Harassment/ Bullying in Smule Sing!

[[Member Rhea…]]

Recently, one of my Smule friends has been harassed so bad she quit Smule. The harraser PMed all of her followers and told them demeaning things about her personal life. Apparently she reported this matter to Smule so many times but no actions were taken. 

Has anyone here experienced this kind of thing before? If so, did Smule take any actions regarding this matter?

[[Member Alie…]]

Hi. I have faced something similar. Changed my account multiple times to get away. But the people somehow found me out even when I didnt sing with the same set of people. I'm more concerned with privacy at this point. Had complained to Smule many times but nothing was done. 

[[Member Rhea…]]

I received an e-mail from Smule in which they instructed me on ways to block a person, messages etc. Well, if that had worked, my friend wouldn't be in her current state.

I'm sorry to hear about your problem. It sucks that psychos are going around harassing people on Smule.

[[Member Slap…]]

If you type me out the names of those accounts Hun I’ll put em in order for you. They only pick on you Cz they think you weak and can’t reply. I bet you 100% they just playing not knowing the real affect of it. But lmk the names of the accounts and I’ll help defend you if they still continue to do so. Team works better than one 💕

[[Member Alie…]]

Thanks for your support. However, I don't want to malign anyone publicly nor encourage a gang culture which is the problem in the first place. I had complained through proper channels but that proved to be a waste of time. I guess Smule doesn't realise the effects of online mobbing and the psychological impact it has on people. Maybe one day they will. 

[[Member Brai…]]

It's hard to believe that smule support doesn't seem to have a ticket support system for its subscribers, like any regular commercial software service.

You just send an email and they acknowledge it, but then there is no way to track the issue.

[[Member open…]]

8 minutes ago, BrainDad said:

It's hard to believe that smule support doesn't seem to have a ticket support system for its subscribers, like any regular commercial software service.

Sure it’s hard to believe, because it is not true. 😉

[[Member Brai…]]

😅😅😅 Then it's hard to believe I'm dummy enough to haven't found it!!!

Where is it??

[[Member open…]]

You can’t see/open your tickets in one place (since you are just writing emails to them), but Smule support uses a ticket system on their end to keep track of conversations. Otherwise it would of course be a huge mess. 

[[Member Brai…]]

Ah, no, of course they track the issues on their end.

I meant a ticket tracking system for subscribers.

[[Member Fire…]]

I suffer with mental health issues including clinical depression and suicidal ideology. As a result of a group of vindictive people on Smule they have orchestrated their friends of which we have in common to block me. Obviously they must be spreading malicious gossip and slander and it’s made me so ill with my depression that I’ve had to return to my doctor to increase my medication. I’ve reported it to Smule with a couple of screen shots from people who refused but Smule say they can’t do anything as people can block whoever for what ever reason. Very bad considering it amounts to cyber bullying.

[[Member Rhea…]]

14 hours ago, Firebladegriff said:

I suffer with mental health issues including clinical depression and suicidal ideology. As a result of a group of vindictive people on Smule they have orchestrated their friends of which we have in common to block me. Obviously they must be spreading malicious gossip and slander and it’s made me so ill with my depression that I’ve had to return to my doctor to increase my medication.

I'm sorry to hear about your condition. I have witnessed firsthand how depression affects a person's health mentally and physically. I know you probably hear this a lot, but please don't lose hope. Sure there are lots of assholes on Smule trying to bring down everybody else beside themselves. But I've met a lot of nice people too. My advice is that you start singing with a different group of people. Maybe people from other countries.

On a side note, my friend has started singing with the group again after we told her, "We don't care what that motherf***** said about you. And you shouldn't too." It was probably hard for her to do so, but at the end of the day this is just a karaoke app. We shouldn't take it too seriously and let this affect our lives.

[Guest]

I too suffered a serious case of cyber bullying/stalking on the app and it extended to my Facebook and then to my real life! It got so bad I requested Smule Support to terminate my FIRST account. After taking a very brief break from the app, I thought hell no! No bully is going to keep me from something I enjoy. He also had organized a network of bullies to target me, typical cyber bully behavior, by circulating falsehoods via Smule chat and outside of the app. My advice to victims on the app is NOT to leave the app. Do NOT delete your account. Maybe take a break, unless it is unbearable for you. Naturally some people are tougher than others. I learned there is no sense in creating another account because if you want to be active, you will be found. Bullies do not give up! The BEST option is to BLOCK the bully and any associates, and absolutely do not feed any new lurkers who send private messages or hurl insults. BlOCK! My block list is almost as long as my following list, but that is okay with me. My circle is small, but I am not all about numbers. I like NICE users/singers. Unfortunately I had to go outside the app to the authorities due to the bullies locating my family and me and making contact. There is an ongoing investigation. No one should be subjected to such behavior. Stay tough, if you can. And if you have one inkling you are in danger notify the proper authorities. If you plan on staying on the app, do NOT give out any personal information. I would highly advise NOT to give out any personal information on any social media. Lesson learned! 

