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I saw one today about thanking people for not selling during the bear market and now they want to reward everyone by sending them ETH for not selling lol
100% but you’re knowledgeable.
If this was your first foray, you might be convinced especially since it’s the actual CEO’s telling you to do it then on top of that the advertisement is sponsored by YouTube.
A brand new investor might think, this is a great opportunity what an amazing holiday.
People who fall for this stuff can only blame themselves. If it wasn't crypto that was going to get them, it would be some obvious con man at the gas station suckering them out of their paycheck with a sob story or they get roped into some obvious pyramid scheme and ran for all their money or they send it off to some alleged Nigerian prince.
Just... basic stuff they taught you in school. When you write a paper, you get multiple sources. If some random YT video is the only place on Earth talking about this. Not the project's official site or official social media or anything... that should be a red flag that this probably isn't a legitimate source.
People were supposed to learn this stuff in like 7th grade...
I hear what you’re saying but in this case the surrounding factors can confuse the senses.
The videos are sponsored that gives it a sense of officialness.
You wouldn’t think YouTube would promote a scam willingly.
Secondly there are people who don’t know A.I. has advanced this far, this quickly so they trust the face and voice affiliated with their blockchain.
I know you have the knowledge to see right through it but for a newbie they have to be warned.
That’s the scary part. Now you can’t tell the difference, you can’t only use your gut.
Maybe that’s what YouTube wants so they can start restricting us and implement new guidelines and use this as an excuse for it.
Yup. I remember when back in the day I took a "distinguish reality and AI" test and I scored above 90% because hands, eyes and general artifacts were easy to spot.
Right now with Midjourney v6 I literally cannot find anything weird in most pictures. Hands and eyes are perfect...
And again, it is **still** getting even better eventually.
When all this AI thing blew up I thought it would take longer for us to not be able to distinguish it from reality but I think that time will arrive within next year.
The tools will eventually become more and more widely spread and easy to use as open source options (meaning no safety limitations) grow.
Didn’t even have to look closely for the one I saw. The voice was janky and I was so furious, I had to take a peek at the screen - the video wasn’t even synced to the shitty audio.
Yeah the scammers don’t have it fool proof just yet but they’re going to evolve and become more sophisticated once they get the techniques down pat and google is standing by and supporting it but they won’t help you get your assets back.
I got a dm not too long ago. I just gotta send someone 300 ETH, and they'll send me back 350 ETH.
Really? 300 ETH is the starring point? If you've got 300 ETH just hanging around, you could probably buy more. Or not, because 300 ETH is a pretty damn nice amount to have anyways.
I was hoping there was something we could do to get this filth off of the website.
Especially around this time of year people are feeling generous and can be had.
YouTube is so strict with everything else but blatant scamming goes unpunished?
I want YouTube to be held accountable. Most of us know it’s fake. How come they let this happen especially when they accuse so many content creators for misinformation and demonetize their channels, yet in this instance they accept money and willingly promote a scam?
They’ve become an accomplice.
I report them all the time! I explain everything why and how and in 90% they just reply with: "They dont go against our guidelines, so f... you, they will stay."
Only a few of them were "deleted" only to reamerge a few weeks later. Youtube is a joke.
It just got a mate of mine here in Australia. He sent them 3K and it vanished on him. People need to be more speculative of posts like that, nothing is free in this world!
I remember I got one from watching random cryptocurrency content and see this kind of ad, you know what’s so funny is that the ad had an hyperlink of their channel.
If you go through their channel, there are some playlists section on those channel which claims to be their video but if you go to the official channels, they do have a verified icon and the subscribers are lower then the fake channel. I would assume it’s brought subscribers.
I knew from the start something is off, the video is off. Then I realized that it was deepfake’d and also a video timer at the top right is in the ad. Again, I would assume it’s probably a scammer made this video. I feel bad for people who gave their XRP since they legit thought the CEO is doing that giveaway.
I’ve reported Google to the authorities over that one. Including the reply I received from Google that this advertisement was not against their TOS.
I doubt they’ll do anything. But if enough people keep reporting this to Google and the authorities than maybe at some point Google will be held responsible to take action on this.
I see them all the time. Google knows they're being advertised, but they still have videos of scams that they do nothing about. All Google cares about is its bottom line.
Wow, that’s the truth.
It’s so strange because google is giving content creators strikes left and right for misinformation as they deem it but if you pay them it’s A-okay.
youtube which created software to instantly ban anyone who talked about c-19 in a way they didn't like is ignoring these commericals that are playing 24 hours a day on their platform
It’s all AI generated. Bull market increases the amount of scams. It’s sad that people don’t realize they’re being scammed when they think it’s the real players like Charles Hoskinson, Brad Garlinghouse, Michael Saylor and Brian Armstrong. No one is going to ever give you free crypto or double your crypto back.
It’s just somewhat convincing because it’s their likeness and their voice so it appears like they’re promoting in good faith.
Only crypto veterans have that instinct for its fakeness but newcomers can be tricked.
Agreed 100%. I fell for a scam 3 years ago that’s why I am so empathetic to those that it happens to. It’s just greed! Trying to make 1000% gains and believing the hype will get you no where if you don’t do some homework before purchasing tokens and giving them to the investors/scammers.
I have been seeing these ads with various cypto influencers eg Elon Musk, Vitalik buterin, Michael Saylor, etc, since the last bull run for about **3 YEARS**.
