"Almost blackmailed": Pokimane warns other content creators against influencer scam that almost got her

Twitch star Imane "Pokimane" Anys has uploaded a TikTok story detailing how she was contacted by a scammer impersonating a well-known brand. The swindler apparently tried to trick the streamer into sending them personal information and compromising pictures via email.

The 26-year-old also tweeted about the incident to her 4.2 million followers. She said the story should be taken as a cautionary tale, especially for smaller content creators who might not know how to distinguish legitimate PR opportunities from frauds.

---

Pokimane details how the scammers tried to get her address and pictures by impersonating a known brand

In sharing the story, Pokimane said her intention was to increase awareness among her fellow content creators so that they do not fall into the same trap. She said:

"I need to tell you guys a story about how I was almost blackmailed recently. Mainly because I don't want anyone else to fall for this really weird influencer scam."

She then explained how a person had emailed her, alleging that they were from a brand known as Neiwai. The brand is known for making women's undergarments and is a name that the streamer herself had mentioned in her previous videos.

The OfflineTV co-founder elaborated:

"It all started a couple of weeks ago when I got an email from this company called Neiwai. If you don't know, they make like, loungewear, bras, undergarments, things like that and I actually mentioned them in one of my past videos..."

The person claiming to be from Neiwai then asked Pokimane if she would like to collaborate with the brand. When she answered in the affirmative, they said they would deliver some custom-made underwear to her if she sent them her measurements and an address:

"Afterwards they sent me like this PowerPoint of this new collection that they want to launch and they said that they just need my measurements and my address and that they'll send me like three custom bras."

Since she was traveling at the time, Pokimane postponed the decision for later. When she finally got back and opened the document they sent about the measurements, things started to seem fishy:

"When I look at the email with the diagram they sent me and everything, I realized that they weren't showing me how to take my measurements. They were asking me to put tape measure around me and send them a photo of my bare chest."

The content creator immediately realized that there was something off about the whole affair and soon figured out that it was a scam:

"No company is going to ask you to send them a photo of your ti**is so that's when I realized this whole time I've been speaking to a scammer."

Pokimane sarcastically gave the scammers credit for making up a believable story and crafting emails from other accounts to make it look like the whole thing was the real deal:

"The amount of effort they put in is both comical and frightening. I don't even want to think about what they would have done if I actually sent them anything. Whether it's extorting me for money, blackmail me like, if they have my address it's even worse."

She then advised fellow influencers that they should always verify emails and always use a PO box rather than their address for anything of this nature.

---

Twitter reactions

Pokimane's followers were understandably disturbed by the story and took to Twitter to share their own stories. Many revealed more informational tidbits aimed at preventing similar scams. Here are some of the reactions:

Before ending the short video, Pokimane also mentioned that she knows people who have fallen for scams like these in the past. She said this was why she wanted to spread her knowledge of the scam to as many people as possible.