This has happened a few times recently, with both physical items and content sales. We require anyone offering anything for sale (including requesting tips) to verify, to ensure the content they are profiting off of is their own. Commercial piracy on Reddit is rampant; last month, our anti-spam bot banned 221 accounts, belonging to around half a dozen or so individuals or groups, for commercial exploitation of stolen content — material which is often stolen from our very own verified sellers.

Some of those doing this have expressly refused to verify, and have been claiming to be reaching out via DMs because they were unjustly banned. These bans are not unjustified; they were banned for attempting to skirt the verification requirement in some way, and could get unbanned by simply by completing the required verification process. While we can't know for sure if these users are scamming, their behavior suggests they cannot verify; and the only logical explanation for why someone cannot verify, is that the model depicted in the content is not aware of it being posted and sold here.

Please do not buy content or items from unverified sellers. You may or may not get the thing you paid for, but the rightful creator will not receive any compensation for it; for physical goods, the item may even come from another individual altogether. Some sophisticated scammers will offer to verify in private, but will use a method they can easily break, such as snap/kik (modified apps exist to show any photo as "from camera") or still photos (crumpled paper is far easier to convincingly edit than you'd think). Don't fall for this.

Additionally, we've seen some people posting here who clearly have no connection to Philadelphia. As this is a regional community, content posted here should be created by locals, or while traveling thru the area. Our verification bot is catching many of these, but please report any that happen to slip thru.