Influencers, affiliate links and scams

peter0425

sr. member

Activity: 2618

Merit: 439

Quote from: aoluain on January 17, 2023, 06:56:31 PM

I don't follow any influencers other than the likes of Michael Saylor on Twitter, if
he can be classed as an influencer.

I pay less than zero regard for anything others than Bitcoin, probably an exception
for Litecoin and Montero but outside those I don't care for them.

The way I see it is Influencers promote "crypto" not Bitcoin. They promote projects
which they themselves benefit from. It's sad that so many people can't see it?

and also links given are mostly one sided , there are even more advertising than the sole motive of letting us learn and earn.

and yes Scamming are mostly to happen or at least cheating or leaning us to other side of investments .
I don't also trust other influencer than those i already trusted.

uneng

hero member

Activity: 2002

Merit: 775

Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform

Quote from: coolcoinz on January 19, 2023, 02:23:37 PM

My bitcoin journey begun with this forum and a number of youtube channels about bitcoin. At first I was subscribing to most of them to show my appreciation for their work, but after a while it became obvious that most of them do it for the money, to get various sponsorships, using their audience like a guru is using his followers to work for him. They weren't giving anything to their audience, but trying to make the audience do things for them, like using referral links, buying coins they were recommending, paying for limited content. Also, they had no real content on their channels. It was all news from other social media like coindesk with their own comment on top and a more catchy title. It was always something big and exciting and in reality just another shitcoin with their own promo code.

Avoid these people like plague. You can easily recognize them by their explosive thumbnails. There's always a lot of exclamation marks and stupid headlines like
Is this over?
Is bitcoin done?
Crypto manipulation!
Warning to all holders!
Big pump incoming!
These coins will explode in 2023!

See something like that? Tell Youtube you don't want to see such content.

I would like to give you a merit for the post you wrote if I had any, because it really summarizes very well what has been happening on Youtube since many years ago. Right now, I'm having a hard time finding legit content on Youtube, because when I search something a lot of those "explosive thumbnails" videos displaying a youtuber surprised with his eyes wide open and the hands covering the mouth pop up all the pages long. They use misleading and catchy titles, which doesn't reflect the reality of the facts or the reality of the services they promote for referrals. That is what we call clickbait.

This is a big cons, because it becomes difficult and too time demanding to find what we are looking for and on which websites it worths to spend time, when looking for extra income online.

pawel7777

legendary

Activity: 2408

Merit: 1555

Quote from: coolcoinz on January 19, 2023, 02:23:37 PM

My bitcoin journey begun with this forum and a number of youtube channels about bitcoin. At first I was subscribing to most of them to show my appreciation for their work, but after a while it became obvious that most of them do it for the money, to get various sponsorships, using their audience like a guru is using his followers to work for him. They weren't giving anything to their audience, but trying to make the audience do things for them, like using referral links, buying coins they were recommending, paying for limited content. Also, they had no real content on their channels. It was all news from other social media like coindesk with their own comment on top and a more catchy title. It was always something big and exciting and in reality just another shitcoin with their own promo code.

Avoid these people like plague. You can easily recognize them by their explosive thumbnails. There's always a lot of exclamation marks and stupid headlines like
Is this over?
Is bitcoin done?
Crypto manipulation!
Warning to all holders!
Big pump incoming!
These coins will explode in 2023!

See something like that? Tell Youtube you don't want to see such content.

To play the devil's advocate for a bit:
1 - They must've done something right, as you yourself admit they introduced you to Bitcoin.
2 - Creating good content takes a whole lot of time and effort. To be able to deliver good quality, well-research content on a regular basis, there must be some sort of compensation (aka income). Add revenue on YT vids is not as high as people might think and it's very easy for a video to get demonetized. So almost all content creators have to resort to other means of generating revenue (referrals, sponsorships, selling courses etc). That's not inherently wrong.
3 - The ugly truth about attention-grabbing thumbnails is that they work. We all know it's a cheap trick but we all fall for it. Your eye might not even register the presence of non-flashy, "honest" thumbnail if it's surrounded by attention-grabbing ones, that's a flaw in human psychology.

