161–170 of 332 posts
Can someone explain how the scammers are pulled in in the first place? That is, what's the 'funnel' for this? I get that this is amusing and a good way to waste scammers' time, but where did he originally find the scammers?
This is product thinking. Let’s get deep: Story time! I initially liked the guy but grew a bit tired of him using what could be veiled racism for views — I’m not accusing him of anything; it just felt cringy-er than I like my YouTube. The ethics are more complicated than that, but something bothered me, especially since that special episode where they sent someone physically there, let pests in the building, etc. I c…
Kitboga definitely isn't using veiled racism like other scambaiters, unless you consider scambaiting itself racist to an extent.
As far as the "cannot scale" argument. His videos are educational. Most times here starts and ends his videos with a warning and a message to make sure you and your loved ones know how to spot these scammers. I for one have shared his videos with grandparents and they loved them, but were also saddened that some people do fall for these things. Since they were made aware, I would say they are 10x as safe when talking on the phone and browsing the web, maybe even to a fault since now they call me when something looks phishy... Anyways as long as his channel is growing and more people consume his content and spread awareness, it is scaling.
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I've had GPT pro since it was first available and have not once had to do a CAPTCHA to use it, first time I'm hearing about this actually.
Congrats, you are a good person with high social rating, keep at it!
This said, these types of gates exist everywhere online and off. Live in a nice neighborhood and you can go pick up your own Tide detergent right off the shelf. Live near a 'bad' (high theft) neighborhood and you'll ask a staff member to go unlock it for you before you can take it off the shelf. Even things with paid memberships like Sams club I've went to stores that check you match up with the membership ID you're bringing in.
OP doesn't have to give them business, but grabbing his pearls and acting shocked is also the appearance of someone that has not have to live around any kind of economically depressed area at all.
This is product thinking. Let’s get deep: Story time! I initially liked the guy but grew a bit tired of him using what could be veiled racism for views — I’m not accusing him of anything; it just felt cringy-er than I like my YouTube. The ethics are more complicated than that, but something bothered me, especially since that special episode where they sent someone physically there, let pests in the building, etc. I c…
FWIW, after a few videos I found Mark Rober insufferable, he seems too full of himself. I did enjoy his first glitter vs anti-package-thieves video, but not his later videos
I think that’s the influence of other YouTubers: he’s hanging out with the Safety Third guys, who are (as their name implies) trying to fast-run a Darwin prize. They make entertaining science-y stuff. He’s also hanging out with Mr. Beast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, which I suspect is why Mark is less fun: Jimmy has this extreme discipline of optimizing videos for views that carve the authentic excitement out to stuff cliffhangers every second instead.
For example, Mark Rober’s previous projects, like the always-on-target dart board, are much better. He’s quite smug on this one, too, but that’s his screen persona: an over-confident Californian frat-ish dude turning into “the best” uncle. He talks about this offline; it’s his way of making childish pranks fit his adult frame.
If you like the dart-board one more but thought it was too prankish, you might like Shane Wighton of Stuff Made Here in the Pacific North West: he’s more earnest about how hard it is to make hardware. There are still the occasional pranks (and the over-confidence because he’s using a robot), but there are a lot more technical details. His on-screen persona with his wife (who claims, on screen, to hate all his ideas) is not very credible, but more grown-up than Mark Rober’s Nerf gun fights.
Otherwise, Destin Sandlin of Smarter Everyday is the actual fun uncle, a Southern engineer to the core and a lot more earnest on screen. Alec Watson of Technology Connections is a MidWestern fix-it-all, who cares far too much about old tech. And finally, Tech Ingredients is the real deal: New Englander, no messing around, projects that are genuinely breakthroughs, with enough detail to reproduce in your garage.
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Calling comcast customer support almost guarantees this happens. You call in, repeatedly ask for a representative, they will hang up on you. The only way I've reliably been able to talk to anyone to say you wish to 'Talk to a representative about cancelling my account'. TBH, I kind of dread when they start incorporating LLMs or better ai, because it will be truly impossible to speak to a human anymore.
> The only way I've reliably been able to talk to anyone to say you wish to 'Talk to a representative about cancelling my account'. Threatening to leave is also a reliable technique to stop ridiculous price hikes and even get hefty discounts. Sometimes you have to talk to someone on the "retention team." At other times you can do it online. Most recently I preserved the NYT intro rate of $4 every 4 weeks (instead of…
"Why did you redeem it?!" Kitboga is a youtube national treasure.
