As an avid former reader of The Moptop Maven’s (MTM) blog, I’ve been following the controversy surrounding her this year pretty closely. I started following her blog in early 2010 right after I BC’d. I didn’t know anything about bloggers or scammers, etc. so I took her blog at face value. She had great information about hair, product recipes, product reviews, food recipes, fashion, natural skin care solutions, blog posts about inspiration and self-enlightenment, and she seemed so freakin’ genuine. I never thought in a million years that she would be accused of scamming anyone.
The one thing I did find EXTREMELY odd was that in all of the personal information that she divulged about her life she never once mentioned a job. Yet, she had all of these fabulous clothes, money to buy hair product ingredients, support her daughter, eat at nice restaurants and be on the scene in LA. I just thought that maybe she had a sugar daddy or something and I left it alone since, after all, it’s none of my business.
Then in January 2011 she disappeared off of the face of the earth. Honestly, I was worried about her. Even though I didn’t know her, I felt like I had gotten to know her through her blog posts (corney, I know, but that’s how much I loved her blog). Then I started reading the negative comments about her jewelry store, Frank and Myrrh. People mentioned how orders were never filled after they paid her money and they couldn’t get in touch with her. Next, the post about her being sick surfaced and that really invoked my sympathy. I thought to myself… this poor girl is struggling to be healthy and people are bashing her for not filling a $40 order?! They need to give her some time. Now that some time has passed, I’ve found some fishy information about MTM through some internet and forum searching. According to DivaDee62 on BGLH forum MTM is a serial scammer. DivaDe62 alleges the following:
2009-2010? Nikole (aka the Moptop Maven) starts Ebay Soap Supply Business. Allegedly Scams some folks, fakes death to get out of refunding money and/or sending product.
2009-2010? Nikole starts Etsy Vintage Clothing Store which abruptly closes.
2009-2010? Nikole starts Frank & Myrrh Blog/Jewelry store. Takes orders, Allegedly scams some folks and disappears.
2010? Nikole reappears as The Mop Top Maven blog. Amasses a large following, “opens” Frank & Myrrh Jewelry Store. Nov/Dec 2010 has blow out sale, scams some folks…counts reach possibly 200-250 orders not fulfilled or refunded. She disappears.
Feb 2011 Reappears online only to tell folks she is oh so sick… “Mom and Grandma” post on various blogs co-signing the daughter’s illness. No refunds. No products.
June 2011 People on various messageboards report seeing MTM out and about in L.A. living life and looking good.
June 2011 Enso Naturals Appears. Founder “Dee Cole” aka Nikole Denise Crowe is face camera shy but not too shy to post pics of her hands under another pseudonym to give store Rave Reviews.
September 2011 to INFINITY: Fools still gonna give this nutbag their money despite mounds and mounds of proof that Nikole D. Crowe is a low-rent half a#$ Grifter; a Thousandnaire living in Hollyweird trying desperately to keep up with Claudia Jordan and her crew of delusional gold diggers.
Then to add insult to injury, I happened to see a tweet mentioning that MTM was in Nelly’s Hot in Here video, which in and of itself isn’t really a big deal, but she seemed to live by the mantra of self-enlightenment, inspiring others, etc. and there she was dancing around like a video ho?? I was baffled. There are a lot of other rumors going around as well, but I’m just going to stick to the ones that concern her blog and her allegedly scammed customers.
Here is the bottom line, no one except those who know her personally know exactly what’s going on. Period. People can speculate all day. She could be a scammer or it could genuinely be a big misunderstanding. If she is in fact a scammer, that’s really unfortunate and I hope it doesn’t have negative repercussions for all of the other natural hair bloggers and online stores embraced by the natural hair community that are honest, genuine and care about their followers, subscribers and customers. If MTM is up to no good then God will take care of that…It’s not our place to try and right her alleged wrongs. All people can do is drop it and move on. That’s just my two cents…
Tags: Drama
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15 Comments
I just had to read this post! I was a big fan of MTM– checked for new posts daily, commented– all things a follower would do. I was concerned when Nikole said she was sick, but it was all just so weird. And when everyone started complaining about their orders not being filled? Red flag. I don’t know how long Nikole thinks she can scam people for (if that’s what she’s doing) because she will get caught. And if it’s the case where she really was sick, then she needs to stand up for herself and clear the air. I’d NEVER buy anything connected to her. All the money in my bank account might go missing.