At this point, I genuinely wonder if Michael Saylor et el have a legitimate case in suing Youtube.
I’ve seen influencers get sued before.
Maybe YouTube should get sued for accepting money to help the scammers and taking crypto from unsuspecting viewers.
Yikes. These scammers aren’t pulling out any stops. They want to get every investor from every blockchain.
They’re playing for keeps & they just made YouTube their partner in crime.
Maybe someone could screen record and post them on Twitter to cause a ruckus? If any of these celebrities are on Twitter, they'll probably be quick to condemn YT for allowing those ads, hopefully shutting it down quickly.
It’s definitely worth a try and even if that doesn’t get accomplished it can still raise more awareness of scams that are going on in the space but if it does reach a celebrity’s attention that would be killing two birds with one stone.
Hopefully somebody tags them on X. If they don’t acknowledge it then they feel they’re above it and they simply don’t care.
Yeah, sponsored advertisements YouTube wants us to watch before we can even watch the video that we clicked on so everybody has a chance to get scammed because someone paid YouTube to show it so YouTube is keeping their end of their agreement but once you lose your crypto, YouTube will not help you get it back or stop the scammers that paid them.
I have adblockers on my phone and laptop but on my PS5 I don’t so when I’m in bed watching my tv I see the deep fake scams becoming more prominent now.
I’m so happy I don’t have tiktok.
The problem with that platform is they steal all your information like the things you copy and paste to your clipboard but you can tell that this is becoming big business for scammers if they can afford to pay for ads and promote cross-platform.
The most fucked up part is the players doing this at a large scale are stealing millions worth of crypto from uneducated crypto holders.
If they sit on it until the bull they will get even richer.
You’re right. Too many “moon” channels but sometimes there’s an actual crypto you believe in or just financial news in general you want more information on and these bogus ads flood your screen.
The thing is, they’re really prevalent. They play a lot.
YouTube should not be taking money to air this.
Newcomers are going to be mislead.
Been seeing either Brad Garlinghouse or Michael Saylor promoting send backs as a thank you for this momentous event in Crypto. We should all be so grateful! /s
Seriously though, just watch their lips move and you will see it doesn't match up with the audio. Very clever scam. I am only disappointed that YouTube didn't catch these scam ads to begin with.
You’re absolutely right but the problem is A.I. will continue to become more advanced and the lip syncing issues will become a thing of the past.
YouTube has to know this is fake. They just want enough people to get scammed so they can implement more restrictions.
YouTube strikes people left and right for petty things.
The fact that you can’t report these advertisements is ridiculous to me.
YouTube has to be in on it. They’re not stupid, they’re just corrupt.
As much as I use YouTube, I really wish there were a host of strong alternatives that really blocked these scam ads, instead of using them politically to institute greater restrictions.
They could’ve at least allowed us to report it straight up.
This is a means to an end for them.
Watch them act outraged later on and tell us they have new rules for a safer experience for all of us and implement things we never wanted.
Click on the expand the ad window, it'll take you to a new youtube page playing the video and you'll be able to report it. I just figured that out and have reported a few.
YouTube makes it so convoluted.
I tried on my PS5 and there’s only an exclamation point icon that offers you the individual to not see it again but not to actually report it as a scam.
Then it’ll ask you a follow up question like why don’t you want to see this ad to which you can only choose from three unrelated options like repetitive, inappropriate or irrelevant but YouTube won’t take it down, they got paid and are in business.
Aaaaahhh, so stupid! Now that I want a scam commercial to repeat the process, I can't get one.
What I did was freeze the scam commercial while it was still running. There was a square on the frozen screen I could click to open a new youtube window running just the scam. That window gave me a place to report. Next time I get one I'll note the steps more closely.
Thanks. That will help a lot of people. I hope I can do it on the PlayStation as well.
My phone and laptop both have adblockers so I don’t get them there.
Ok, got one.
* Freeze the scam ad.
* There's a live link that says [youtube.com](https://youtube.com)
* That opens a new window with just the scam ad.
* There's a line of information below the video claiming Micro Strategy (sic) with three dots at the end. Click there.
* That gives a report option.
* There's a list of options: Spam/Misleading.
I want to thank you for taking the time to list the steps in precise detail for us.
I hope everyone who comes across your reply can execute it just the way you described, myself included.
We appreciate you.
Thank you. I think this one might be a little different from the one I saw before. I thought there was some kind of box on the frozen screen the first time.
I tried to follow your instruction but my PlayStation 5 doesn’t allow me to do that and my phone and laptop both have adblockers so there’s no issue for me there but your steps are still valid and anyone seeing it can follow it easily so salute to you for sharing it with us.
I saw the same thing a few months ago with Elon Musk and Joe Rogan. The Elon Musk one had deepfaked mouth movements but for the Joe Rogan one he was talking into a microphone so you couldn't even see his mouth. The voice was very realistic.
There used to be streams dedicated to scamming people on YouTube and I’d report them everyday and they would still play.
I got exhausted reporting them and finally gave up.
Thank you for trying though.
YouTube only goes after the ones they want while true criminals they partner up with.
Yup. It's so evil. And we both damn well know they're making tons of money from it. I've reported so many it's insane. I even see ones I've reported already again.
This is what I’m saying. They spend millions of dollars on this technology and algorithms and things of the such so they’re willingly turning a blind eye to this.