So to evaluate content creators, I'd be focussing on whether they have integrity, competency and if they deliver truly valuable content rather than just looking at the thumbnails they use or whether or not they use referral links etc.

coolcoinz

legendary

Activity: 2604

Merit: 1102

My bitcoin journey begun with this forum and a number of youtube channels about bitcoin. At first I was subscribing to most of them to show my appreciation for their work, but after a while it became obvious that most of them do it for the money, to get various sponsorships, using their audience like a guru is using his followers to work for him. They weren't giving anything to their audience, but trying to make the audience do things for them, like using referral links, buying coins they were recommending, paying for limited content. Also, they had no real content on their channels. It was all news from other social media like coindesk with their own comment on top and a more catchy title. It was always something big and exciting and in reality just another shitcoin with their own promo code.

Avoid these people like plague. You can easily recognize them by their explosive thumbnails. There's always a lot of exclamation marks and stupid headlines like
Is this over?
Is bitcoin done?
Crypto manipulation!
Warning to all holders!
Big pump incoming!
These coins will explode in 2023!

See something like that? Tell Youtube you don't want to see such content.

Dr.Bitcoin_Strange

hero member

Activity: 532

Merit: 508

What do you believe in?

Quote from: Merit.s on January 16, 2023, 04:32:05 PM

It is very surprising that celebrity are promoting scam project and forgetting that this might jeopardize their reputation. Anyway,for them to do this,I don't think that they care about their reputation and the welfare of their fans,but I see that they only care about themselves.

What happened is that the influencer or celebrity may not have had enough knowledge about crypto and in particular the project they intend to promote, but because they have seen the sum of money offered, they don't do much research about the project before going ahead with the promotion.

The most annoying thing is that they are so full of confidence when promoting some of those scam projects. They don't tell their audience to do due diligence research before engaging themselves with the project; they don't warn their audience about the risk factor—all because they just care about the payment they received.

Quote from: uneng on January 12, 2023, 07:09:37 PM

What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

They have to stop giving full confidence like the project is their own; despite the payment they received, they tend to forget that they are not a team member of the project, so even if the project fails, they end up ruining their reputation because they are not on the project team but just an affiliate with them.

I think it depends on the country, but in my country, there is no law against paid promoters, but I think it should be introduced so that the celebrities and influencers also get dragged into the mud if the investment funds are racked.

Apocollapse

hero member

Activity: 924

Merit: 728

What if those influencers and celebrities are make a contract if they're not responsible if any financial losses or the project turn become scam? of course they wouldn't face any legal action due to their contract, this is why agreement in white and black is really important when dealing any financial thing.

I know it's nothing new where the influencers or celebrities go to jail when they're promoting scam, but we as a citizen doesn't know anything with the case and the judge. You can't blame them without any proof of they would drag you to go jail due to defamation case.

uneng

hero member

Activity: 2002

Merit: 775

Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform

Quote from: darkangel11 on January 17, 2023, 12:43:01 PM

How can people watch these paid shills? There's no pleasure and no profit in it.
They are using you!

Regards Lark Davis I don't know how he managed to gather a large public, as I see nothing special about him. But Bitboy I believe it was because he boasts a networth of 28$ million dollars and a wealthy lifestyle, theoretically achieved through crypto investments, especially altcoins. And the public like this kind of people who are surrounded by tons of money and have an imposing speech, due to it sounding convincing.

Quote from: examplens on January 17, 2023, 06:51:46 PM

at the moment when the influencers promoted them, all of them were doing business legitimately. no one can blame them for that, In the end, I believe that not most of the influencer is directly involved in the "fraud" scheme itself.
it is something completely different if someone promotes an obvious scam, although this is also subject to different interpretations, given that the first Google showered us with advertisements from dubious platforms.

I think the right thing to do would be those celebrities donate the money they were paid by the scammers to the victims, being it earned from referral comissions or official contracts.

The way business is being done, it's too good for scammers and their promoters, while the customers/investors' side end completely screwed up.

Iroh

sr. member

Activity: 616

Merit: 274

Quote from: uneng on January 12, 2023, 07:09:37 PM

What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

Personally, I would not at first glance, trust anything an influencer promotes. Most times, a majority of them tend to promote anything that would be profitable to them first irrespective of it’s a legit and a responsible project or not.
Famous individuals could also be hired as influencers as they’ve got a lot of followings on their social media.

