Yesterday, Deadspin broke the story of Sarah Phillips, a freelance sports-betting columnist who in her spare time, it seems, was casually scamming a multitude of bettors and meme-makers out of their hard-earned cash. Here’s one sample interaction with a man named Matt, which has the air of a terrible pulp novel:
A few days later, Phillips asked Matt for his advice on a Cardinals-Brewers game. The over/under for the game was 7.5 runs. Matt told her to take the over. She said she was betting $3,000 on the game. She sent him the betting slip to prove it, and he thought this was way over the top. Well, he thought to himself, at least I’m not betting against her.
The final score of the game? 5-2. She lost her $3,000, and she was mad. She responded by sending him an invoice for $5,000 through Nilesh Prasad.
“She said I owed her that money in addition to thousands more for reasons unbeknownst to me,” he told Deadspin. “She said if I didn’t paypal it to her that night she would have the LAPD come to my apartment and rob me. I told her I don’t carry cash, and kept a hunting knife by my bed for three weeks.” (According to a screengrab of a Gchat conversation, she told him the LAPD would “cordially come by” his apartment to take the money).
In another instance, Phillips and Prasad allegedly manipulated the college student behind the NBA Memes Facebook page into letting him give them control of the account, after which they removed him as an administrator and began using the page to redirect traffic to their own Sports Comedy Network.
How was Phillips able to swindle so easily? Well, having the ESPN name attached to your Twitter bio doesn’t hurt. But you can’t deny the impact of Phillips’ Twitter image — a young, attractive college student — on getting guys to want to keep talking to her. (We should note here though that life as an attractive woman comes with its own set of problems, and guys who complain that hot girls get everything handed to them on a plate usually have some sort of issues.)
To test out how easy it was to accumulate a following on Twitter, NBA writer Myles Brown tried an experiment, switching his Twitter avatar to the same one Phillips used:
Funny story: Ever since she was exposed as a fraud, Sarah Phillips gained 2,000 followers.
— Myles Brown (@mdotbrown) May 2, 2012
I’ve gained about 100 since I took her avi. Men are still stupid. News at 11.
— Myles Brown (@mdotbrown) May 2, 2012
Which got us thinking: Could other Tweeters improve their online following by making a similar move? Check out these edited Tweets and tell us, would you be more likely to follow them?
(All images taken, like Phillip’s early headshots, from Hot Chicks With Douchebags.)
