Why Did You Redeem It

About

Why Did You Redeem It is a catchphrase that comes from a viral video by American Twitch streamer and YouTuber Kitboga in which he deceived an Indian scammer trying to acquire gift cards, who angrily shouts the phrases, "Why did you redeem it," and, "Do not redeem it," while the streamer (pretending to be an old lady) redeems them himself and denies the scammer the funds. The phrase became the subject of memes and jokes on X / Twitter, TikTok and other platforms in August 2020, often associated with online scams and scammers running the "gift card scam."

Origin

On August 16th, 2020, scambaiter, Twitch streamer and YouTuber Kitboga posted a video^[1] titled "The Angriest Scammer I've Ever Called: Steve" in which he spent 10 hours deceiving an Indian scammer nicknamed "Steve" who was attempting to run the gift card scam.

At 53:33 minutes in the video, Kitboga redeems a fake Google Play Store code worth $500 while the scammer helplessly watches via screenshare, prompting the scammer to scream, "Why did you redeem it!" The video (seen below) amassed over 19 million views and 470,000 likes in four years.

Spread

Kitboga's interaction with the angry scammer became the subject of memes and jokes on social media in the following years, with many netizens using the scammer's quote, "Why did you redeem it," in satirical posts about online scams.

For instance, on April 21st, 2024, TikTok^[2] user @detectivenoname posted an AI-generated image of an angry Indian man and the text, "Do not redeem the card," which amassed more than 232,000 likes in five months (shown below).

On October 15th, 2021, Redditor Ghostt187_^[3] posted a version of the For the Better, Right? meme, recaptioning it with the Why Did You Redeem It catchphrase (seen below), which received roughly 720 upvotes and 30 comments in three years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References