Funny how they sent you a "personalised" video, but never even mention your name. They bothered with a script to scroll through the channel, but having the AI voice actually address the target is too much?
It would probably be too obvious it was an AI if it had to mention people's channel names. Many people have some weird channel names which a AI would have a lot of trouble pronouncing.
Not just that. There's nothing specifically addressing the content. "Create a mastercourse and/or grow your community." So many generic buzzwords and nothing tailored to what the content actually is.
"We really think that the content you make as The Fact Fiend w/ Karl Smallwood is great and genuinely are impressed what you, The Fact Fiend w/ Karl Smallwood as a creator have achieved" An off the top of my head example of why this wouldn't work with AI. Other examples from my subscriptions of people it would inmediately fail to address, be it because they are calling someone by their channel's name rather than their actual name or because the name is weird itself - Bricky Ep. 2 - N_Orte - Folding Ideas - Pointy Hat - The Imanginary Axis Calling anyone from the above by their channel's name would inmediately give away that it is a bot doing it. Its safer to use a template that dances around the subject of addressing who it is, supposedly, being made for.
AI is a scammer's dream. You can produce something that's entirely automated, looks just a bit legit but has all kinds of just obvious enough red flags to filter for the best chance of biting the hook. It hit the catfishing scene like a ton of bricks.
I think the main thing I'd add here is that no-one is immune to scams. Yes, some people are more susceptible; but there are times in your life where for whatever reason things suck and you're exhausted and you don't recognize the warning signs you would've recognized most of the time. Scams prey on the vulnerable, but all of us are vulnerable sometimes.
@@mossmeow Yes! Even Jim Browning -- a well-known scambaiter and someone who has very good knowledge about computers and the internet -- fell for a scam that got his RU-vid channel taken over for a bit! He got it back, but it just shows - *everyone* is susceptible to scams!
that's the most succinct way i've ever seen it put, thank you for giving me the words! even the "smartest" cookies (and let's be real, intelligence is more relative than such smarties want to believe) will have their lowest moments at least once in their lives. you can be the most rational, logical, clever person who is fully informed on what scams and cults are, but you are never immune to your own deepest needs and desires, and that's what will be weaponized against you at your most vulnerable.
When in doubt always speak to someone you trust, and if they're telling you its too urgent and you cant, or trying to not let you hang up the phone then its definitely a scam.
I think scams and ads are the one time that remembering the building blocks of persuasion from high school English class is actually very helpful. If the impression of the script was alluring and seemed just broadly appealing, that's the sort of thing I break down into ethos/logos/pathos. Looking at the words being said for what they try to accomplish (establish their credibility, go for an emotional response, etc) makes it easier to take a step back and see it for what it is. I liked the comment from Skyen about implying that if you don't follow up with their prompt you're not *open* to making money and impacting others, which is such a sneaky value judgement Oh, and 100% to the comment that a scam will try to pressure you and make sure you dont feel able to call/contact someone else you trust. If that ever happens, definitely reach out to other people, even if it's a roommate or a neighbor you barely know. My friend has gotten scammed in a few ways, and like Skyen said, they're not dumb. One of the scams that succeeded to get money from them claimed their car was found full of stolen things (or something idk) and there was a warrant for their arrest....they didnt own a car, they didn't even have a license. Those people preyed on the fear of having a warrant out on you and put so much pressure on the person being scammed that even when it's obvious it doesn't feel right, they feel overwhelmed and trapped. (That scam was on a phone, and if you thought phone call based scams were dead, boy do I have news for you and a video from Mark Rober about scams like that and how to help the most vulnerable people in your life avoid it)
It's ... a little bit irksome for me as a working voice actor when I see people complimenting how "well, the scam is scummy but the AI voice is really impressive actually", knowing that there's a chance this voice model was constructed with somebody's voice without their knowledge or consent. I'm small fry, with not many credits currently and even *I've* had an issue with this. It's deeply freaky and violating to have your voice ripped and replicated.