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FWIW, after a few videos I found Mark Rober insufferable, he seems too full of himself. I did enjoy his first glitter vs anti-package-thieves video, but not his later videos
Oh, his latest videos and the package-thieves are way less entertaining than his previous ones. There are interesting hesitations when he ponders the ethics and legality, but it’s otherwise (unfunny) schadenfreude. I think that’s the influence of other YouTubers: he’s hanging out with the Safety Third guys, who are (as their name implies) trying to fast-run a Darwin prize. They make entertaining science-y stuff. He’s…
Technology Connections: interesting content, sometimes the humor is cringeworthy. He knows he's making a cringe joke or a very very lame pun, so he leans into it, "I know this joke isn't funny but the fact that you're aware that I'm aware that I'm making a lame joke makes it funny again ha ha ha" while my eyes roll hard, but hey maybe some people find the meta-joke (or is it a meta-meta-joke? Or am I missing his meta-meta-jokes?) hilarious and clever. Tech Ingredients is so serious and great!
Other YouTubers I enjoy are Matthias Wandel and Electroboom.
This is product thinking. Let’s get deep: Story time! I initially liked the guy but grew a bit tired of him using what could be veiled racism for views — I’m not accusing him of anything; it just felt cringy-er than I like my YouTube. The ethics are more complicated than that, but something bothered me, especially since that special episode where they sent someone physically there, let pests in the building, etc. I c…
I would watch a quieter, more humble Mark Rober. Kitboga definitely isn't using veiled racism like other scambaiters, unless you consider scambaiting itself racist to an extent. As far as the "cannot scale" argument. His videos are educational. Most times here starts and ends his videos with a warning and a message to make sure you and your loved ones know how to spot these scammers. I for one have shared his videos…
There is definitely too much Californian energy there… but I have to work with guys like that, so I try to get myself used to the unjustifiable yelling and gratuitous positivity.
I’ve mentioned alternatives who I would recommend in another comment:
> * Shane Wighton of Stuff Made Here in the Pacific North West: more earnest about how hard it is to make hardware > > * Destin Sandlin of Smarter Everyday is the actual fun uncle, a Southern engineer to the core and a lot more earnest on screen. > > * Alec Watson of Technology Connections is a MidWestern fix-it-all who cares far too much about old tech > > * Tech Ingredients is the real deal: New Englander, no messing around, projects that are genuine breakthroughs with enough detail to reproduce in your garage
> unless you consider scambaiting itself racist to an extent
Yeah… It’s not that it is, but it’s not clear enough that it’s not. Makes me feel uncomfortable. The best explanation I have is this joke (about a different problem): https://youtu.be/nu6C2KL_S9o
> Since they were made aware,
I see the argument behind education, and it does scale in that way — I initially listed YouTuber as an extensive work because it’s not a million times harder to make 10 million views than 10 views. There’s more than one input into work.
But I don’t know how many aging people have loved ones who will show them Kitboga videos. He still interrupts scams all the time. He’s a preventative measure in a world with scammers. His mocking of them hasn’t eradicated the practice. If he traps enough of them into eternal Captchas, until the center doesn’t make enough money, then he might convince the rich owners to do something else (train AI, I guess) and make the scam centers disappear. And that feels transformative.
This is product thinking. Let’s get deep: Story time! I initially liked the guy but grew a bit tired of him using what could be veiled racism for views — I’m not accusing him of anything; it just felt cringy-er than I like my YouTube. The ethics are more complicated than that, but something bothered me, especially since that special episode where they sent someone physically there, let pests in the building, etc. I c…
This automated method is cool though, so it makes an interesting video. Could have done without the Kraken shilling though, they are part of the problem.
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In regards to the arrogance... I imagine they have to be like that in order to be able to sleep at night, they justify the scamming by saying (mostly to themselves) things like the West stole from the developing countries, so this is them stealing back, and they have to believe the victims deserve it so they can, I repeat, sleep at night. Another justification might be "Look at this stupid moron, I won't feel bad ste…
The Stanford Prison Experiment reveals a lot about decent people being easily manipulated - and by that I mean the whole thing has since been revealed as fraudulent: https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-exper...