Pokimane reveals how she fell for $24k scam by her YouTube manager

Popular Twitch star Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys has revealed how she fell for a $24k scam staged by her former YouTube video manager, and how she eventually dealt with the issue after she realized what was happening.The Moroccan-Canadian streamer revealed to her Twitch fans she was once dealt a hefty $24,000 blow thanks to a “stupid scam” by her ex-YouTube manager.In late 2019, the rising Twitch star assembled a team of YouTube editors to manage uploading her videos. Alongside two producers, Pokimane signed up an unknown manager after he “wrote up multiple pages of a big proposal” that she admits she was convinced by.Three months later, Pokimane was down $24k.“This guy wrote me MLA-formatted paragraphs, these promises,” she said. “It was the most convincing stuff ever, but I just ended up being his sugar momma.”

Anys revealed on-stream on Nov. 24 she still struggles to really trust new additions to her streaming team, whether it be editors, mods, managers, or behind-the-scenes admins, due to her original YouTuber manager’s scam. The incident, which happened back in late 2019, saw Pokimane payout three months of wages to this “promising guy,” with the Twitch streamer assuming he was organizing things behind the scenes. Soon after he “joined the team,” however, her YouTube uploads slowed down, before stopping entirely. “He gave me like $200 worth of value, I ain’t joking,” she admitted. “This was a relationship where it took me ages to realize that I was actually just getting played. He was so good at writing all these excuses and reasons.” “When I found out, I was ruthless, on god,” the streamer continued. “I went to him and demanded to know why we hadn’t uploaded any videos, and he sent me five paragraphs that told me he had been doing this and that.” Pokimane then tried to show her Twitch fans his original proposal documents, but soon discovered they’d been locked or erased completely. “They were so convincing I didn’t even give him a trial,” she said. “Every now and then he’d tell me he was doing things, like a Hot Ones-type show. But really he was just making me think he was doing things, but he wasn’t. It came down to, dude, I’m giving you $8,000 a month, do the work!”

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“Then, in the second month, he went MIA for a full week. He said a family member had been sick, and I just had to believe him. I couldn’t prove he was really lying.”

In the end, the 25-year-old decided to become “stone-cold” in their meetings. She didn’t end up sacking him until she had spent a grand total of $24,000 for him to do “absolutely nothing,” however. The Twitch star laughed at her mistake. “Dead-ass, I was just his sugar momma for like a quarter of a year!”Pokimane added that, in a way, she’s thankful the manager ⁠— who she refused to name ⁠— pulled the stunt. Now she is “far more careful” with her business dealings.

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That lesson would have helped recently too; earlier this month, Pokimane unveiled her own company, a talent management and brand consulting firm.