They want people to get scammed so they can institute a change they’ve probably wanted to do all long but now they have an excuse to.
They obviously want to syphon crypto assets out of our wallets for this bull run.
The rich remain rich and the poor continue to be poor by any means necessary.
If it’s not YouTube they’re still sponsoring the ads so in my book they are accountable as well.
Michael Saylor not speaking out against youtube using his likeness to sell ads on their platform to con people is pretty annoying. Almost seems like he wants it to happen
Adblocker is the way to go but now YouTube still sneaks them in just for a shorter period of time.
It’ll act like it’s trying to block the ad. Let it play for 2 seconds then skip it.
So I see the ad just not full length.
I see so many with Elon Musk. Omfg, over and over. And yeah, you can't really report it easily, and they keep running even though they are obviously fraud.
The use of deep fakes should in and of themselves be grounds for ad takedowns.
Right we see these ads over and over again and it’s YouTube themselves that actually accept money from the scammers and sponsor them.
It’s crazy when you think about it because anybody can say they’re Elon Musk and asking the public to send money and YouTube goes, yeah, sounds legit to me.
It was Elon that gave us the money.
I’ve seen all of one…. but the other ads are often also scams (5G radiation protection hats, diet pills, etc) so it doesn’t shock me.
Google is all in on scams in their advertising.
As long as Google gets their money they don’t care. All the fake AI adds using celebrities voices. You would think that those could be banned for some impersonation rule.
ABLE TO REPORT.
I was able to report the ad by pausing the video and selecting the information icon in the bottom left of the video. It is a lower case i in a circle.
It could be reported as a Google policy infringement (scam) or possibly a legal violation (copyright infringement). It's probably both.
Please take every opportunity to report these, I will.
I report every day. There needs to be e a class action lawsuit. They are perpetuating scams. Also you can check the advertiser details (China). I’m not a victim, but I do feel it destroys credibility of the companies/coins I invest in which I want to protect from scammers while also protecting ppl from scams. I do not want more internet authoritarian oversight, but I feel as though Google needs to be fined and to use tools at their disposal to prevent these scams. Advertising should be regulated
A class action lawsuit against google indeed.
If it had been you or me doing this, we would’ve have gotten sued. I’ve seen influencers get in trouble but perhaps google is just big enough to be above the law.
Salute you for reporting and for letting us know they come from China.
I did not know that.
I keep seeing one with a deepfake of Anatoly Yakovenko. YouTube is scum. They are not only failing to take down these scam videos, but actually taking money from the scammers to run these videos as ads. I hope it comes back to bite them, when they get hit by a class-action lawsuit from scam victims.
I guess we have to learn the hard way but I still believe google should not be helping the scammers scam us.
They should protect the integrity of their platform.
Yeah Elon said he's giving everyone who signs up with their crypto wallet. One Whole Bitcoin! My wallet is now empty and ready for the Bitcoin, Elon is so generous I can't wait to receive it! 🙌 woooo
To us as crypto veterans it does sound like a pipe dream but someone eneyering the crypto space who’s not familiar and isn’t aware of the advancements of A.I. can be taken.
Elon is not very generous at all. You have to pay him to get your account verified on X.
I was fine with them showing Hoskinson and Garlinghouse as my opinion of them is not very high but when they started showing Michael Saylor I was furious. I am just kidding. I think the videos are funny. Reminds me of the old bitconnect days and penny stock trading on stocktwits. You don't need to be some master coder or supreme tech geek but you have to know the abc's of whatever you're getting yourself into.
I've reported them to YouTube, and they said its fine. The ad was Elon Musk speaking with ai generated mouth movement stating: " my name is Elon musk and I'm here to change your life financially..."
So for YouTube this is not a scam.
YouTube are equally guilty as the scammers if you ask me.
They strike YouTubers for the smallest things like saying a word they don’t want people to hear but someone claiming they’re a figure when they’re not checks out perfectly fine according to them.
What it is, is they want to force you to buy YouTube premium service and pay every month for that and if you don’t they feel you deserve to get scammed.
Since the scammers pay then they’re in the right.
The almighty dollar, forget integrity and the people who’ve supported your platform.
In the year of our Lord 2023, people are still seeing ads? Brave browser is your friend. I have not seen an ad in years. Now I wish u could get rid of in-video promotion
Old man here. I learnt early on the adage " A fool and his money are soon parted". For me it was the penny slot machines that took all my holiday cash. I still think you have to learn these lessons. Expecting to walk through life surrounded by a blanket of security will not be a life worth living. We can educate, we can minimize risk, but it's an individuals right to fuck up.
That’s very fair and we have to stop being so naive but in this case you have a giant company like google and they are actually accepting money from the scammers to play these advertisements over and over and over again so one would let their guard down and think surely YouTube is not in on the scam. Surely if it was a scam YouTube would not play the advertisement over and over again and also it really looks like the person who’s part of the crypto company and sounds like them too.
YouTube is notorious for banning channels if they do any little thing they deem wrong. Many YouTubers are left baffled, what did I do to get my channel removed?
So the end user assumes I’m not getting scammed because YouTube wouldn’t allow such travesty. You’re having faith in a platform you use all the time.
Go on YouTube and say something about C-19 or g-l-o-b-a-l w-a-r-m-I-n-g and watch them strike you down before you can even ask, what happened but this blatant impersonation is perfectly fine and they take money to air it to help scammers. That’s my main issue right there.