Lol sad, but probably true. The evidence is stacked against her. Only time will tell. Its an unfortunate situation
[...] Article by Sporty Afros: [...]
If she is taking peoples money..then its not God who needs to take care of her its the police. I don’t anyone who has money to give away.
I can’t speak on MTM allegedly being a scam artist because you are supposedly stating facts but to call her a video ho is extremely rude. That video and song came out in 2002, almost 10 years ago, she was probably around 18 years old. Are you not more enlightened and inspiring then you were 10 years ago or when you were 18?
No offense to you, but I just think that needed to be said.
Whether she is or was a video ho isn’t really the point. The evidence stands against her, the facts are there… and what gets me is that she hasn’t had a rebuttal YET. But she was able to jump on twitter when the Enso Naturals ordeal surfaced. Funny thing is, she claimed she was not associated with Enso Naturals in any way but there is a LEGAL document with her name (Nikole Crowe-spelling?) on it stating that she was doing business as “Enso Naturals.” People can be really gullible and need to realize that just because you visit a person’t blog everyday does not mean that person is your friend, or that you “really know” them. Let’s get smarter people!
I’m pretty sure that if these claims were true, she would have or is currently getting sued. Which probably explains why she stopped moptopmaven, probably has a cease and desist order or something like that until the suit is cleared. Her children’s hair accessory story is temporarily closed too, so I’m pretty sure she got served with a cease and desist…There is no way you cannot give either product, credit, or refund without you thinking someone isn’t gonna sue, be it for 40 bucks or 400…we’ve all seen Judge Matthis…and ditto on the “dancing like a ho comment”, all of us have done at one point in time, be it acting silly with friends, or in the club after a hard week of work, women we have to be kinder to one another…the world already gives us a difficult enough time…
@Dawn rude or not it was my opinion. I felt like I was extremely objective in talking about all of the accusations against her, and seeing her in that video shocked me, especially based on the content she published on her blog. That’s it.
@Kiki You’re right, the video thing is neither here nor there, the real issue is all of the allegations against her. Hopefully this incident will open people’s eyes.
@jc only time will tell if justice will be served for the people she allegedly scammed.
I was scammed by this fool n she is a fool because she has done this and left a trail. If anyone else would like to take legal action against her please inform me about it. I am so upset that my hard earned money was used for anything other than what I paid for.
Wow, that’s really unfortunate. I hope that this incident has opened peoples eyes to potential scams and helps those who were scammed get what’s owed to them.
bwahahahahahahha @ “Sept 201 in INFINITY” the commentary… the commentary is hilarious. I followed her too but…oh well. She didn’t get my money. It’s a series of unfortunate events.
Yea, it is…
[...] going on with her that has gotten a lot of peoples attention. Read this post by Sporty Afros (http://sportyafros.com/random-2/moptop-maven-controversy/) and come back and tell us what you think. Did you read her blog? Did you attempt to purchase her [...]
It actually IS our place to right those wrongs; that’s why we have BBB, and a judicial system. ‘God’ isn’t refunding people or restoring faith in people. I loved her sight– I did find it odd that despite being a personal blog she revealed very littler personal info [work, didn't mention having a kid until a year later, etc.]. And, I hadn’t heard about the video thing– but I just checked it out! She’s @ minute 2:33 super clearly in the ‘Hot in Herr’ video, lol. Maybe these were all “young” mistakes and she’s trying to move on?
@aw yea but what I was saying is that its not our place to judge her. Obviously the people that were scammed have every right to get their money back. That hott in herr stuff was a hott mess, period. Maybe she was young and naive, who knows.