@@reginaldmustardbacon5866 sometimes actors are specifically hired to train AI models, they get paid a lump sum to provide the sounds they need to build a library (which I think ultimately a lump sum is a bit scummy when you consider how much use these models can get) but tools like ElevenLabs don't confirm identity so you can just say you're whoever and dump their recordings in there (at least from what I've been told, dunno if they've changed the way they do things). I've done work for a ton of big, popular Bethesda mods and there's a bunch of mods going around now with voices ripped and dumped into AI tools (especially in the more... adult mods). I have no way of knowing if my voice was used or not. Like I wouldn't even mind voicing adult mod content if they hired me to do so, but even the slim chance that it was just done without my knowledge or consent... it bugs me.
Oh god I’m so sorry. While I can typically tell an AI voice (they’re HORRIBLE about contractions), it never occurred to me that they’re taking voices of everyday voice actors. I’m an everyday author and am incensed about AI’s use in creative works, but I’m constantly being reminded how far it goes.
@@TheRonnieaj I actually started doing audiobook work pretty recently and not only have I seen a lot of authors making notes in their listings like "DO NOT SUBMIT AI VOICES I CAN TELL" but I've had to make it a part of my every day job to research each book even more thoroughly to make sure the book isn't written by an AI tool, the acx marketplace is absolutely flooded with them. It's becoming a really big problem :/
That's a really good point. I imagine after scammers used Charlie and Rogan, they discovered the smarter move is to use the voice of someone who doesn't have the monetary power to be litigious. There has to be a way to protect against this. Visual artists are already doing this with hidden "watermarks" that trash the learning model of any bot. There has to be a way to do this with sound, like a certain frequency that's only audible to the bot, and also just so happens to confuse it. Good luck out there, I do generally feel concerned for folks in your position.
Appreciate you pointing out that people falling for scams are not dumb, they're vulnerable. Reminds me of so many in-person or telephone scams targeted at elderly people, where the scammer introduces themselves as like the grandson in need of money and such. Absolutely vile.
It really is. My grandmother got scammed by someone calling her pretending to be my brother, saying he needed the money to get bailed out of jail and please don’t tell anyone because he was embarrassed. She was in her 80s and had dementia and ended up getting scammed for thousands (that she could not afford). We only found out because she finally reached to make sure my brother was ok because she was so worried.
A secondary reason for scam mails to be full of mistakes is that they are more likely to pierce through automatic filters by misspelling the key-words filters are scanning for.
I have a coworker who seems to have some kind of (social? Mental?) disability, and she was taken advantage of exactly how you say - a scam that is so obvious to people with Internet literacy and a typical level of "common sense", but for someone like her they were able to scare and trick her. The scammer pretended to be from her bank and told her that she had to transfer all her money to crypto or else she could go to prison because there was suspicious activity on her bank account tied to purchasing child uh "prawn" or some horrible thing. She ended up buying the scammers her entire savings (every penny in her bank account) in crypto. Of course later when she realized something was wrong, the bank and police couldn't help her because the crypto was untraceable, and she did authorize the transaction. She lost everything (a few tens of thousands of dollars). The way they prey on the most vulnerable people is so infuriating and disgusting.
One of the many reasons AI needs to be regulated is because Ai scams are absolutely terrifying. There’ve already been a few cases of scammers cloning the voice of someone the victim knows, combine that with how much personal information is out there and these scammers can get access to. It’s only going to get better and that means the harm it’s able to do is only going to get worse.
@@Xvladin But NOT doing so is explicit encouragement. It's why some rights are curtailed, and other actions have increasingly harsher and harsher responses. I mean, it's bad enough that some people think they can drive a 2-3 ton battering ram on the roads without a license, but we definitely don't let them drive 100 while drunk ya?