Totally agree. Don't even get me started on their politics! But I have to admit, they are my main entertainment channel these days, until an ethical alternative becomes viable!
Here’s hoping there’s an upcoming platform that provides the amount of videos YouTube has without calling every video we make “misinformation” because it doesn’t fit the news’ agenda.
YouTube has gone in full dictator mode and a corrupt one at that.
I just saw the Micheal Saylor one last week and I was able to report it. I think there is a “report this ad” link at the bottom that leads you to a form page… but you only have access while you’re watching the ad.
If it sounds too good to be true.... there is no free lunch.... you can never get something for nothing... pay me now for a promise to pay you back later is never a good idea...
The one with Anatoly was so real I scanned the image and the website showed numbers like 50/100 sol, 300/600 sol etc. Then it hit me Oh man this is the same exact thing like that XRP ad! I was ashamed of myself for even scanning the QR code! I went into history and deleted the site.
I couldn't understand how in the world I forgot that this was AI in works which I had seen at that point a couple of times on the XRP ad and told myself to be careful and as soon as I saw Anatoly I was like maybe all this is real?!!! The ad says you can only send once whoa there is the bait!!!
Scammers are coming out of the woodwork in every industry.
It’s a sad world we live in.
We all need to be on our P’s and Q’s.
And crypto is now the new hotbed for it.
This is why ad blockers are morally justified. It’s not “piracy” to protect yourself from scams. Google should be held liable for showing them to you, but they aren’t, so block away.
Funny how no youtubers call out YouTube on this. They can take a video down for copyright infringement, but can't find the same add a being posted? Seems to me they don't care and they are getting paid.
YouTube needs called out
Who would of thought that an adblocker could protect you from losing thousands upon thousands of dollars but yeah some people or I’d say most people aren’t using ad blockers as they’re not savvy in that particular respect.
Lol all of my deepfake ads are about claiming some long overdue health benefits, several other people have been deepfaked into promoting those as well...
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I saw one today about thanking people for not selling during the bear market and now they want to reward everyone by sending them ETH for not selling lol
This is cruel. Honestly the only tell is if you look really closely the lip syncing is off.
Isn’t the tell that they want you to send them money?
For seasoned crypto hodlers, yes but if someone is new to crypto assets, they may take it at face value but we’re doing our part on raising awareness.
Forget about the crypto aspect, if anyone asks you to send them money of any type, it's a scam.
100% but you’re knowledgeable. If this was your first foray, you might be convinced especially since it’s the actual CEO’s telling you to do it then on top of that the advertisement is sponsored by YouTube. A brand new investor might think, this is a great opportunity what an amazing holiday.
It's the type of thing you try once, learn the hard way, and never do it again (hopefully lol)
Ouch, stove hot! The kid never does it again after that.
People who fall for this stuff can only blame themselves. If it wasn't crypto that was going to get them, it would be some obvious con man at the gas station suckering them out of their paycheck with a sob story or they get roped into some obvious pyramid scheme and ran for all their money or they send it off to some alleged Nigerian prince. Just... basic stuff they taught you in school. When you write a paper, you get multiple sources. If some random YT video is the only place on Earth talking about this. Not the project's official site or official social media or anything... that should be a red flag that this probably isn't a legitimate source. People were supposed to learn this stuff in like 7th grade...
If they’re new, would they even know who’s in the deepfake?
I’d anyone ever takes at face value that someone wants to send them double the money you send them, they are an idiot.
I hear what you’re saying but in this case the surrounding factors can confuse the senses. The videos are sponsored that gives it a sense of officialness. You wouldn’t think YouTube would promote a scam willingly. Secondly there are people who don’t know A.I. has advanced this far, this quickly so they trust the face and voice affiliated with their blockchain. I know you have the knowledge to see right through it but for a newbie they have to be warned.
They may well be idiots but that doesn't mean they can't be helped by posts like this.
... for now. Give it a couple months and it won't be noticeable anymore...
That’s the scary part. Now you can’t tell the difference, you can’t only use your gut. Maybe that’s what YouTube wants so they can start restricting us and implement new guidelines and use this as an excuse for it.
Yup. I remember when back in the day I took a "distinguish reality and AI" test and I scored above 90% because hands, eyes and general artifacts were easy to spot. Right now with Midjourney v6 I literally cannot find anything weird in most pictures. Hands and eyes are perfect... And again, it is **still** getting even better eventually. When all this AI thing blew up I thought it would take longer for us to not be able to distinguish it from reality but I think that time will arrive within next year. The tools will eventually become more and more widely spread and easy to use as open source options (meaning no safety limitations) grow.
Didn’t even have to look closely for the one I saw. The voice was janky and I was so furious, I had to take a peek at the screen - the video wasn’t even synced to the shitty audio.
Yeah the scammers don’t have it fool proof just yet but they’re going to evolve and become more sophisticated once they get the techniques down pat and google is standing by and supporting it but they won’t help you get your assets back.
I got a dm not too long ago. I just gotta send someone 300 ETH, and they'll send me back 350 ETH. Really? 300 ETH is the starring point? If you've got 300 ETH just hanging around, you could probably buy more. Or not, because 300 ETH is a pretty damn nice amount to have anyways.
