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Topic: Steve Wozniak Sues YouTube Over Twitter-Like Bitcoin Scam (Read 515 times)

legendary
Activity: 2296
Merit: 1014
Steve Wozniak Sues YouTube Over Twitter-Like Bitcoin Scam

Not suprised here. His name was tarnished by scammers that when you want report them its very hard or impossible.
Google in general so youtube and other services are really hard to work with with anything except using them.
You want something more? Report or contact? Virtually impossible especially second option.
copper member
Activity: 493
Merit: 170
BountyMarketCap
How naive does one have to be to be deceived by such a simple way of cheating? But he did the right thing to sue. If everyone did that, the internet would be much cleaner.
newbie
Activity: 100
Merit: 0
Scammers are everywhere. Each of you should know this. Remember this when you are offered too favorable terms. When you visit a suspicious site. When your password is not secure enough.
hero member
Activity: 2842
Merit: 772
Sometimes I get confused with Youtube why the response related to video scams is relatively slower compared to videos related
to political issues.This made me a little disappointed, because based on the articles I read on the internet. The number of video
scams victims is very large, I was very happy when Steve Wozniak decided on sues YouTube. So this can be a lesson for Youtube
for fast responds related video scams.


Even doing live streams, they usually take it down, that is if it violated their ToS. But clearly with the rampant scams and ads on their backyard, it's about time that they clean up and it's really good to see that someone like Steve on sue them for not doing their part here.

And on the part of content creator, you need to be careful as well as hackers are targeting those channels that has a lot of subscribers. So learn to protect your account as well, enable 2FA, update your password with a strong one or even change a new email address for insurance.
hero member
Activity: 2870
Merit: 594
Giveaway ads on YouTube has not stopped and people are still fallen for it. This mean one thing, YouTube don't review well the ads before it is being accepted. It is a bad news for YouTube because they are being careless and make people lose money recklessly. Who would have thought ads on YouTube are published by scammers.
Yeah, notice that scammers shift to getting ads as well on Youtube, it's not that they are careless, it seems that they are really turning their backs and as if allowing these scammers to get into their platform to victimized many more victims. If there is another competition, I'm sure that Youtube will going to react fast and swift. But since there are none, they don't give a shit and let these criminals enjoy and have fun cashing their loot.

sr. member
Activity: 2380
Merit: 366

It seems the users are now the ones trying to make ways to keep the rest from falling victim to countless scam giveaways. This is not unique to Vitalik Buterin as far as I know. I have seen other official accounts of top crypto personalities and crypto projects giving reminders that they are not actually giving away coins.

This kind of scam is not just found on Youtube. It is everywhere online. Youtube, social media sites, Google, etc should start taking this problem very seriously now. Large amounts of money must have been stolen due to these scams. It is just right that there should be a legal action.  

Most don't bother because people still fall for them even after warning them. But those sites with verified tags are more convincing because of the trust factor.

Using the same Vitalik example above, if a hacked verified account impersonates him, no doubt at least a handful would still fall victim, even with another handle, let's say @VitaIikButerin.

Even if the scams are very stupid by design or have few victims only, it is never an excuse for the admins to be indifferent and not remove or block them. Even if the accounts used for scamming are bogus or are not the official accounts of the owners obtained by the scammers through a brilliant hack, it is still not an excuse for the admins not to act against these scumbags.  
sr. member
Activity: 1666
Merit: 268
Sometimes I get confused with Youtube why the response related to video scams is relatively slower compared to videos related
to political issues.This made me a little disappointed, because based on the articles I read on the internet. The number of video
scams victims is very large, I was very happy when Steve Wozniak decided on sues YouTube. So this can be a lesson for Youtube
for fast responds related video scams.
sr. member
Activity: 906
Merit: 263
They use bitcoin because of its trending. On Instagram, they still sometimes show those scam ads. The thing I do not understand is that its the same age-old ad. It's like a scammer pack. The scammer just sads what niche to use and then everything is the same. I have seen lottery winnings, magical investment companies that grow money on trees, buying bitcoin that magically gains you fiat, casino winnings. Basically any "excuse" as to where the winnings came from. It never makes sense so it meant to attract the type of people who would fall for it. Only someone who would fall for the ad would believe it. Anyone else can see it makes no sense.
sr. member
Activity: 980
Merit: 260
Steve Wozniak Sues YouTube Over Twitter-Like Bitcoin Scam

Quote
Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak says YouTube has for months allowed scammers to use his name and likeness as part of a phony bitcoin giveaway similar to the one that was quickly extinguished by Twitter Inc. last week.

