‘Ebenezer’ Creates a Real Venmo Profile for Scrooge, Which Hands Out Money and Accepts It, Too

Paramount has created a public Venmo profile for Ebenezer Scrooge to promote Ti West’s upcoming film, starring Johnny Depp. The account plays on Scrooge’s reputation for miserliness: people requesting money receive only a penny, while the profile also appears to accept payments from the public.

Two Variety staffers encountered an error when they tried to request money, but a source close to the campaign said the account had become temporarily jammed by the volume of requests and was being fixed. The destination of payments sent to Scrooge is unclear. “Ebenezer”, based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, is due in cinemas on 13 November and features a cast including Rupert Grint, Daisy Ridley and Ian McKellen.