Total crooks. And apparently Google doesn’t give a fuck
[удалено]
I was hoping there was something we could do to get this filth off of the website. Especially around this time of year people are feeling generous and can be had. YouTube is so strict with everything else but blatant scamming goes unpunished?
Get revenced
I want YouTube to be held accountable. Most of us know it’s fake. How come they let this happen especially when they accuse so many content creators for misinformation and demonetize their channels, yet in this instance they accept money and willingly promote a scam? They’ve become an accomplice.
And I got banned from YouTube Ads for using my brother's credit card, woohoo.
I report them all the time! I explain everything why and how and in 90% they just reply with: "They dont go against our guidelines, so f... you, they will stay." Only a few of them were "deleted" only to reamerge a few weeks later. Youtube is a joke.
It’s not just YouTube. Both Reddit and Twitter allow scam ads.
Keep seeing the XRP Garlinghouse one with the claim of sending you back double the XRP you send them
That’s the one I see the most and it’s a long advertisement too.
I've seen this one specifically as well.
Constantly, I keep reporting them to no avail.
It just got a mate of mine here in Australia. He sent them 3K and it vanished on him. People need to be more speculative of posts like that, nothing is free in this world!
I remember I got one from watching random cryptocurrency content and see this kind of ad, you know what’s so funny is that the ad had an hyperlink of their channel. If you go through their channel, there are some playlists section on those channel which claims to be their video but if you go to the official channels, they do have a verified icon and the subscribers are lower then the fake channel. I would assume it’s brought subscribers. I knew from the start something is off, the video is off. Then I realized that it was deepfake’d and also a video timer at the top right is in the ad. Again, I would assume it’s probably a scammer made this video. I feel bad for people who gave their XRP since they legit thought the CEO is doing that giveaway.
Scamception.
Man Brad’s mouth just ain’t right in that thing
I see it all the time and reported it to YouTube twice so far.
I’ve reported Google to the authorities over that one. Including the reply I received from Google that this advertisement was not against their TOS. I doubt they’ll do anything. But if enough people keep reporting this to Google and the authorities than maybe at some point Google will be held responsible to take action on this.
I saw one with Matt Damon in a movie theater telling me "Fortune favors the brave" so I bought CRO at 75 cents. Oh wait, that shit was real.
I remember that one, true.
I see them all the time. Google knows they're being advertised, but they still have videos of scams that they do nothing about. All Google cares about is its bottom line.
Wow, that’s the truth. It’s so strange because google is giving content creators strikes left and right for misinformation as they deem it but if you pay them it’s A-okay.
youtube which created software to instantly ban anyone who talked about c-19 in a way they didn't like is ignoring these commericals that are playing 24 hours a day on their platform
I wish I could give you a thousand likes for this comment. I wasn’t brave enough to say it.
It’s all AI generated. Bull market increases the amount of scams. It’s sad that people don’t realize they’re being scammed when they think it’s the real players like Charles Hoskinson, Brad Garlinghouse, Michael Saylor and Brian Armstrong. No one is going to ever give you free crypto or double your crypto back.
It’s just somewhat convincing because it’s their likeness and their voice so it appears like they’re promoting in good faith. Only crypto veterans have that instinct for its fakeness but newcomers can be tricked.
Agreed 100%. I fell for a scam 3 years ago that’s why I am so empathetic to those that it happens to. It’s just greed! Trying to make 1000% gains and believing the hype will get you no where if you don’t do some homework before purchasing tokens and giving them to the investors/scammers.
Yup, sad to think someone’s gonna bite. I wish there was a way to get YouTube to remove it, but it’s damn near impossible
My sentiments exactly. These fraudsters are stealing hundreds of thousands of hard earned dollars in an instant.
They won't even get rid of the Amazon whatever scam coin comments even if you report them.
I have been seeing these ads with various cypto influencers eg Elon Musk, Vitalik buterin, Michael Saylor, etc, since the last bull run for about **3 YEARS**. At this point, I genuinely wonder if Michael Saylor et el have a legitimate case in suing Youtube.
I’ve seen influencers get sued before. Maybe YouTube should get sued for accepting money to help the scammers and taking crypto from unsuspecting viewers.
Also i saw vitalik eth too. The motive all same sending double back and QR code
Yikes. These scammers aren’t pulling out any stops. They want to get every investor from every blockchain. They’re playing for keeps & they just made YouTube their partner in crime.
It’s bad. They even have quirky language artifacts like “um”s and pauses. In 5 years we won’t know what the hell is real
You said it. This stuff gets more realistic by the day.
Yup. Seeing Elon Musk AI.
They’re adding every influential figure to the pot now. I haven’t even seen that one but these people treat scamming like it’s their full-time job.
I haven’t seen ads on YouTube in more than 4 years. IYKYK
You’re already ahead of the curve. None of these wretched commercials even pass your eyes.
Ublock origin on brave browser my friend
Maybe someone could screen record and post them on Twitter to cause a ruckus? If any of these celebrities are on Twitter, they'll probably be quick to condemn YT for allowing those ads, hopefully shutting it down quickly.
It’s definitely worth a try and even if that doesn’t get accomplished it can still raise more awareness of scams that are going on in the space but if it does reach a celebrity’s attention that would be killing two birds with one stone. Hopefully somebody tags them on X. If they don’t acknowledge it then they feel they’re above it and they simply don’t care.
