Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube crypto giveaway scams

scaminvestigations.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 108 posts

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#61

Post by xwolfi »

userbinator wrote: post #55
debdut wrote: post #54

Whoever said "Traditional financial systems are rigged with fraud! Crypto solves this" RIP Until the days people are gullible, any amount of tech doesn't solve the problem. Even worse, most people don't understand the slightest of how crypto works and will be easily rigged in crypto world!

I think you accidentally a word at the beginning of your second paragraph, but it's also worth considering that keeping people gullible and trusting is unfortunately an implicit goal of a lot of (non-scam) companies too. It's much easier to sell things to people who are easy to persuade and convince.

But crypto doesn't solve that. In fact, it worsens it, making people believe a fairy tale of lazy wealth.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#63

Post by xwolfi »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #45

A family member lost $3k to this. YouTube promoted a real looking interview with the founder of ETH, high production value, saying they will double your ETH etc. When most of of crypto users are poor and less educated they tend to be targeted…

Yeah like crypto or not, why would you be paid instantly for doing nothing ? $3k is a month or more of work for most people, did that person really believe the world lied to him and instead of working a month, he could "double" it immediately ?

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#65

Post by pfraze »

PullJosh wrote: post #58
tjpnz wrote: post #53

I've reported these on YouTube yet they're still being recommended to me hours later. Clearly they're incapable of moderating their own platform. What's it going to take for them to start taking this seriously?

Genuine question: Does anyone here have a good sense of how easy/hard it is to moderate a platform like YouTube? My sense is that the answer is VERY HARD, so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt when things go wrong. But perhaps I’m being too generous. Is this something that could be prevented if YouTube just tried harder?

Yeah I see just as many complaints about unfair takedowns. At their scale, I think it’s a little more complex than people want to admit.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#66

Post by _nhynes »

roenxi wrote: post #38
sithadmin wrote: post #7

I find it rather irritating that the author didn't bother to describe the mechanics behind the supposed scam. A quick sample of other posts also suffer from the same lack of information.

Indeed. But this site is probably a pretty typical example of the scam: https://msnews.io/#rules I like their calculator. Very helpful.

I was surprised at how few spelling errors the scam had until I got to the transaction hashes and wallet addresses.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#67

Post by tjpnz »

PullJosh wrote: post #58
tjpnz wrote: post #53

I've reported these on YouTube yet they're still being recommended to me hours later. Clearly they're incapable of moderating their own platform. What's it going to take for them to start taking this seriously?

Genuine question: Does anyone here have a good sense of how easy/hard it is to moderate a platform like YouTube? My sense is that the answer is VERY HARD, so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt when things go wrong. But perhaps I’m being too generous. Is this something that could be prevented if YouTube just tried harder?

YouTube could at least make it harder for scammers by not promoting streams through the algorithm or at least not showing them unless there's a subscription. I would also argue that they shouldn't just give everybody the ability to livestream at first given how many of the scammer accounts are new. That strikes me as a common sense solution.

If both were implemented I suspect these sorts of scams would no longer be worth the effort.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#68

Post by xwolfi »

rank0 wrote: post #28

This is a shitty post. No description of the scam itself and incorrectly asserts that YouTube giveaways generate permanent consistent income for a single group. How does it follow that 200k over 12 hours => ransomware is less profitable. Are all 14 transactions victims? Are all 14 transactions paid to the same actor?

It's because it's obvious: they are "double your bitcoin" scams: you send them, they double it back. It's as old as digital currency transfer, themselves much older than bitcoin. I remember doing that in Eve Online.

Re: YouTube crypto giveaway scams

#70

Post by cmeacham98 »

varenc wrote: post #42
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bring the scammer before a judge. The same as when anyone scams you out of cash or gemstones or electronics. "I put a ruby in a box and shipped it to Nigeria because an email told me to. How do I get it back?" It's not a new problem.

I think 100% irreversible purely online/digital transactions are a bit of a new problem? If you wire transferred money to a scammer's bank account it won't be easy getting it back, but if you realize your mistake soon enough you at least have a chance. For example, it's possible to to get the receiving bank to hold the money pending an investigation. With a crypto transfer there's no higher authority to appeal to. (w…

My understanding is that it is effectively impossible to reverse a wire transfer (except when your bank screws up, such as sending the wrong amount, in which case they will reimburse you). You will be told to go to the police.

I'm also not aware of any bank that will allow some random person to call them up and freeze an account, even if they just wired money to that account.

Post reply on HN