@@Xvladin How about banning AI from civilians? If you aren't a licensed business that can provide unquestionable proof of your company using AI for basic workload tasks, you can't use AI programs. Regular people should never have been allowed access to this kind of power. Everyone's livelihoods are at stake, creatively or otherwise, except for the AI ringleaders who feed their programs other people's work and sell it, stealing profit from honest people at unprecedented levels. Yes, theft is illegal. You know how it just became easier to plagiarize and steal creative works? Jobs? Faces? Voices? With AI. You know what isn't punished? Theft from AI. They'll be a program that disables fire alarms in homes and businesses next, available for any crazy schmuck to get a hold of. Who do you blame for the deaths? The guy who lit the fire? Right! Okay, but that program is still out there and the people who made it are still selling it, or maybe they made it and distribute it for free as a training algorithm or something. Do they get punished? No? Then, why are we punishing all these people using the program to harm others? What's the point? Why have laws or consequences at all? Let's make everything legal and have no repercussions for anything! Then, someone can track you down with an AI script and end your life with a driverless car from a different country for free! How fun! AI is so great!
@@Xvladin you're right we should just let people give drugs away for free, whatever the person who takes them does with said drugs is not the fault of whomever was making and selling them at all this is why it should be perfectly legal to sell them! your arguments have been awful this entire comment section lol
I find it incredibly amusing (in a good way) that one of the first signs of it being a scam you mentioned was the suspicious movement of scrolling and mouse cursor. Because of course you'd spot wonky animation!
Yeah, it also reminds me of those "best mmo rpg ever put your phone and card info here for free paid subscription and we'll notify you if we ever get a server"
It legitimately looks like one of those „hot milfs in your area“ or „this UGLY sonova[…] RAILS three SUPER HOT models EVERY DAY! Here’s how he did it ⬇️✅“ pictures. It’s actually so goddamn funny
Tbh the sticking point off the bat for me was the conspicuous lack of details. All that talk and not a hint of how any of this deal would actually work.
The telling thing to me is in that supposedly personalized video they never once say the channel name, making it all the more obvious that it's just an automated script.
I've recently applied to one of those job hunting apps (Indeed) and they sold my number, so ever since I've been getting scam calls, constantly. They do not have American accents (I'm in america), BUT they have a damn schedule. I get daily calls Monday-Friday, always in the morning, from 8am- 5pm. After that they don't call during the night. And they don't call on weekends. But they always call on weekdays, They did the stupid scam caller thing of disguising their number as being around my area (so I think a job opportunity is calling, nope turns out to be a scammer). It's really annoying not knowing what call is real and what is a scam. Now a days I let it ring, if its real, people leave a voice message. Scammers usually don't. Sigh
I fell for one of those discord scams once where a person who I already talked about game design and game making a lot sent me a link to a "game" and asked me to playtest it for a few minutes. I clicked the link and downloaded the file and everything. I was only saved through sheer luck that the internet went down and the download failed, and by the time the internet was back up I'd seen an email from the real person telling me their account had been compromised.
Best advice for gamedev stuff comes from PirateSoftware: gamedevs are uniquely vulnerable to trojans, so anytime someone sends you an exe to playtest, you gotta 2 factor authenticate that shit. Call your friend on the phone and confirm they sent you a download to their game. If you can't verify it, then do not download it under any circumstances
@@dagda1180 I genuinely think it might have been. Sheer pure luck saved my ass and I'm trying to be more careful next time. I had seen them before a hundred times and not been fooled, but it only takes a few minutes of brain fade to fall for one no matter how smart you are.
i very nearly downloaded that scam, but, thankfully, at last second, a tiny bit in my brain wondered why this artist friend had never talked about game design stuff at all if they made entire short game thing, and have felt relieved i didnt become victim ever since
One of my (online) friends had clicked on something, and the game got sent to my account on a zip code. He doesn't know shit about coding so I knew something was up immediately lmao
I learned to use Loom in school to become a specialist in post sales jobs such as CSM and Account Managers etc and it's because it's easier than OBS and works on tablets (the school is for starting a new career, no late teens with us, 30y average youngest are usually around 25) etc so when you mentioned Loom I went absolutely crazy and laughed so hard. Loom is SOOOO LOW EFFORT. Even Canva would show they care and it's not a pull the rug type of shit.