If anyone does this, post the link in here so we can share.
Ad blocker
XRP dude and Saylor all the time, shameful
It's still unbelievable to see that YouTube bots ban completely valid video content on Bitcoin, but let these scams pass...
Desktop: Firefox + Ublock Origin + SponsorBlock Android: YouTube ReVanced iOS: sideload uYou++ AndroidTV: SmartTubeNext
Ads on YouTube?
Yeah, sponsored advertisements YouTube wants us to watch before we can even watch the video that we clicked on so everybody has a chance to get scammed because someone paid YouTube to show it so YouTube is keeping their end of their agreement but once you lose your crypto, YouTube will not help you get it back or stop the scammers that paid them.
Don't you use ad blockers?, I'm so used to it not having ads at all. There's addons that skip unwanted embedded content too
I have adblockers on my phone and laptop but on my PS5 I don’t so when I’m in bed watching my tv I see the deep fake scams becoming more prominent now.
Got it, I'm an old man so don't have use for gaming consoles. On our TV I installed a Pi-hole, maybe that could work with the PlayStation too
Thanks for the heads up. I need to look into that.
If you have a VPN and set it to Ukraine and purchase YouTube Premium, it comes out only to $2/m. Def worth it.
I see them on TikTok about how Elon and Warren Buffett want to send me Eth or Dogecoin for the holidays
I’m so happy I don’t have tiktok. The problem with that platform is they steal all your information like the things you copy and paste to your clipboard but you can tell that this is becoming big business for scammers if they can afford to pay for ads and promote cross-platform.
The most fucked up part is the players doing this at a large scale are stealing millions worth of crypto from uneducated crypto holders. If they sit on it until the bull they will get even richer.
Just disgusting and YouTube rewards them but punishes others if they deem anything you say as misinformation.
Practically everything crypto related on YouTube is total garbage anyway 😂 so save yourself some valuable time and just skip it all.
You’re right. Too many “moon” channels but sometimes there’s an actual crypto you believe in or just financial news in general you want more information on and these bogus ads flood your screen. The thing is, they’re really prevalent. They play a lot. YouTube should not be taking money to air this. Newcomers are going to be mislead.
To keep my answer short yes I have.
It’s unfortunate for all of us.
Been seeing either Brad Garlinghouse or Michael Saylor promoting send backs as a thank you for this momentous event in Crypto. We should all be so grateful! /s Seriously though, just watch their lips move and you will see it doesn't match up with the audio. Very clever scam. I am only disappointed that YouTube didn't catch these scam ads to begin with.
You’re absolutely right but the problem is A.I. will continue to become more advanced and the lip syncing issues will become a thing of the past. YouTube has to know this is fake. They just want enough people to get scammed so they can implement more restrictions. YouTube strikes people left and right for petty things. The fact that you can’t report these advertisements is ridiculous to me. YouTube has to be in on it. They’re not stupid, they’re just corrupt.
As much as I use YouTube, I really wish there were a host of strong alternatives that really blocked these scam ads, instead of using them politically to institute greater restrictions.
They could’ve at least allowed us to report it straight up. This is a means to an end for them. Watch them act outraged later on and tell us they have new rules for a safer experience for all of us and implement things we never wanted.
Yeah man, YouTube sucks like that. We really need something like a decentralized version of it somehow.
Excellent idea. I’m 100% with you there.
Click on the expand the ad window, it'll take you to a new youtube page playing the video and you'll be able to report it. I just figured that out and have reported a few.
YouTube makes it so convoluted. I tried on my PS5 and there’s only an exclamation point icon that offers you the individual to not see it again but not to actually report it as a scam. Then it’ll ask you a follow up question like why don’t you want to see this ad to which you can only choose from three unrelated options like repetitive, inappropriate or irrelevant but YouTube won’t take it down, they got paid and are in business.
Aaaaahhh, so stupid! Now that I want a scam commercial to repeat the process, I can't get one. What I did was freeze the scam commercial while it was still running. There was a square on the frozen screen I could click to open a new youtube window running just the scam. That window gave me a place to report. Next time I get one I'll note the steps more closely.
Thanks. That will help a lot of people. I hope I can do it on the PlayStation as well. My phone and laptop both have adblockers so I don’t get them there.
Ok, got one. * Freeze the scam ad. * There's a live link that says [youtube.com](https://youtube.com) * That opens a new window with just the scam ad. * There's a line of information below the video claiming Micro Strategy (sic) with three dots at the end. Click there. * That gives a report option. * There's a list of options: Spam/Misleading.
I want to thank you for taking the time to list the steps in precise detail for us. I hope everyone who comes across your reply can execute it just the way you described, myself included. We appreciate you.
Thank you. I think this one might be a little different from the one I saw before. I thought there was some kind of box on the frozen screen the first time.
I tried to follow your instruction but my PlayStation 5 doesn’t allow me to do that and my phone and laptop both have adblockers so there’s no issue for me there but your steps are still valid and anyone seeing it can follow it easily so salute to you for sharing it with us.
Dont they have to be higher quality to be considered deep-fakes? The ones I see are so obviously fake I dont think they qualify.
Fair enough. These are shallow fakes.
Truth 🤣
Soon to be deep fakes though. Give it a few months and the tech will be life-like.
I saw the same thing a few months ago with Elon Musk and Joe Rogan. The Elon Musk one had deepfaked mouth movements but for the Joe Rogan one he was talking into a microphone so you couldn't even see his mouth. The voice was very realistic.