Scammers used images and video of Wozniak, who left Apple in 1985, to convince YouTube users that he was hosting a live giveaway and anyone who sent him bitcoins will get double the number back, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state court in San Mateo County, California. “But when users transfer their cryptocurrency, in an irreversible transaction, they receive nothing back.”

The scam also uses the names and images of other tech celebrities, including Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, according to the suit.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-23/steve-wozniak-sues-youtube-over-twitter-like-bitcoin-scam

Steve W. is not the first high profile personalities that sue Youtube over this scam. Brad Garlinghouse of XRP, https://fortune.com/2020/04/21/ripple-sues-youtube-scam-videos-crypto-garlinghouse/.

I think Youtube should step up and better police their service with this rampant fake giveaways promoted on their platform. It's about time, specially on what had happen to Twitter in recent days.

These new waves of fake giveaways are so prominent that even large companies like Youtube can't track it properly - and it just goes to show how hard policing this is. Bottom line is that these scam accusations aren't benefiting anybody, it looks bad for any parties involved.

This can eventually with better policing be better controlled but not made absolute, and this is the morale of these stories. We can do our best to prevent scams from happening but at the same time we need to understand that the risks of them happening can't be 100% eradicated.
legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1965
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
Looks like "Woz" is in financial trouble.  Roll Eyes  None of the other celebrities who's Twitter accounts got hacked or who was used in Youtube for these scams, sued these platforms... but he does that.  Roll Eyes

You cannot blame the tool for these hacks or scams... blame the stupid/greedy people who fell for these scams.  Angry  Let's all sue the telephone companies every time a scammer picks up the telephone to scam you over the phone... see how long they would be able to  stay in business if all of us do that.  Roll Eyes
hero member
Activity: 881
Merit: 500
CyberTrade
There's been a lot of recent issues regarding scam giveaways in big popular platforms as well as using famous personalities in such activities. That's why I think YouTube also needs to step up with strict policies and take actions to prevent scam giveaways spread in their platform. They can put ads regarding these activities to warn people on YouTube if they can't stop people from doing fake giveaways.

It's understandable why Steve Wozniak wants to sue YouTube because scammers are using his name to deceive people... However, people also have their responsibility for sending money to others and believing somebody will double it for them.
Recently I have also seen a lot of big youtubers getting hacked and then their accounts making live streams of bitcoin giveaways and scamming people. This needs to be stopped and I have reported those streams many a times. This is making the image of cryptocurrency community bad in eyes of the world and recently one friend of mine said that the cryptocurrency people are mostly hackers after the recent news of twitter scam and now YouTube being ignorant to these scam channels and streams. But if they won't be able to stop these kind of streams then probably they will have a platform-wide ban on cryptocurrency related channels which won't be good at all.
hero member
Activity: 1218
Merit: 500
BintexFutures
Finally, someone taking a stand against youtube and their greed. Hopefully, more and more celebrities will start doing the same. In the meantime, if you are frustrated of seeing those ads you can start using brave browsers 'coz they can bypass the youtube ads.
copper member
Activity: 658
Merit: 402
There's been a lot of recent issues regarding scam giveaways in big popular platforms as well as using famous personalities in such activities. That's why I think YouTube also needs to step up with strict policies and take actions to prevent scam giveaways spread in their platform. They can put ads regarding these activities to warn people on YouTube if they can't stop people from doing fake giveaways.