They should have some sort of responsibility to their fans and followers who in most cases would gullibly believe whatever the influencer puts out. But selfishness tend to get in the way as a whole lot of influencers would promote anything for a quick buck.

Influencers aren’t knowledgeable in all things and in some cases aren’t knowledgeable at all in whatever they’re actively trying to sell to their viewers. Influencers aren’t a recommended source of investment opportunities.

jaberwock

legendary

Activity: 2520

Merit: 1073

Quote from: rat03gopoh on January 16, 2023, 08:44:20 PM

Celebrities are only good at representing, if they wanna be paid then follow the instructions. Yep, we know that they have limited knowledge in this field, but is it entirely their fault? What if they're also part of the victim?
I believe that many seasoned millionaires (not influencers) have also fallen for the scams of these companies.

Not entirely their fault of course but it's only the public who thinks that it was their fault. If im a celebrity, I think I won't just accept the deal easily but I will research first if the thing that I am going to promote is scam or not but I can value my reputation more over the money.

As a celebrity, you will still get a lot offers and I believe that most of them are legal and fair companies so why can't we just go on them instead? Like we said earlier, celebrities or influencers, are only being paid to promote so they never invest on the same project that they promote but for a regular individuals or those millionaires, they are the ones who can get scammed big time.

worle1bm

full member

Activity: 1834

Merit: 166

I once saw a thread on twitter explaining that how one of the famous crypto influencer was making fool of the people through promotion of scam coins as he was paid huge supply of those coins by the team just to make easy profits.He get the coins on his different address and then after the investment he pulls out his profits making like $300k or something like that but people who follow his advice only loose.So I have no faith in these so called influencers pretending to have knowledge but promote projects because they are paid actors and we should not fall for their trap.

Fivestar4everMVP

legendary

Activity: 2226

Merit: 1049

Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform

Quote from: uneng on January 12, 2023, 07:09:37 PM

What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

The truth is that, that this guys promoted this platforms does not mean they were part of the scam or contributed to their bankruptcy, this issue is not peculiar to crypto currencies alone.
One thing i want you to understand is that, as members of the crypto community, at some point in time, we as individuals will likely find a project we truly believe in, and after investing so much of our money in it, i will do all we can to make sure the project succeeds, and that includes promoting the project to help make it visible to other investors and as well.
If at some point such a project collapse, then people must understand that we dont have crystal balls that tells us which promote would stand the test of time and which would not, so it is clearly not their fault that those projects end up failing, beside, those project succeeded, did very well, made good money for its early investors, before they collapsed, the promoters were only doing their job as promoters, they aren't the CEO or part of the founders of the project, as an investor, you should always do your own research before deciding to invest in any project, regardless of who is promoting it.

davis196

hero member

Activity: 2912

Merit: 900

This is an old topic and there was a forum thread about this subject. There's no need to make another one for the same topic.
Anyway, we can put the blame on the influencers, only if they knew that the crypto projects were scams from day 1. This should be proved in court. Without such proof everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Some influencers harmed their own reputation, by promoting crypto companies, that turned into scams. Those influencers probably have the right to sue the crypto scams for defamation or fraud(even though they got paid for doing the advertisements). I'm not a lawyer, that's just my two cents about this topic.

traderethereum

hero member

Activity: 2842

Merit: 574

The responsibility will return to each person who wants to participate in the promotions these influencers offer.
The influencers are just offering something that might be of use to their followers and if the followers don't seek more information, it will be their fault of the followers.
Every time we want to join a promo, we must be able to find or search for a lot of information so that we will not be scammed.
Of course, these influencers also definitely don't want to be blamed by others because they only give something to their followers and everything will return to them.

RAppleby

newbie

Activity: 32

Merit: 0

Scams are all around us. We must distinguish whether they are telling the truth or not. Many people tend to exaggerate what he promotes because they have received a lot of benefits. However, there are still many influential people whose fans are more "real". He does not want to lose fans and will not participate in some scams. Be skeptical about what others say, don't believe it completely.

harapan

sr. member

Activity: 1652

Merit: 298

Another example of these influencers that doesn't know what they do but are big public figures in the world is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Do you know he's been an influencer for Binance without knowing the harm using exchnages can cause especially when you're holding for longer term.

