINT is a powerful and ethical tool for exposing scams without violating privacy laws or overstepping legal boundaries.

About the Author

Danny de Hek, also known as The Crypto Ponzi Scheme Avenger, is a New Zealand-based investigative journalist specializing in exposing crypto fraud, Ponzi schemes, and MLM scams. His work has been featured by Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Guardian Australia, ABC News Australia, and other international outlets.

Stop losing your future to financial parasites. Subscribe. Expose. Protect.

My work exposing crypto fraud has been featured in:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Origin LGNS Exposed: Crypto Ponzi Masquerading as DeFi with 3X Daily Profits and Cult Hype

-
Image
If you stumbled across a crypto project called ORIGIN or  OriginWorld.org , this blog is your warning label. You might’ve seen their slick graphics, cultish promises of “financial freedom,” and ridiculous claims like  7,909% APY  or a  “distributed encrypted civilization.”  It all sounds impressive until you scratch the surface and realise you’re looking at a  tech-wrapped Ponzi cult. But first, here’s how it landed on my radar. I received a  WhatsApp message  from a guy named  Don  who I thought wanted a professional review on an investment platform. Turns out, he was actually  trying to recruit me . He sent me a sign-up link for something called  Origin LGNS . He claimed it paid  0.3% every 8 hours , and that he had made  $100 in two weeks  from a  $800 initial investment , which he later topped up to  $1,000 . He said he hadn’t withdrawn any money yet because the platform was paying so well, so he ju...
Read more

BitNest’s Smart Contract Audit: Why a Clean Code Check Doesn’t Erase a Ponzi Business Model

-
Image
  Following the publication of our  Original Blog  and  YouTube  exposé on  BitNest  and Mellion Coin, we received a comment questioning whether we had properly reviewed BitNest’s smart contracts and its CertiK audit. It’s a fair question. And as always, we believe in full transparency. In this follow-up blog, we’re diving deep into the  technical side  — unpacking exactly what the CertiK audit says, what it doesn’t say, and why BitNest’s core business model remains fundamentally fraudulent despite the presence of “audited” code. What a Smart Contract Actually Means First, let’s clear up a major misconception: A  smart contract  is simply a computer program that says, “IF X happens, THEN Y automatically happens.” That’s it. It doesn’t guarantee that the  thing it’s doing  is ethical, profitable, or sustainable. A smart contract can execute a perfectly coded Ponzi scheme just as easily as it can execute a legitimate DeFi pr...
Read more

TOFRO.pro Exposed: The High-Risk Crypto Scam Masquerading as Copy Trading Through MTS Foundation

-
Image
  There’s a new so-called crypto “opportunity” doing the rounds — and it stinks to high heaven. It’s being pitched under the banners of  TOFRO.pro ,  Tofro.com , and the  MTS Foundation . If you’re being lured in with promises of copy trading, guaranteed profits, or passive daily income, stop right there. This platform is riddled with red flags, and if you value your money, your devices, or your sanity — you’ll want to stay well clear. What TOFRO and MTS Foundation Claim to Be According to their promotional video, pitch deck, and onboarding documents, here’s what they’re claiming: MTS Foundation is a crypto copy trading “community” supposedly led by a man named  Harris Levy . Users are encouraged to follow  daily trade signals  via Telegram, placing binary-style bets on whether Bitcoin will go up or down. You trade using the  Tofro.pro  platform (sometimes mistranscribed in videos as Tofra.com, but all pointing to the same domain). They claim...
Read more