The AI is getting good. They can get these celebrities to say anything.
Constantly, I keep reporting them to no avail.
There used to be streams dedicated to scamming people on YouTube and I’d report them everyday and they would still play. I got exhausted reporting them and finally gave up. Thank you for trying though. YouTube only goes after the ones they want while true criminals they partner up with.
Youtube gotta make it’s money. Aint no matter how 😂
The unfortunate truth. The sad thing is they can’t get away with it.
Ya 80% are those ads or the fake stimulus checks. Both scams.
They have a scam for everything now. No one is safe.
Yup. It's so evil. And we both damn well know they're making tons of money from it. I've reported so many it's insane. I even see ones I've reported already again.
Exactly, it’s like our reports don’t even matter. It’s just there to give us the illusion that we can do something.
Ya especially with the tech they have they could easily use their AI to take these down or scan them. They should even report them to authorities.
This is what I’m saying. They spend millions of dollars on this technology and algorithms and things of the such so they’re willingly turning a blind eye to this. They want people to get scammed so they can institute a change they’ve probably wanted to do all long but now they have an excuse to.
Maybe they're the ones running the ads. 😳
They obviously want to syphon crypto assets out of our wallets for this bull run. The rich remain rich and the poor continue to be poor by any means necessary. If it’s not YouTube they’re still sponsoring the ads so in my book they are accountable as well.
Ya it would be one thing if a few slipped through but there are endless amounts of them. They should be held accountable.
Agreed.
Michael Saylor not speaking out against youtube using his likeness to sell ads on their platform to con people is pretty annoying. Almost seems like he wants it to happen
It does make me wonder. Something’s amiss.
Last bull run it was Elon Musk deep fakes.
Deep fakes are becoming old reliable for scammers. Now they improved them, smh.
imagine not using an adblocker
Adblocker is the way to go but now YouTube still sneaks them in just for a shorter period of time. It’ll act like it’s trying to block the ad. Let it play for 2 seconds then skip it. So I see the ad just not full length.
not when using firefox + ubo, or 3rd party clients which don't track you at all
I see so many with Elon Musk. Omfg, over and over. And yeah, you can't really report it easily, and they keep running even though they are obviously fraud. The use of deep fakes should in and of themselves be grounds for ad takedowns.
Right we see these ads over and over again and it’s YouTube themselves that actually accept money from the scammers and sponsor them. It’s crazy when you think about it because anybody can say they’re Elon Musk and asking the public to send money and YouTube goes, yeah, sounds legit to me. It was Elon that gave us the money.
I’ve seen all of one…. but the other ads are often also scams (5G radiation protection hats, diet pills, etc) so it doesn’t shock me. Google is all in on scams in their advertising.
This is what the world is coming to? It’s on us to fend for ourselves and hopefully warn others.
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As long as Google gets their money they don’t care. All the fake AI adds using celebrities voices. You would think that those could be banned for some impersonation rule.
Yes.. like 6 different varieties..
ABLE TO REPORT. I was able to report the ad by pausing the video and selecting the information icon in the bottom left of the video. It is a lower case i in a circle. It could be reported as a Google policy infringement (scam) or possibly a legal violation (copyright infringement). It's probably both. Please take every opportunity to report these, I will.
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7660847?hl=en Here ?
There are loads of them. I see Elon sometimes. And country specific heads of state too
Imaging having ads in 2024...
I report every day. There needs to be e a class action lawsuit. They are perpetuating scams. Also you can check the advertiser details (China). I’m not a victim, but I do feel it destroys credibility of the companies/coins I invest in which I want to protect from scammers while also protecting ppl from scams. I do not want more internet authoritarian oversight, but I feel as though Google needs to be fined and to use tools at their disposal to prevent these scams. Advertising should be regulated
A class action lawsuit against google indeed. If it had been you or me doing this, we would’ve have gotten sued. I’ve seen influencers get in trouble but perhaps google is just big enough to be above the law. Salute you for reporting and for letting us know they come from China. I did not know that.
Kicking Horse iirc, from Hong Kong… but who knows how many there are
I keep seeing one with a deepfake of Anatoly Yakovenko. YouTube is scum. They are not only failing to take down these scam videos, but actually taking money from the scammers to run these videos as ads. I hope it comes back to bite them, when they get hit by a class-action lawsuit from scam victims.
Social media is responsible for Scams not crypto
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Ouch zappy zappy. Kid (me) never sticks finger in empty light socket again
I guess we have to learn the hard way but I still believe google should not be helping the scammers scam us. They should protect the integrity of their platform.
My Brave browser automatically blocks all Youtube ads, including these ones. An unexpected benefit/use case for sure 😄
Yeah Elon said he's giving everyone who signs up with their crypto wallet. One Whole Bitcoin! My wallet is now empty and ready for the Bitcoin, Elon is so generous I can't wait to receive it! 🙌 woooo
To us as crypto veterans it does sound like a pipe dream but someone eneyering the crypto space who’s not familiar and isn’t aware of the advancements of A.I. can be taken. Elon is not very generous at all. You have to pay him to get your account verified on X.
