The scam YouTube ads are getting better
81–87 of 87 posts
Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better
#82At some point platforms should be held responsible for the ads they run and the damages they cause. If the ad is to be broadcasted to thousands of people, or worse targets groups of people, it's reasonable that it must be approved and vetted by the platform. The cost of such vetting, even if done manually by a human, is likely a fraction of what is the cost of creating an ad anyway. If necessary Google can charge adv…
Why aren’t scams easily prosecuted in this case? We should at a minimum have financial information and contacts for the person who created the ads. Are all governments sitting on their hands because it’s happening on the internet?
Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better
#83It 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…
Same goes for X, btw.
Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better
#84The scammer loses money everytime you click their ad. Does anyone click these ads just for fun and as a social service ?
It keeps track of how much you've cost advertisers too.
Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to but the closest thing I'm aware of is video calls in Germany where you are asked to show your ID card. Those certainly wouldn't be easy to fool without being able to do this at runtime and consistently showing an altered ID with all safety features intact. The agent will give you specific instructions on how to hold your ID and where to put your face while also switching…
Those are the fancy ones (scratching your ID card is still annoying). The less fancy ones use a lighting scheme on the phone or zooming methods to detect fake actors and do not require a human on the other side. The fancy ones also do not scale.
There's also Postident (which involves walking into a post office and showing the clerk your ID card in person) and eID (which requires a compatible smartphone and uses the digital data on the ID card itself). Video ID is pretty ubiquitous these days, so I'm not sure why you think it "doesn't scale".
If you're suggesting alternatives that only rely on biometrics, I don't think those are sufficient to fulfill the requirements of anti-money-laundering laws in Germany even if American KYC laws might allow them.
Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better
#86Re: The scam YouTube ads are getting better
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed I've never seen a celebrity endorse something and thought "Ah they clearly actually love this product so it must be good!"
It works incredibly well, that's why it keeps happening. Most people do follow pretty much exactly that thought process. Merely by participating on this forum etc etc etc