Edited November 13, 2018 by Guest

[[Member _bet…]]

I am just now seeing this post. I hope everything was corrected for you. There are are a group of us women that are in the same position you were in. The guy is a complete fraud and has scammed over 10-15k from over 10 women. He lied about his family and being a marine. He has never been in the army. Not even close. He uses his kids saying they have cancer. It also is a complete lie given that he hasn’t seen or talked to his daughters in years. We sent Smule evidence of harassment and a link to him being arrested and screenshots where he threatened more than 1 of us saying he was coming after us and our families.  His account was frozen on Smule. Then my account was frozen. I have never done anything to have my account frozen. He made up things just to get revenge on me. As we stand right now , his account has been reinstated. He has already targeted another woman and she is helping in the lies and scams with him. We have a blocked him. But it doesn’t stop either one of them coming in our live jams. They can see still our page and he’s using about 5 accounts that we have witnessed to continue harassing us. Smule replied and was very rude and mean. Basically telling us to shut up. And that all users named would be banned if we didn’t stop. They have only made the situation worse and no longer feel safe using the app. I would think getting complaints over email is one thing. But when it Gets to this point, I would hope Smule would want to talk to someone not over email to fix the problem. The emails we received were not business like. The use of all upper case letters felt like they were yelling at us for trying to make this app safe and fun for everyone. Instead the man is out harassing and popping in live jams harassing us and leaving. 

Its utter ridiculous that he is allowed to still be on this app. I am currently in renal failure and have lupus. Music is my way of escaping. I can no longer do this because of one guy and a company who is supporting his decisions and ignoring the people who want nothing but to make this app safe and fun for everyone. 

[Guest]

Bethanne,

First I want to you to know I am sorry you have gone through such an ordeal. 

My situation did not involve money, at least it hadn’t gotten to that point. Who knows had I not taken action quickly. At one point we thought the culprit and his puppets/trolls may have been going to try to extort money but no. We immediately contacted our creditors and also kept an eye on our credit reports and are continuing to do so. 

As of now, the legal letter from my attorney, and the cease and desist (no stalking) form that he signed stating he would never contact me again or inquirie about me or circulate anymore falsehoods or contact my family seem to be partially effective. I state ‘partially’ because people have relayed to me he hasn’t stopped circulating falsehoods, but I think most rational people have figured him out, so his words really are not credible, only to those who want to believe him. 

As for Smule Support, well, they did warn him, but they did inform me they like to give second chances, even though they were given sufficient proof more than a few times, and they constantly recommend the block feature. So I use the block feature, but there are times I can see him Live, even though I have him blocked, not sure why, but I avoid those rooms, obviously. Honestly, I would go outside the app for help, as I did. The app does not seem to be equipped to handle bullying or possible online predators. 

We women have to be extremely careful and we need to stick together. We also have to realize not all men are alike. There are many good men on the app, so we have to be careful not to lump them altogether. If you observe, you can tell from the way the behave the type of person the individual is and I recommend limiting the chat. 

Hope everything gets resolved quickly and peacefully for you and others. 🙏🏼

Edited March 12, 2019 by Guest
Wording

[Guest]

Second thought, it may be a blessing you're off of the app. Apparently my stalker read this post and he hit my Smule friend list with a vengeance, destroying my sing relations. I have decided to no longer use the app, but I have real life and my family to keep me entertained and HAPPY, which makes me the winner. I hope he keeps singing into his little phone, but I hope he keeps his clothes on from now on... Good luck to everyone! 

 

[[Member xxx_…]]

Smule SHOULD really do something about this issue! Blocking someone should mean NOT seeing that person anymore and that blocked user also shouldn't be able to see the blocker's profile or any related activities ENTIRELY! Not just unable to send message, press like or give comments! That's not enough, really.

It's still kinda uncomfortable knowing that your haters or creepy stalkers CAN STILL see all your activities. I keep having this unnecessary feelings of my haters badmouthing me while watching my VOCs. Well.. that didn't affect me much, though. What actually bothers me is.. once a creepy stalker of mine PM me saying that it turned him on just by looking at me, what's more disgusting he told me he masturbated to some of my VOCs. So yeah, I still get pretty upset sometimes when i thought of it. I don't know if he really did, I don't want to know either.

 

And I swear to God i never done anything that could lead to such situation (no sexy clothing, no boob-shows, no seductive dance or any kinds of sexual alluring acts, no dirty sex talks or topics, no inappropriate skin-showing AT ALL), I wouldn't even show myself in VOC if i wasn't appropriately dressed. 

I really hope there'll be a HUGE changes in blocking features SOON.