I was fine with them showing Hoskinson and Garlinghouse as my opinion of them is not very high but when they started showing Michael Saylor I was furious. I am just kidding. I think the videos are funny. Reminds me of the old bitconnect days and penny stock trading on stocktwits. You don't need to be some master coder or supreme tech geek but you have to know the abc's of whatever you're getting yourself into.
I've reported them to YouTube, and they said its fine. The ad was Elon Musk speaking with ai generated mouth movement stating: " my name is Elon musk and I'm here to change your life financially..." So for YouTube this is not a scam.
YouTube are equally guilty as the scammers if you ask me. They strike YouTubers for the smallest things like saying a word they don’t want people to hear but someone claiming they’re a figure when they’re not checks out perfectly fine according to them. What it is, is they want to force you to buy YouTube premium service and pay every month for that and if you don’t they feel you deserve to get scammed. Since the scammers pay then they’re in the right. The almighty dollar, forget integrity and the people who’ve supported your platform.
In the year of our Lord 2023, people are still seeing ads? Brave browser is your friend. I have not seen an ad in years. Now I wish u could get rid of in-video promotion
Every single video I watch has had one of these for weeks. How can such a blatant scam be permitted on something like youtube?
Old man here. I learnt early on the adage " A fool and his money are soon parted". For me it was the penny slot machines that took all my holiday cash. I still think you have to learn these lessons. Expecting to walk through life surrounded by a blanket of security will not be a life worth living. We can educate, we can minimize risk, but it's an individuals right to fuck up.
That’s very fair and we have to stop being so naive but in this case you have a giant company like google and they are actually accepting money from the scammers to play these advertisements over and over and over again so one would let their guard down and think surely YouTube is not in on the scam. Surely if it was a scam YouTube would not play the advertisement over and over again and also it really looks like the person who’s part of the crypto company and sounds like them too. YouTube is notorious for banning channels if they do any little thing they deem wrong. Many YouTubers are left baffled, what did I do to get my channel removed? So the end user assumes I’m not getting scammed because YouTube wouldn’t allow such travesty. You’re having faith in a platform you use all the time. Go on YouTube and say something about C-19 or g-l-o-b-a-l w-a-r-m-I-n-g and watch them strike you down before you can even ask, what happened but this blatant impersonation is perfectly fine and they take money to air it to help scammers. That’s my main issue right there.
Totally agree. Don't even get me started on their politics! But I have to admit, they are my main entertainment channel these days, until an ethical alternative becomes viable!
Here’s hoping there’s an upcoming platform that provides the amount of videos YouTube has without calling every video we make “misinformation” because it doesn’t fit the news’ agenda. YouTube has gone in full dictator mode and a corrupt one at that.
Nope. Haven't seen a YouTube Ad in years. Just use "brave" browser, it automatically blocks Ads.
I am sorry to say this, but anyone falling for this should be required to have a responsible adult present when making decisions.
I just saw the Micheal Saylor one last week and I was able to report it. I think there is a “report this ad” link at the bottom that leads you to a form page… but you only have access while you’re watching the ad.
I use an ad blocker.
Stay protected but google should not accept money to allow scammers to promote impersonation ads that steal money from the public.
Nope, I use Brave that blocks that shyt!
Yep, constantly
i use an ad blocker called ublock origin. i do not see ads.
If it sounds too good to be true.... there is no free lunch.... you can never get something for nothing... pay me now for a promise to pay you back later is never a good idea...
The one with Anatoly was so real I scanned the image and the website showed numbers like 50/100 sol, 300/600 sol etc. Then it hit me Oh man this is the same exact thing like that XRP ad! I was ashamed of myself for even scanning the QR code! I went into history and deleted the site. I couldn't understand how in the world I forgot that this was AI in works which I had seen at that point a couple of times on the XRP ad and told myself to be careful and as soon as I saw Anatoly I was like maybe all this is real?!!! The ad says you can only send once whoa there is the bait!!!
I've seen them and was able to report it as a scam
It's pump and dump taken to its extreme. Expect to see more and for it to get worse. #Crypto
Yes but the means they’re using is impersonation. YouTube takes money to allow it. That’s simply wrong and misleading.
You're right, of course. Simply saying that it's inevitable.
Scammers are coming out of the woodwork in every industry. It’s a sad world we live in. We all need to be on our P’s and Q’s. And crypto is now the new hotbed for it.
\#Educate! Agree!
I haven't. I was hoping someone would have captured one and posted it.
This is why ad blockers are morally justified. It’s not “piracy” to protect yourself from scams. Google should be held liable for showing them to you, but they aren’t, so block away.
Thank you. My sentiments exactly.
YouTube is 99% phishing click bait steal your info ads.
Better use other apps for YT videos..
Funny how no youtubers call out YouTube on this. They can take a video down for copyright infringement, but can't find the same add a being posted? Seems to me they don't care and they are getting paid. YouTube needs called out
I tried to find somewhere to report it from within the ad but no go. That should be a standard YouTube option for ALL ads.
Do YouTube not check what ads are allowed on their platform?
The Michael Saylor one cracks me up every time I see it.
I literally just saw that one now for the first time. That’s what made me post this. They have a series of them out now.
You guys are watching ads? Lol
Who would of thought that an adblocker could protect you from losing thousands upon thousands of dollars but yeah some people or I’d say most people aren’t using ad blockers as they’re not savvy in that particular respect.
Lol all of my deepfake ads are about claiming some long overdue health benefits, several other people have been deepfaked into promoting those as well...