Guy cons gamers out of $20,000 then owns himself in a live stream event

[Badnik Mechanic]

Angel Hamilton who is known to a lot of people as ZillianOP is a 'gamer' who can usually be found playing WOW and Diablo 3. For well over a year now he has been living under the premise as being a hardcore gamer who is paralyzed from the waist down.

 

During his live streaming sessions, he has gained over $20,000 from various other gamers who have supported him. These funds have paid for various items and equipment seen in his videos such as a new wheelchair, PC equipment, games and even to pay for him to move across the country to stay with his able bodied girlfriend who often joins him on his live streams...

 

And it was all a big lie.

 

During a streaming session which many people were watching and recording. Hamilton begins the stream by going to his computer in the wheelchair and starts to play... at some point later, he forgets he's streaming and takes off his headset before then standing up and walking out of camera. He is then seen in the reflection of a fishtank walking around his room without the use of any aids.

 

 

At this point his girlfriend who knows Hamilton has been faking the disability reacts with "OH MY GOD!" before suddenly coming up with a ridiculous story about a dog that makes absolutely no sense which some people are now claiming to be code for her to warn Hamilton that he left his camera on. Suddenly the camera is dipped out of view and Hamilton returns.

 

Whilst this is going on, the chat box is filled with people asking what happened, Hamilton and his girlfriend claim he fell and that he's alright, however others then point out he did not fall he stood up and walked off. At this point the stream ends.

 

Here is what most people saw that were watching the stream.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li2pDDRdo0c&feature=player_embedded

 

More info including the chat logs of both Hamilton and his girlfriend lying about what happened.

 

 

 

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Well, he'll have a hell of a time finding a leg to stand on when he tries to cover this mess up.

[Tornado]

He must have been playing on Jesus' WoW team.

[Badnik Mechanic]

*looks at the replies*

 

Sigh... I so want to make a Leeroy Jenkins/Mein Führer I can walk joke....

[Vertekins]

How utterly disgusting to exploit the goodwill of others in this manner. No doubt a legion of white knights will flock to defend him akin to his equally disgusting girlfriend.

[Soniman]

This kind of shit has to be illegal, right? No way he can get away with this scott free.

[Linkabel]

 

Well his girlfriend can always break his legs to keep the charade going.

[Nepenthe]

If there's one thing I've learned when it comes to exploiting the genuinely charitable avenues of the Internet, it's that willful deceit and preying of this nature will not be stood for.

[Badnik Mechanic]

This kind of shit has to be illegal, right? No way he can get away with this scott free.

 

Mmmmmm not sure. I think it might depend on the local customs. All the money was from donations, he didn't ask for anything as far as I'm aware. He just put up a donations link and people gave him money without thinking. Kinda like the Sonic Movie and the feminist video thing and that original animated sonic movie. People just gave money expecting something when nothing was really promised or established.

 

Maybe you could get something back under misrepresentation, but I doubt you'd get very far. As far as I can tell, he just had a youtube account and a twitch tv account along with a donation button, that was it. Whilst he went to various forums to promote it, I don't think he actually offered a service or anything in return for the donations. People just gave him money without thinking.

[LATER BUDDY]

I just can't believe 20,000 dollars worth of people fell for it. I mean the guy is a total prick and stuffs but I'm more surprised at how long and far he got away with it by the people dumping their paypal at him rather than the con artist himself. I mean if he was openly buying just games and entertainment shit out of his donations, wouldn't someone get rather suspicious eventually? IDK, boggles my mind.

 

As for it being illegal and him getting scotch-free or not, I recall seeing something on my local news not that long ago about if a person is dumb and gullible enough to hand over a fist-wad of cash in donation to a random stranger over the internet, then it's their problem. I mean I'm pretty sure this guy will get in some form of trouble, but I doubt any of these gamers or anyone will be seeing their money ever again lawl.