Haters/bullies and stalkers safe environment! Once a user is blocked, that person WON'T BE ABLE to see your profile, your songs and EVERY single activity. No longer see your likes and your comments, including all the comments and likes from other users on your songs. Even if the other users are from his following list.

The blocker should be COMPLETELY hidden from the blocked user's views. And vice versa.

I know haters gonna hate, bullies still bullies. Blocking can't stop haters/bullies/lunatics from doing sh*tty things, there'll always be bad/mean people everywhere, some will keep coming back and find other ways to hurt you again.

However, knowing that you're safely hidden (even not for long until you meet new haters/bullies, if you're really that unlucky) right after you hit that block button.. really makes a difference. It'll mean a lot to most users, especially females.

😊

[[Member xxx_…]]

On 3/6/2018 at 7:35 PM, RheaX said:

Recently, one of my Smule friends has been harassed so bad she quit Smule. The harraser PMed all of her followers and told them demeaning things about her personal life. Apparently she reported this matter to Smule so many times but no actions were taken. 

Has anyone here experienced this kind of thing before? If so, did Smule take any actions regarding this matter?

I did and i shared my story here too, and believe me there are more victims out there who experienced similar situations. What's sad is that Smule didn't do much for us. No actions were taken on them crazy harassers and the block button is TOTALLY useless. Submitting reports to Smule doesn't help as well. I did stated my opinions on how haters/bullies/harasser issues can be avoided easier if Smule had done something with the block functions. Better if Smule immediately block a user FOR GOOD from logging into the app again after few harassment reports submitted against the user. It's such a disappointment that Smule never take this matter seriously, i don't see any efforts on trying to solve it too. 

[[Member _Ram…]]

On 3/27/2018 at 10:06 PM, BrainDad said:

It's hard to believe that smule support doesn't seem to have a ticket support system for its subscribers, like any regular commercial software service.

You just send an email and they acknowledge it, but then there is no way to track the issue.

Brian,

Smule definitely sends you a ticket number with an automated response that they will attend to it ASAP

Ram

[[Member gemi…]]

Agree what imSEXYbella mentioned below.

Haters/bullies and stalkers safe environment! Once a user is blocked, that person WON'T BE ABLE to see your profile, your songs and EVERY single activity. No longer see your likes and your comments, including all the comments and likes from other users on your songs. Even if the other users are from his following list.

The blocker should be COMPLETELY hidden from the blocked user's views. And vice versa.

[Guest Asbco]

I agree Smule blocking service is kinda useless. You can't see the stalker/bully's profile once you block them. BUT THEY CAN STILL SEE YOUR PROFILE! They might not be able to comment or like or message you, but nothing to stop them from visiting your profile to see who you sing with etc. What is the point of that??

 

[[Member gemi…]]

Yes, this two day the harraser disturb me again. He inbox me with vulgar words and said I flirt with guy in smule which is not true. He is my Ex and he is jealous and cannot get over on this.  He ask me to stop singing or else he will do something to me and said he not afraid to go jail. He also comment on my followers page and give some sarcastic remarks. I have reported this matter to Smule many times and shall see if any actions were be taken. 

[[Member Brai…]]

It seems smule support can deal with this only to a very limited point.

If your harraser is you ex, maybe you can consider lodging a formal criminal complaint.

I supose it depends on your country's legal system. Where I live, new specific legislation has been enacted to prevent violence on women by their male partners. There are specific judges designed for this cases, so they are aware and ready to deal with it.

Even a fundamental right as presumption of innocence has been somehow suspended here for that cases, as we have a serious problem (which is probably a bit of a stretch imho ... but this is another debate).

[[Member Hobo…]]

Hi, I am replying to this thread after a while (previously Alienlifer) because I found how the group was able to track my accounts to bully since 2017, not just on Smule but Starmaker, Instagram and other social media platforms. This group (few people from Germany and Austria) is involved in DNS Hijacking and Mobile Sim Hacking and did a man-in-the-middle type of attack to view all private data, including accounts, emails or any other online activity. If you are facing similar issues check your router DNS using services such as www. f-secure.com or other reputable websites. They used gaslighting with songs to bully on Smule to avoid getting caught either directly or through friends and bot accounts and continued to do so when I changed accounts. Similar harrassment ensued in other platforms when I exposed them. It's unfortunate Smule doesn't take any action especially against users with large followings. 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Hobolobo2_

[[Member Skul…]]

I haven't been harassed on Smule but outside I've been blackmailed, harassed, called things by bigger artist and even 2 record labels have been mailing me and said bad things about my style, how I sound and so on.

Not gonna mention any names but it was a handful of bands quiet big in the music industry that was harassing me.

I'm not gonna stop singing because someone sees me as potential threat in their music world, I'm gonna use this as fuel and get better at what I love to do, SING!