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Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

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Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#31

This problem is very ubiquitous - not just against YT but also on social media sites like Facebook. I have given up reporting these. The social media companies usually employ some automated method, whereupon reviewing the post, said automation determines it's just fine. I also went all the way to finding some prolific scammers in Canada, handing over their details to the FBI and state police... but two years later, t…

Meta does this, saying it's "just fine". Especially Instagram. I reported an account posting hardcore porn videos and they were like "lol thanks, we don't have time for this, it's fine". Then I wrote the word "tits" in a comment of some redhead's picture and the comment and removed because it was "harassment". Say what? I escalated the issue and a month later they were like "the committee didn't pick your case".

The amount of scammers I get in my private messages on Instagram is also insane. How clumsy they act. Method A: Take a random picture that you commented on a longer while ago. Say they're them and that you, the fan, has been chosen for special treatment. Yada Yada, they want to send you a picture of them but sigh coincidence has it that it requires an iTunes gift card to work. Fucking really? The profile picture is that of a blonde but all of the profile's friends are black including the women. Method B: A more popular porn actress had an Instagram account, you comment on that account, any comment. They copy pictures of that account, use AI to generate similar pictures of that person. Again you're addressed as "the fan". You get the rest. Those accounts have over 200k followers each. Maybe they're also part of that person's network monetization strategy. I know a guy who worked in SMS sex chat, pretending to be a woman and sexing male chatters up. Something like this may be happening here.

The internet, especially social networks, remain a dangerous place.

Sometimes I want to go along with it just to see where it ends and what they do to make it work, but then again who has the time for that?

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#32

We need a way to make commenting on social media cost something. As long as it is free there is no way humans can compete with bots. As nobody wants to spend real money on it we probably need some social credit system but one that is hard to game and probably rate limiting. We urgently need this otherwise AI will take over the world by dominating the social networks.

I know in a certain infamous forum, it was something like $10 to make an account. If you got banned, you could just fork out another $10 on a new account. Which certainly limited some behaviors, or at least made them expensive. Depending on the implementation of a pay-to-comment scenario, it could still be profitable for the scammers to pay. They would definitely be tracking CTR or whatever their equivalent is on sca…

Steam requires you to spend at least $5 on a game before you can comment. I guess that's why so many accounts get banned for nothing at all

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#33
post #4

Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…

> Computers are sometimes likened to "magic" where we just cast a spell by writing code, and something technically beautiful happens, but where magic can interpret intent and act according to the caster's desire, computers can't, and there's no way to "Wrath of God" the spammers. I somewhat agree with this, but I feel like there's some very low-hanging fruit that should be available. When posting in comments on a vid…

Formatting author comments to have red background and white text is, like, an intern project.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#34
What can be done? Those bots are using IP addresses. If they're v6 they still have prefixes. Analyze all the bots, determine their addresses. If they go to non-private aka not households ban the network or prefix. Abuse@ all incidents.

Yes it requires manual labor buy Alphabet has the money to afford to pay a group of people to combat this. They will in turn probably reduce the amount of % they pay out creators.

If I had the resources Alphabet does that problem would be solved quickly. Kill the messenger.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#35
post #4

Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…

> Computers are sometimes likened to "magic" where we just cast a spell by writing code, and something technically beautiful happens, but where magic can interpret intent and act according to the caster's desire, computers can't, and there's no way to "Wrath of God" the spammers. I somewhat agree with this, but I feel like there's some very low-hanging fruit that should be available. When posting in comments on a vid…

I agree with you. However, I'd point out a usability issue:

> A huge indication that a comment comes from the channel author.

This pattern requires that users have done something to have seen this before. While many users will see it, the users that are probably falling for this problem probably will not have seen this "huge indication" before, so wouldn't know it exists.

e.g. a user who never checks comments really, but then checks comments one day and sees the scammer might not realize there would be an indicator if it was the video's author.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#36

Feels like YouTube could create an official mechanism for giveaways and information exchange to combat the problem. Also, they could disallow external links in comments.

> Also, they could disallow external links in comments.

Bots will now post a link to another YouTube video (internal) while pretending to be the creator. The linked channel will look identical to the creator's channel. The private video played will be "You've been selected as a winner! Please check the description for details on how to redeem your gift". Heck use AI to fake the creator's voice and play that as a voice over.

Etc.

The fundamentals are hard to fight here. Automating these processes are low effort / high-enough reward for scammers, and it's plugging holes in a leaky boat.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#37
post #4

Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…

> Maybe I'm a callous bastard...

He is upset that his posts are acting like bait, that his likeness is getting used to scam people who wanted nothing more than to connect with someone they admire.

For a lot of people, it would be impossible not to take this personally.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#38
post #4

Maybe I'm a callous bastard, but I genuinely don't get how he feels personally responsible here. It's a YouTube problem, not a M:tG problem or a him problem. He sounds genuinely distressed, and I feel for him, but I don't get why it causes him pain in this specific way. It's not your fault! And for what it's worth, it's not really YouTube's "fault" either. Remember, they're victims here too. They didn't invite this,…

> Computers are sometimes likened to "magic" where we just cast a spell by writing code, and something technically beautiful happens, but where magic can interpret intent and act according to the caster's desire, computers can't, and there's no way to "Wrath of God" the spammers. I somewhat agree with this, but I feel like there's some very low-hanging fruit that should be available. When posting in comments on a vid…

There are definitely ways to combat this but I think they're expensive. An avatar comparability check at the scale of YouTube would be immense. Running each comment through some machine learning algo would be immense.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#39
Also... if you think this is problematic for people who aren't really old... imagine how it plays out for the elderly.

Your parents & grandparents should NOT be on social media. They're just going to get ripped off.

If you have elderly family who you care about, spend time helping prune services and educate them on how to spot a fake post.

Re: Magic the Gathering content creator pleas YouTube to stop scammer bot deluge

#40
post #7

After an ad, and a minute and 30 seconds of talking head, he still hadn't even started getting to his main point.

I paused the video at 1:24 to come here and I already know exactly what this video is about. Maybe your listening comprehension skills are lacking
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