It's understandable why Steve Wozniak wants to sue YouTube because scammers are using his name to deceive people... However, people also have their responsibility for sending money to others and believing somebody will double it for them.
hero member
Activity: 2702
Merit: 716
Nothing lasts forever
I would have done the same thing if I were him. Considering the recent twitter hack and the amount people have lost it is better to report any such scams and Steve has done the right thing because it's youtube who has to figure out a way to stop people from promoting such scams which leads to huge losses to people. I am pretty impressed that Steve has taken a step at least because celebs don't generally do that.
legendary
Activity: 2030
Merit: 1569
CLEAN non GPL infringing code made in Rust lang
I think Youtube should step up and better police their service with this rampant fake giveaways promoted on their platform. It's about time, specially on what had happen to Twitter in recent days.

Well youtube is trigger happy for copyright infractions, infamously triggering several false positives; and yet they let those (stupid) scams using the names of famous people go on unmolested. They should all band together and sue Google the way they deserve it.
hero member
Activity: 2128
Merit: 532
FREE passive income eBook @ tinyurl.com/PIA10

It seems the users are now the ones trying to make ways to keep the rest from falling victim to countless scam giveaways. This is not unique to Vitalik Buterin as far as I know. I have seen other official accounts of top crypto personalities and crypto projects giving reminders that they are not actually giving away coins.

This kind of scam is not just found on Youtube. It is everywhere online. Youtube, social media sites, Google, etc should start taking this problem very seriously now. Large amounts of money must have been stolen due to these scams. It is just right that there should be a legal action. 

Most don't bother because people still fall for them even after warning them. But those sites with verified tags are more convincing because of the trust factor.

Using the same Vitalik example above, if a hacked verified account impersonates him, no doubt at least a handful would still fall victim, even with another handle, let's say @VitaIikButerin.
sr. member
Activity: 2380
Merit: 366
For obvious reasons, Steve is feed up with those fake giveaways using his name and I presume that many people are asking him about this so he got stress and file this case against Youtube. This is no longer secret, they have been taken advantage of scammers thru Youtube and they need to stop this from happening. Or at least be quick on their response from reports as we have experience that it takes days and months before they finally shut down those fake giveaways.

Vitalik (founder of ETH) was so fed up at one point he did this Grin


It seems the users are now the ones trying to make ways to keep the rest from falling victim to countless scam giveaways. This is not unique to Vitalik Buterin as far as I know. I have seen other official accounts of top crypto personalities and crypto projects giving reminders that they are not actually giving away coins.

This kind of scam is not just found on Youtube. It is everywhere online. Youtube, social media sites, Google, etc should start taking this problem very seriously now. Large amounts of money must have been stolen due to these scams. It is just right that there should be a legal action. 
full member
Activity: 1498
Merit: 129
Giveaway ads on YouTube has not stopped and people are still fallen for it. This mean one thing, YouTube don't review well the ads before it is being accepted. It is a bad news for YouTube because they are being careless and make people lose money recklessly. Who would have thought ads on YouTube are published by scammers.
hero member
Activity: 2618
Merit: 548
DGbet.fun - Crypto Sportsbook
Another thing openly he's doing it through the live streaming on the YouTube. With the chat box disabled for the video itself show how they're scamming the people. Newcomers to the cryptocurrency will easy get turned to be a prey, because the way this has been happening around is simply flawless. Just send based on the requirement. Also more people keeps watching. I saw more than 5k people watching the video.
hero member
Activity: 2870
Merit: 594
It's good that he is suing YouTube though but the real issue is that what will be the outcome for it?

1. He is a public figure that anyone could have access to his portrait to perpetuate such atrocities. Which means nothing
It means' everything, his images are being used to perpetuate crimes with Youtube as their platforms.

2. Does YouTube claim responsibility for all contents uploaded on its platform which I know that the only reason that they take down videos is either it outrightly failed their policy or it's reported. Now that he is suing, then he is putting them on their toes to be stricter in their policy.
Of course they should claim responsibility on everything being posted on their platform. So definitely they need to have a tougher policy about this one. If they haven't noticed, fake giveaways on their backyard are rampant and scammers and criminals are thanking them for that relax policy.
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