i genuinely appreciate this breakdown video! i am not a content creator and i dont think i will ever receive an email like this, but still its so important that as many people as possible learn how to spot these scams, especially with AI popping up in all sorts of unexpected places! stay safe everyone
the part that tweaks my radar is that they don't have any details on what they want you to do. the whole thing is "flattery, flattery, bullying, flattery, bullying" without a single hint of content, detail or even a simple "hey, here's what we want from you". if i send someone an email, i introduce myself, explain how and why i'm contacting them, ask for what i want and then sign off, because that's how a human communicates. i don't waffle in circles and vaguely threaten social consequence.
I'm glad that you mention how the guy narrating the video sounds exactly like the Mikkelson guys. I was going nuts hearing his voice, pulling Dan Olsen's video on their audiobook grift to compare.
Ive seen lot of people saying that scam are the idiot taxes but as Tb Skyen said, it's not. Every aspect of your life where you are not knowledgable, in purpose or not, is an aspect where u can be and already are scammed. Paying more than you need on an item, that's technically scam. You can get scammed because you're lazy but you will get scam because the effort for not being scammed is impossible to achieve. Knowlegde is the only weapon against scam because we all weak somewhere.
Thanks for uploading this video Skyen! I've never seen scams being talked about like this, where tactics are explained but also why or how people actually fall for them (I get the feeling that thete's a lot of emphasis on people's "stupidity" instead on recognizing this as predatory and abusive behaviour targeting especially vulnerable people. I'd like to add two more points on this topic: My first reaction actually was to go down the "who would fall on these" route, but then I realize there's a privilege both to being +30 yeara old and (especially) having had access to internet since its humble beginnings. As an adult, I've been subjected to scammy tactics and I can pinpoint when an offer is too good to be true (even if all else makes sense), but a lot of the capacity to be able to detect scams via emails (or videos or other stuff) is simply because I could access and I was taught (about the internet by my father, about videos and stuff thanks to my career). I doubt that's common, especially if we consider a lot of the younger people don't really know much of "internet etiquette" or "internet red flags". Secondly (and if I missed this on your video, I'm sorry about that), "vulnerable people" includes A LOT more people when you think that these emails and offers are made in English and most of the world doesn't speak it (at least fluently enough to detect some grammar/spelling errors, and especially if we consider stuff like a lot of common writing mistakes are common because they "make sense" in, for example, Latin grammar). Add to that the profound economic crisis a lot of the world is experiencing and how you see a hell of a lot of social media influencers affording mansions from having a Shein affiliate link or whatever and yeah, I can see how scams can be very effective. So yeah, thank you for teaching your audience how to detect this stuff, even to people like me, who can sometimes fall to their own hubris thinking "I coukd never possibly fall for something like this", and who most likely had some privileges when it comes down to internet and English education
I wonder if they deliberately chose a Mikkelsen-like voice for another level of filtering, to deliberately exclude anyone who has seen the Dan Olson vid. If they're preying on essay youtubers, I guess that would make sense.
"Alverta Sledge, what a fake name" Me: I'd totally use that for a d&d character. Maybe like a duergar barbarian or something. "BG3 NPC type name" Exactly!
Not only does the voice sound EXACTLY like the Mikkelsen twins (like, it's really uncanny), it's also the exact same vernacular lol. The "done for you" grift. That's crazy.
Yeah the fact the mouse moves to the subscribe button (in a very non human way.) brings attention to the it so you won’t miss that they’re subscribed. I know you mentioned it in the video but I would’ve never noticed the subscribe button if the mouse didn’t move over it Also the way they said “I’ve taken the time to personally do this” is both flattery and pressure. It makes it sound like you owe them
People could really be doing anything positive with their drive and entrepreneurial spirit, and they’re out here doing pathetic scams on desperate or gullible people. Just sad.
