CDawgVA charity auction plagued by fake bids before it even starts

Luis Gomez

Luis Gomez

CDawgVA’s auction proves that no good deed goes unpunished.

Content creator Connor "CDawgVA" Colquhoun is fighting off trolls during his charity auction. The event, which doesn't start until this Friday, is being filled with fake bids on items open for early bidding.

Bad actors are repeatedly bidding shockingly large amounts of money, impersonating public figures, and spreading hate speech. Toxic entries are being manually deleted but a permanent solution remains unclear.

CDawgVA's charity auction is an annual event with good intentions

Official graphic for the charity auction (Image via CDawgVA)
Official graphic for the charity auction (Image via CDawgVA)

This second edition of CDawgVA's charity auction will be donating all proceedings to the Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF). The organization directly benefits cases such as those of his fellow content creator and close friend, ironmouse.

Due to CDawgVA's personal connection to the cause, this charity auction merely the latest of multiple events he's conducted promoting the charity. Last year's auction raised over $329,000 for the IDF, and his three IRL "cyclethons" have contributed an additional nearly $2 million.

Trolls are making fake bids, impersonating people, and more

Screenshot of one of the Tiltify pages (Image via esports.gg)
Screenshot of one of the Tiltify pages (Image via esports.gg)

Unfortunately, no good deed go unpunished. To build excitement for this Friday's charity auction stream, CDawgVA began opening a few items for early bidding. These included items such as hanging out with ironmouse and CDawgVA, gaming with pokimane, and an Elden Ring poster signed by creator Miyazaki.

Almost instantly, trolls began to take advantage of the seemingly easy and optionally anonymous bidding process. Multiple bids of eye-watering amounts up to $500k began appearing across all open items.

These deceptively generous donations were often made under equally deceptive names, such as vague aliases or those of well-known content creators. In the worst cases, large bids were paired with names containing racial slurs and other hate speech, which would then appear at the top of the item pages for CDawgVA's auction.

Even now, the fake donations keep coming. At the very least, things seem to be actively monitored and deleted rather quickly. However, a permanent solution to stop the trolls has yet to be seen.

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