Live data from Hacker News

I was scammed by a celebrity influencer

medium.com

11–20 of 57 posts

Re: I was scammed by a celebrity influencer

#11

Wow, great write up. Thanks a lot for taking the course and talking about it, perhaps it was because you went into it willing to burn $500 but many would stay silent. I can't believe at the missed business opportunity here. It sounds like she could have easily pulled 7 figures from running those classes. Even if she hired a "business manager" of sorts for a cut to grow her lessons, it would have been a really financi…

Part for that is because web advertising in general sucks. You have fraudulent clicks all over the place, banner blindness, adblockers and whatnot etc. So brands are looking for new venues to reach consumers and influencers/celebrities are a good match. Probably this will also die down soon than later but until then the smart ones will make a good buck.

Re: I was scammed by a celebrity influencer

#13

Wow, great write up. Thanks a lot for taking the course and talking about it, perhaps it was because you went into it willing to burn $500 but many would stay silent. I can't believe at the missed business opportunity here. It sounds like she could have easily pulled 7 figures from running those classes. Even if she hired a "business manager" of sorts for a cut to grow her lessons, it would have been a really financi…

>Yet for me, IG feels so fake

Its pay to play for sure. You don't get shown unless you are providing Facebook with money.

This is why the content feels fake. Only highly profitable instagrammers can afford to pay to promote.

Re: I was scammed by a celebrity influencer

#14
post #2

I think it's quite the stretch to describe someone as a celebrity just because they have 800k instagram followers. And yeah, that site is full of scammers with high follower counts. I own a couple of nice names and constantly have people with million+ followers messaging me trying to scam me for them.

I wonder how many people would recognize my name. I’d guess 2,000 tops. Somebody who 800,000 people have heard of seems like a celebrity to me.

Paid followers are a real thing.

Check out these people's website/youtube on Alexa(or similar). They are dead.

Or check out the comments and see how fake/active the posts are.

Re: I was scammed by a celebrity influencer

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many people would recognize my name. I’d guess 2,000 tops. Somebody who 800,000 people have heard of seems like a celebrity to me.

Paid followers are a real thing. Check out these people's website/youtube on Alexa(or similar). They are dead. Or check out the comments and see how fake/active the posts are.

FWIW @travel_inhershoes actually does have fairly good engagement rates for the follower count.

But given that she probably only runs the one account, that's pretty small time.

Re: I was scammed by a celebrity influencer

#16
To be fair, the main lesson here is that you shouldn’t be paying 500$ to an illusionist.

That “Angie” whoever she is, is just a fraud. She’s not actually delivering any value. Whatever she’s pretending to earn could be all fake (it’s honestly not that difficult to fake these “perfect” photos and definitely doesn’t require to be a millionaire), and even if it’s real now, she’s gonna be the first one to get the door the second this social media/bullshit media bubble pops and brands realise it’s not worth it.

You want to make money? There are plenty of career paths that will make you good money by delivering actual value to your customers. Bragging on Instagram and getting virtual internet points isn’t one of them.

Post reply on HN