Then there's also the ones that present themselves as debt collectors that use scare tactics. I hate whatever makes this crap viable with a burning passion.
"Hoping VPNs get banned or heavily regulated in the future. It's a dream technology for scammers, fraudsters and thiefs." Blame the people who use the tools, not the tools themselves.
@@dagda1180 Believe it or not, VPNs and Ai are two different things, and can't be subject to the same standards. generative AI steals people's work no matter how it's used. To be effective or profitable, it requires theft; It doesn't matter who uses it because it will always be at the expense of others.
@@samholdsworth420 Legislative action? Restricting generative AI companies from operation within regions? Requiring compensation for the artists Gen AI samples/steals from (which would effectively bankrupt them)? Laws that forbid the commercial use of AI generated media? If you had any common sense, or any knowledge whatsoever on the issue you'd know there are a multitude of ways, but unfortunately ignorant retards like you incapable of mustering up any worthwhile thoughts on your own.
@@jjsb1783 hate to say this, but capitalism itself is inherently exploitative and any activity under it inherently requires theft. If you are going to be making this argument, you should still really be blaming the people who are misusing the tools, not the tools themselves. Regardless of what you think you're doing, arguments like this do nothing to help working artists. I've had my art stolen from my entire life - it's called an employment contract. You aren't fooling any of us trying to act as if this is about "protecting artists and creators."
Part of why I might be more susceptible to scams (luckily haven't actually fallen for one yet) is because I always assume I'm not the smartest person in the room. Usually this is a good policy to have. Avoids dunning-kruger effects. But it can backfire when someone is being malicious and presenting themselves as an authority or just someone who's in a business that I'm not familiar with. Like your example of the young youtuber who doesn't have industry connections yet- why would I think anything is wrong if I know that I don't know anything about the industry yet? Like maybe something will seem a bit off but like, hell I don't know how cars work, this guy is a mechanic so he clearly knows more than me, so I guess I need to get these extra services because he's the expert, he would know.
I enjoy the genre of Hex where one doesn't wish to be as extreme as wishing serious harm or grief on a person, but also at least right now the person is detestable enough to warrant some kind of unceasing agony like stepping on Lego constantly. The wish I use is for it to always look like the milk they pour to always seem a bit too thick, the flow always seems uneven but not so chunky as to for sure be spoiled. Just enough that they're uncomfortable drinking it despite looking and smelling fine.
"thats a baldurs gate 3 NPC name!" was very funny to me as I was playing BG3 while watching the video, but this is also an excellent breakdown of how to catch these scams. A similar poorly-spelled scam attempted to get my discord account recently but I was able to notice the discrepancies and was familiar with these types of scams, and therefore didn't fall for it. I hope this video can help others and ACTUALLY make an impact with your community, unlike this AI bullshit.
The voice is either one of the mikkelsen twins or an ai that's trained on their voice. The script is in their style, the scam is exactly their MO (just shifted to a creator scam) and the voice hits the "done for you" identically to the way they say "done for you audiobooks" Edit: im actually pretty confident that Skyen stumbled onto a new Mikkelsen twins scam in its infancy. It's too similar to not have any ties
My thoughts exactly, especially on the "done for you" bit. If it's an Ai trained in their voice it's even more funny, scammer being scammed out of their own voice.
scams r scummy n truly do target the vulnerable as you said. i almost fell for a job scam semi-recently while looking for work n it was horrible to think abt afterward when i "thought" i got a good paying remote job when in reality i realized right away when they asked me to cash in a check for them for "the equipment" i needed for the job.
Honestly, I've got súper negative and paranoid about everything in internet. I ditched my old mail accounts, i use a burn mail account, a personal one which only i use for VERY few services i use and also for persinal mails. And another one for websites i don't trust much. VPNs are not magic but helps a little and i can't use internet without them now. I use every Firefox extension i can to block ANY ad, needless java script and so on. If i were make content for RU-vid, i would use an specific mail account to receive crap related to youtube and probably i wouldn't never open nothing outside a safe environment like Qubes OS or something. I don't answer calls or messages from numbers I don't know, etc. I just feels like this is the only way to isolate yourself in some secure state.
