Beauty YouTuber and makeup guru Cole Carrigan has been accused of scamming his fans on Instagram after he asked them to pay for shoutouts.
22-year-old Cole Carrigan is a professional makeup artist and influencer who was formerly a part of Jake Paul’s Team 10 creator collective in Los Angeles.
Cole has often been involved in drama within the creator community. In May 2019 he claimed vine star Cameron Dallas threw water over him in a move motivated by homophobia. He was also kicked out of the Team 10 house, and last year accused ACE family’s Austin McBroom of rape.
This week, Cole was accused of scamming his fans after he posted an Instagram story saying he would give promos and shout-outs on his page but would be charging $100 per person.
People became suspicious after screenshots show that Cole asked those paying him to categorize the payment under “family and friends” rather than business, therefore avoiding tax.
Some people on Twitter claimed that they did not have their orders fulfilled by Cole at all, after paying up. One Twitter user said that they reached out to someone who had already been promoted by Cole, but they had to threaten him with drama channels before he fulfilled the request.
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Several people in the subreddit r/beautyguruchatter also came forward claiming they had lost out on money through trying to get a promotion from Cole. The thread began with user MorbidEnvy writing, “Cole Carrigan is actively scamming his fans $100 at a time for shoutouts. 3 victims have already come to me. I’m sharing their receipts. Please help us get the message out. These girls still haven’t gotten their money back. One sent $100 3x times to him.”
MorbidEnvy also uploaded a 15-minute video explaining her side of the story, with her friend who had bought the promotion as a birthday present for someone. She added, “If there’s anybody else out there that has been scammed…if you’re terrified to say anything, if you want to remain anonymous, I’ll take the heat.”
Drama channel Truth Sleuth revealed screenshots from one victim who appeared to have sent Cole $300 for a shoutout. In the text messages, Cole repeatedly asks the person to send money as a “friends and family” transaction, rather than business, claiming that he reversed each transaction, but the victim was never refunded.
According to MorbidEnvy, Cole has now blocked her on Twitter and the social media star appears to have remained silent on the issue.