[Tornado]

This kind of shit has to be illegal, right? No way he can get away with this scott free.

 

If it was an official charity and was presented as such, sure. He might even get nabbed by the federal government in that case (for tax fraud).

 

 

If it was a Paypal Donate link put below a picture of him in a wheelchair and a story about how horrible his life is, that money's gone.

[Lady Soniko]

He'll just have a legion of followers willing to break his legs for real now.

[Swiss]

I'm sure one of the many internet organisations out there will either hack him to pieces (virtually, not physically) or something. I wonder how he sleeps at night?

[Badnik Mechanic]

You know who this guy reminds me of?

 

 

It was the only videogame related sketch I could find that they did.

[Sami]

This kind of shit has to be illegal, right? No way he can get away with this scott free.

 

It's fraud and it is not legal.

 

Edit: Oh. Welp. Never mind then.

Edited April 6, 2013 by Discoid

[Kuzu]

He can use that money to pay for his services when people hunt his shit down.

 

Really, people gave this guy $20,000? Did he make any videos saying for what? Or why should they help him?

[Gabz Girl]

You know who this guy reminds me of?

 

 

It was the only videogame related sketch I could find that they did.

 

Lol yeah, Andy from Little Britain certainly comes to mind. XD I hope this guy gets his just desserts, but then the people who donated were pretty naive too...

[The Tenth Doctor]

Know what came to mind for me? Sadly I couldn't find a clip but, Bender from Futurama's own episode 'Bending in the Wind'. 

 

Simply put, Bender gets broken, he can never be fixed. So he starts to sing. Then he finds out he's ok again. But he's doing a charity event for Broken Robots, so he fakes that he's broken. That is until he dances on stage and he had to give back the charity cheque.

 

The man should feel ashamed of what he's done really. I think the girlfriend should also be seen as guilty too. This is sadly why I never use money online, the trust is just not there. 

[Potada]

I know everyone's basically said the same thing, but good god. $20,000? It's amazing he kept something like this up for so long.

 

Seriously, though, does anyone know if he what said the money was going towards? If it really was just a "random donate button" then... No, actually, I still would've donated something if I could've and didn't know he was a fake. Maybe. Well, probably not.

Edited April 6, 2013 by Potada

[Mauro Fonseca]

Hahahahaha, oh wow. I say he keeps the money, he won it fairly enough if that many people were willing to fall for it.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Well, he's boned. Douchebag crooks who achieve an internet presence attract self-righteous hackers like...well, like that, actually.

[Wraith]

I get that this guy's a douchebag and all, but....I can't help but think that these people were stupid for giving him so much money in the first place. Yeah, sure he was presumably disabled. News flash: Lots of people are. What the fuck makes him so special that he gets 20,000 dollars just for existing?

[Cola]

Shame that he swindled all those people out of their hard-earned cash. Hope he gets his just desserts.

[Emmett L. Brown]

I get that this guy's a douchebag and all, but....I can't help but think that these people were stupid for giving him so much money in the first place. Yeah, sure he was presumably disabled. News flash: Lots of people are. What the fuck makes him so special that he gets 20,000 dollars just for existing?

Shame on you. The idea of a group of friends banding together money to help someone afford surgery that can drastically improve their quality of life is not unprecedented.

[Nepenthe]

I get that this guy's a douchebag and all, but....I can't help but think that these people were stupid for giving him so much money in the first place. Yeah, sure he was presumably disabled. News flash: Lots of people are. What the fuck makes him so special that he gets 20,000 dollars just for existing?

 

That's pretty much a "fuck you" attitude, isn't it, and it inherently goes against the spirit of personal and selective charity. When I'm in the position to, I donate bills to people I find homeless out on the street. They're not anymore special than the hundreds of thousands or millions of homeless people in the country, but that does not undermine the altruistic nature of my act of giving to this one specific person or family. That's all it is, really- altruism- and in honest cases, I see it as a general good.