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The scam YouTube ads are getting better

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Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#21

A long time ago, my grandmother got a call one day saying that I was hurt badly and needed money. That I was afraid to contact my parents because I had been doing something I shouldn't have, and all my grandmother needed to do was send money to this hospital, which was just some scammers fake information. I hate scammers. The idea that now you will be able to create videos, that interact and respond to questions, as…

Keep anything that can copy your identity from the open web, especially socials.

Only use services that have privacy in mind.

Educate your family on how to check for these things, like asking personal questions, or having a safe phrase.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#22

Why would Youtube care to police bad actors? They are taking this money directly to their quarterly revenue.

Creators don't want scam ads on their videos. It hurts YouTube's image, which hurts their bottom line.

You would need a mass exodus of top YouTube creators to make the slightest dent on YouTube's bottom line. Meanwhile, any top YouTube creator leaving YouTube (to what alternative?) isn't hurting his or her bottom line, but rather nuking it from orbit.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#23
post #8

A long time ago, my grandmother got a call one day saying that I was hurt badly and needed money. That I was afraid to contact my parents because I had been doing something I shouldn't have, and all my grandmother needed to do was send money to this hospital, which was just some scammers fake information. I hate scammers. The idea that now you will be able to create videos, that interact and respond to questions, as…

The type of attack you're concerned with doesn't scale. The scammers would first have to collect your likeness to use to make the video or audio. It _would_ work for the more targeted attacks. People will have to establish passphrases.

This scam has been around far longer than deepfake audio/video.

~20 years ago my grandparents were close to sending money to someone claiming to be my cousin asking for bail to get out of jail.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#24
post #10

Everyone focuses on how scamming and AI is evolving. I'm rather curious how this will affect marketing. Celebrity endorsements is useful for building trust. I wonder if we see more or less of that in the future.

Are celebrity endorsements actually useful for building trust? Usually i view them in a negative light, thinking that they just paid someone to promote the product, rather that a genuine and organic endorsement.

Agreed I've never seen a celebrity endorse something and thought "Ah they clearly actually love this product so it must be good!"

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#25
post #10

Everyone focuses on how scamming and AI is evolving. I'm rather curious how this will affect marketing. Celebrity endorsements is useful for building trust. I wonder if we see more or less of that in the future.

I wonder if the rise of deepfakes will finally be the moment that gives us all sufficient incentive to adopt a real, cross-platform authentication infrastructure of some sort (public key auth, etc). There's real value in, say, the NYT being able to authenticate that a reporter's social media presence is legit, and for that reporter to be able to sign and take responsibility for their photographs. Or using your example, some sports star authenticating an ad featuring them. Unsigned media would be considered suspect. This could all be surfaced in a digestible way to users, like we have done with the HTTPS lock icon. Dunno. Probably not, but maybe.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#26
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The type of attack you're concerned with doesn't scale. The scammers would first have to collect your likeness to use to make the video or audio. It _would_ work for the more targeted attacks. People will have to establish passphrases.

Passphrases probably don't work well with the target demographic that most needs it (elderly people). Maybe teach teach them to verify through another channel instead. I.e, hang up and call back at the number you usually use. That's what we just implemented at my company. If one of our CXO's (video) calls or writes to authorize a transfer of funds, then politely say you will, hang up, and call back the CXO in questio…

You could probably be visiting your grandparents and physically stand right in front of them when the scammers call and pretend to be you, and the grandparents would still believe the scammers more than they believed you. Elderly people have an eery respect and reverence for telephones and letters.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#27
post #10

Everyone focuses on how scamming and AI is evolving. I'm rather curious how this will affect marketing. Celebrity endorsements is useful for building trust. I wonder if we see more or less of that in the future.

Are celebrity endorsements actually useful for building trust? Usually i view them in a negative light, thinking that they just paid someone to promote the product, rather that a genuine and organic endorsement.

I think in exactly the same way as you do but if it didn't work at scale then corporations wouldn't do it. Most people are falling for it.

Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better

#30

It reminds me of the fact that the "Fake Mr Beast giveaway" ads that even raised some attention here on Hacker News [1] a while ago are still around. In fact, I have seen one yesterday. Those must have been flagged as impersonation and scam thousands of times by many people, including me personally, and Youtube finds them perfectly fine. After that episode, where I tried myself to get rid of them, I am much more conv…

I’m sure big budget scams pay great CPM! You’re thinking too customer friendly
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