Since he said the words "done for you" i am convinced it is one of the Micellson twins. They had the done for you audio book grift dan talked about. The voice is sooo similar
I’m losing my mind at how the masterclass is allegedly from a Canadian player and then it calls the sport “football” (it is called soccer in canada) and then it name drops a bunch of American news organizations and zero Canadian ones, as though there isn’t a national CBC broadcast station literally a block away from this dude’s home field LOL
3 different name, nonexistant company, the most bland ass repetitive script.. And some individual being namedropped, calling dibs on his football work.. Scammers are always on the forefront of using tech to scam people.
why does the voice in the AI video sound like the mickleson- Ah, well you also point that out. Good to know I'm not alone here XD I was sceptical, but then he said "done for you" and it's just too similar.
To me it doesn't look like stealing account attempt. Just a thought, but maybe that football player is what's gonna happen if you actually reply to those mails and choose to work with them. They AI generate a shitty workshop, ask you to promote it on all your social media and you get a cut of all the sales. Meanwhile the people, who set up this scheme, are just AI generating advertising and setting up really bad looking copy-paste websites for the creators who choose to partner with them, so they are profiting off all those creators combined reach and make the real money. It may not even be illegal since all they do is partnering with willing creators and you are allowed to lie in advertising as long as you put those clarifying foot notes.
The voice is 95% an AI, me and a friend have messed around with all kinds of AI art and voices for fun and AI voices often have a particular kind of effect and cadence to it. For effect I don’t know how to call it, it’s this kinda…. Fuzzy effect at some transitions and words that might be a faulty recording but for professional stuff like this, it being present means it might be AI. As for cadence, I mean, unless if the guy reading talks like a lifeless robot, people don’t tend to speak that long with that tempo without any um or swallow or some kind of thing breaking the flow. Unless if they’re speed reading the script for whatever reason, this kinda way of talking is usually indicative of AI.
Hello Sky Ben! I am a croatian prince of lost royalty lioking to reclaim my castless!? Will you help me? If you give skight donator, I can will pay you back 1000folds once I revover the royal gold savings!!!!
Loom is actually a legit service btw. My old workplace used to use it to host video for customer support. Not sure why we didn’t just use something else but it is legit at least.
Ever since I talked to some people who solds software/sevice related to boosting views/subscribers/followers, I’m always skeptical about whether that number is real or not, cause the price was so low for the number of fake followers you gain
"because of our personalised messages 9/10 creators write back to us with interest" Did they just put the investorpitch in that video? "Yeah because I pretend to like them 8/10 people actually buy cars from me, anyway this one has brand new tires."
Even ignoring everything else, the language of "making money FROM your audience" is a red flag a mile wide . Treating your viewers like a resource you intend to mine says a lot about how they think about communities, and how they assume other people think about communities.
50k a month.... sure. If I had I would pay you that kind of money to finish watching Frieren ;) , but sadly I'm short even on food money. EDIT: I mean from manipulation theory as you said: "Flattery" and "pressure" are very important. And if you also reply with real interest, it means that you will eat their lies. Quite basic stuff, but it works. Though this one isn't that good compared to professional scammers.
There was a time i was pretty desperate for work, so I started looking online and almost got into a piramid scheme ._.xd but thank god I didn't accept immediately, I talked about it with my family and we all agreed that it literally sounded way too good to not be a scam xd
I think the reason they don't say the name is because AI would VERY likely read names wrong. For example, 3BSkyen. A person would read it 3-Be-Sky-in, or just 3-Be or Sky-in, ignoring the other part of the name. An AI might get 3-bus-ky-an. Which when said, would be SUPER off putting and clearly set off flags of something weird.