Michael Saylor can also be a good influencer likewise bad but when you see stuff's like from who you folly learn to check for what's right and wrong so you don't get mislead. It's also the same scenario with Elon Musk, all he does want is the push up of doge coins.

Yatsan

legendary

Activity: 2380

Merit: 1231

Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform

Quote from: Captain Corporate on January 17, 2023, 06:05:19 PM

I agree with this. If you are talking about someone from inside, like literally they became part of it, then it could change in that case. If they are not inside, and they are not aware then they could get paid and promote something, it has happened a million times before and its not a problem at all. However, if we are talking about someone that ever gets shares, like becomes a partner with it, even if just getting token payments, then the trouble is they have to vet the company enough to know if they are legit or scam. You can just promote, but if you become part of it, you have bigger responsibility.

That is simply how influence works. For sure they are aware of it and they are just doing it to earn money from promoting those projects by disregarding the risk the are exposing to their audiences. If you would observe, they'd be deleting contents of such project once scam is already obvious, like they never did they part to promote it. That's just how money works for them. It is guilt which would be their problem afterwards but most of them are simply used to it, and will continue such scheme project after project. This also the reason why people should stop relying that much from influencers simply because they are doing their job. We, as investors, would be the one incharge still, with our funds.

aoluain

legendary

Activity: 2226

Merit: 1249

I don't follow any influencers other than the likes of Michael Saylor on Twitter, if
he can be classed as an influencer.

I pay less than zero regard for anything others than Bitcoin, probably an exception
for Litecoin and Montero but outside those I don't care for them.

The way I see it is Influencers promote "crypto" not Bitcoin. They promote projects
which they themselves benefit from. It's sad that so many people can't see it?

examplens

legendary

Activity: 3248

Merit: 3098

at the moment when the influencers promoted them, all of them were doing business legitimately. no one can blame them for that, In the end, I believe that not most of the influencer is directly involved in the "fraud" scheme itself.
it is something completely different if someone promotes an obvious scam, although this is also subject to different interpretations, given that the first Google showered us with advertisements from dubious platforms.

Kryptowerk

legendary

Activity: 2016

Merit: 1401

Disobey.

Quote from: uneng on January 12, 2023, 07:09:37 PM

One of the most common and easy ways to profit in crypto industry is to promote affiliate links to online platforms such as casinos, exchanges and micro earnings websites. Probably most of us have already done it in the past, or still do this during the present moment.

However, what if you had the reach of 1 million subscribers? Millions of views? And if you endorsed a platform to all those people which turned into scam?

[...]
What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

All I can say is, it was very interesting to see the different ways people that promoted FTX dealt with its implosion a few months back. It is as you would expect: The whole spectrum from not-even-mentioning a thing to their subscribers, via blaming FTX and SBF but instantly continuing with other promotions to the very rare "I will not promote any CEX from now on" reaction.
That being said, yes, if you promote something and create any kind of revenue from it, you have at least the responsibility to check if it is not an OBVIOUS scam / ponzi etc. And as soon as you get any info that things could be shady it is also your responsibility to immediately stop the promotion and inform your viewers/listeners etc.

If you do your due dilligence before accepting a promo-partner you'd probably need to rule out 95%+ of potential partners in crypto space from the start on.
You will probably lose some of the most lucrative deals. Which is why too many influencers and youtubers don't do exactly that.

Captain Corporate

hero member

Activity: 1946

Merit: 575

I agree with this. If you are talking about someone from inside, like literally they became part of it, then it could change in that case. If they are not inside, and they are not aware then they could get paid and promote something, it has happened a million times before and its not a problem at all. However, if we are talking about someone that ever gets shares, like becomes a partner with it, even if just getting token payments, then the trouble is they have to vet the company enough to know if they are legit or scam. You can just promote, but if you become part of it, you have bigger responsibility.

Topic: Influencers, affiliate links and scams (Read 373 times)