Abraham Mohammed, known as “ItsSliker” on Twitch - or “Sliker” for short - is a British streamer who started his career in 2019. Sliker was viewed as a very charismatic man who was well-established and connected in the twitch community. Yet under his positive facade, he hid a dark secret. Sliker had a very public and tearful confession where he admitted live on his stream that he suffered from a gambling addiction and borrowed money from multiple people, including streamers, friends, and even his own fans.

 

This started from the beginning of his career on Twitch up until September 2022 when an anonymous viewer released a video of Sliker begging them for money. In the video, Sliker says: “My bank account got locked. I need you to send me money right now”. He then ends the video by saying: “Please keep it personal”. This is how Sliker was able to use his parasocial relationship to prey upon his fans. He messaged viewers privately and told them a story of how he desperately needed money right away. He created a sense of urgency and manipulated his fans to develop sympathy for him, going as far as to feign closeness and friendship. He would then ask for everything to be kept discreet, a huge factor in why his scamming hadn’t come to light for many years.

 

Thankfully, this situation has an upside as the famous streamers Ludwig and xQc banded together to help compensate the scammed viewers. Wojito – a project manager for the online media organization OTK Network – spoke to us in private messages about his work on this operation. As the individual who verified all the victims’ identities, Wojito said: “It felt great to be involved. The main reason I did it was to make sure it was being done correctly and no one would receive money that shouldn’t have. I would spend anywhere from 12-16 hours a day for about two weeks going through all transactions and statements to make sure they matched up for each person”. When asked about the role that parasocial relationships played in the scandal, Wojito said: “The main cause was due to how established and connected Sliker was with his Twitch community, so for many, I think it was a huge factor”. As of December 2022, all known victims have been compensated.

 

The revealed actions of Sliker caused many prominent streamers to use him as a catalyst to advocate their disdain for gambling on Twitch, leading to a lot of attention on Twitter. After weeks of dead silence, Twitch officials released a statement saying: “We’ll be making a policy update to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t licensed either in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection”.

 

Twitch also removed the subscription button for ItsSliker, meaning he can still stream but will make less currency. For many on social media, this was not enough. When asked for a comment regarding these ramifications, Wojito said: “I think he should have faced a permanent ban from Twitch. He committed actual crimes, not just broke the terms of service on Twitch. As for the gambling ban, the Sliker drama helped with the policy change for sure, giving it that one last push, but I don’t think it helps at all with the situation and was just a quick way to score some good points with the public”.

 

This all happened due to one single streamer who abused his parasocial relationship with his fans. Sadly, this will not be the last time as due to the ever-increasing closeness of content creators and consumers, more situations with influencers exploiting their one-sided relationship with their followers will inevitably arise.