tl;dr -- I spent too much money on camgirls and stopped my addiction but camgirls are still crazy (and I love them for it)
Introduction
Oh where to begin? I've been into watching camgirls since at least 2012. Started with MFC and eventually moved onto Chaturbate as well. At first, it was very minimal, but over time I was spending too much. The past two years saw the most, where I'd easily put myself $10,000-$20,000 in credit card debt for tipping camgirls too much. There were times in one sitting, I'd be spending close to $900 on tips alone for their OhMiBods or whatever else they had going on.
After identifying my own issue and addiction, I put a stop to it and the girls are going crazy. After all, to them, this was huge for their rent money and other expenses. To me, I was going broke.... and for what reason? Because a girl online was getting naked and/or flirting with me? Because I wanted to jerk off? For real, it was absurd. No idea how I'll get out of debt now but it will take years or bankruptcy to do so.
Most of the camgirls from the United States, don't really seem to care I stopped tipping them but the trend that I noticed was that the ones overseas, do care and start to beg. I have 2 in particular who basically started to "cry" to me once their weekly income from me was not coming in. Oh and it's the typical stories:
(I will not share usernames to protect their identities)
Camgirl #1
Girl from Romania... as I like to call her, Romanian Scamgirl. When she was camming, I'd give her attention and she'd go on about being interested in me, etc. She even asked that I don't spend any money on other camgirls and suggested I should save and not spend money on her, but she was really liking me etc etc.
Eventually, after a few $900 sessions with her OhMiBod, she gave me her Kik so we could chat more. She'd send me pictures of her personal life, and of her, and it was nice. I'd share the same back. She'd get upset if I gave other camgirls attention, most likely because she wanted the money for herself. But we joked about me saving to support her when I'd marry her. I was in contact with her for about 3 months and playing on cam with her for that same time.
She took it a step further and even gave me her real name, which I was shocked about. She kept telling me throughout this entire time she was single and her now ex-bf cheated on her so she wanted to meet someone. We even discussed the possibility of me going to Romania to visit. I decided to look her up on Facebook to see what her story was and she had a public profile pop up. What I found, shocked me. She seemed pretty rich and also has herself listed in a relationship with some guy in Romania.
I immediately questioned her about this, telling her that her profile is public and she really should set it to private because people can find her or her bf easily. I was pretty sure she was talking to other guys this same way too, so figured a good heads up would help her. She insisted that there was no bf. 5 minutes later, her profile AND her bf's Facebook profile were private. Hmmm.
I slowly stopped tipping her after that and was focused on other girls. She'd see my tips on Chaturbate and immediately my Kik would pop up. I'd get the usual sob story, at times asking to send her money outside of Chaturbate: "I need money for rent", "I can't afford my tuition", "My mom is going to get kicked out of her apt, can you help?", "I have a medical emergency", "My grandmother is dying and we can't afford her funeral" and my favorite of all "How can you give other girls money? Can you please send me Western Union? I have no food and can't eat!"
Anyway, I'm pretty sure she is lying at this point so stopped contacting. She has not been camming since then. Money saved in my pocket, or so I thought, until I gave it to other camgirls instead.
Camgirl #2
One of my favorite camgirls, who I really was following and helping out for a year and a half. She too, was from another country (Czech Republic) and at first, I took it easy with her. But over time, there'd be a lot of sessions with her as well that would see me tipping her in excess of 10,000 tokens in one sitting (do the math on either MFC or Chaturbate). In addition to that, I'd buy her Amazon Gift cards... some up to $200 for her birthday or Christmas.
I'd get lots of nice PMs from her, lots of flirty compliments, etc. She'd legit get excited when I got into her room because nobody else was tipping her like I was... and she's far from ugly. She's actually one of the hottest camgirls on the site but does not have a following.
We eventually exchanged e-mails and started to chat through there. Then, I started to notice a trend. She'd only email me when she was online and was having a slow day. Clearly, she was looking for tokens and money to help her live. She never really complained about bills and such, and told me that one of my generous tip sessions actually was donated to help some of the children of the village she was in to help them out. I thought that was sweet.
But something did not sit right with me. In the time I've been watching her, I've seen her move into a larger place. Clearly, she was not hurting. Identifying my own issue of spending as much as I did on this girl, I went cold turkey and stopped tipping her. That's when it started....
"I am so sad, I only made 16 tokens in 4 hours camming", "I miss you so much", "I feel like I can trust you", "I don't have money for classes", "I want to start a business but don't have the funds", "I might have to stop camming and get a real job"... she never directly asked me for money but kept hinting that she needed it (meanwhile, I'm struggling myself now).
Admittedly, I've popped into her room a few times and she immediately PMs me with more or less the same and about how slow it is and how hard it is to make money on the site. She even offered to send me tokens back so I could tip her large amounts for her OhMiBod because she just liked and missed the feeling, but didn't know how to do so. Needless to say, I have not caved in.
Conclusion
It does baffle me how some girls are just balling in this industry. For example, I'm sitting her watching UniversitySmiles on Chaturbate and for a couple of hours now, she's made bank and can't figure out WHY people are tipping her. Like, what's the draw? And how are people affording giving so much money to a girl who seems to already be making tons of money? I'd rather see them spend it on girls who don't have a large following.
Anyway, not my problem, but wanted to share my stories in case someone in similar scenarios can use advice or see that they are not the only ones who suffered from this addiction. Bottom line is, 99% chance you are giving the girl online money to help her out and will never meet her in person (and a good percentage are prob making money for them and their bfs). So keep this in mind, that your basically paying for someone else to live and for your own personal entertainment as well.
Seeing the money I've been saving by not tipping camgirls, has been huge. While I understand this is a profession for most and how they make a living, I need to look out for myself too. I've made nice online "friends" with these girls and some other users in their rooms. Ultimately, it's a good decision for myself and I wish I recognized this years ago.