Have you seen it? YouTube Recently, I saw an ad for a “slippage bot” that looked like this: Chat GPT And does it promise to help you earn passive income with cryptocurrencies? It's a scam. And they are fooling a lot of people while taking advantage of unsuspecting actors hired on Fiverr who have no idea what they were hired to read. One actor told Gizmodo that he ended up not even getting paid for his work, despite constantly appearing on YouTube on an account he didn't control.
The videos all follow the same basic script. They start with the actor telling us that he personally created a bot using his ChatGPT, which allows anyone to make money without any actual coding knowledge. Early in the video, the cast warns that there are many scammers in the cryptocurrency community, so it's important for viewers not to interact with “unfamiliar wallets” or “unknown exchanges.” I am.
After a sarcastic warning about scammers, the script proceeds to a place where you can copy a code that can be pasted into a website that allegedly performs the so-called front-run of cryptocurrency transactions. Of course, you will need to link your cryptocurrency wallet for the whole thing to work. The underlying idea is sandwich attack, this is the actual thing that unethical crypto traders do to extract your money. But when I try to run the code in the video, nothing like that happens.
If you actually skim the code, there's nothing inherently suspicious about it, other than the promise of free money. But that's because the real address of the wallet is split and hidden inside. MetaMask is a person who connects to his wallet and executes the code, he simply sends cryptocurrencies to one of many wallets controlled by anonymous fraudsters.
The videos all follow the same basic script, with slight changes. The only difference between many of the videos is the wording about how much money you can make with the technique.Title and thumbnail may promise $2,000 per day or $3,000 per day, others list amounts in Ethereum or percentages. However, those who follow the instructions in the video will end up with absolutely zero profits and end up sending their cryptocurrencies to scammers instead.
Gizmodo has yet to find any evidence that anyone appearing in these videos knows they are participating in a scam. In fact, all three of the people we spoke with got hired for video or voice acting work on Fiverr. And it's very clear why these scammers are hiring real actors. Gig work By depositing hundreds of dollars on his sites like Fiverr (one actor says he got his $500), these scammers can do it without revealing their identity. Make real people the face of fraud and rake in real money. .
As you can see in the short video compiled below, the script being read is the same in hundreds of videos on YouTube.
It seems like a ton of new YouTube accounts are posting videos every day, and the videos are causing a huge headache for some of the parties involved. Performers have no control over how their videos are used, and even if they can delete some, they frequently reappear on other accounts.
“Internet Security Expert, OSINT Enthusiast, […] “There is one victim and multiple people in my real life whose videos were posted to their feeds,” one of the actors, Scott Panfil, told Gizmodo via email on Sunday.
Panfil, a 41-year-old music teacher in New York, said at least four “true friends” have contacted him after seeing the video in a YouTube ad. Every time he finds a new video he contacts YouTube to have it removed, but it's pretty much like whack-a-mole.
Mr. Panfil contacted Mr. Fiverr and asked about the account that hired him, but was told that the account had been closed. But he says Fiverr insisted it couldn't do more. A Fiverr spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email on Tuesday that the company plans to block the accounts that were brought to their attention and provide Mr. Panfil with some compensation after he was not paid. .
“Attempts to deceive or defraud others are clearly in violation of our Terms of Service and are strictly prohibited. Using the services provided through Fiverr with intentionally misleading information or for the purpose of promoting fraud “It is a violation of our community standards to make services available to anyone who wants to do so, or which could pose a financial risk to users,” a Fiverr spokesperson said.
Many of the fraudulent videos are UnlistedThis means it won't show up in regular YouTube or Google search results. But as you can see in a screenshot taken by Gizmodo on March 23, they often appear as paid ads. The video on the far right featuring Panfil is marked “Sponsored,” indicating that it is being promoted through YouTube's advertising program just below the title.
People who click to view works that appear to be created by creators other videos Only five or six were created recently. These videos tend to be general instructions. technical topics It makes it seem like the person who ostensibly created this YouTube page knows what they're talking about when it comes to cryptocurrencies, like NFTs and smart contracts.
But as you can see in the Panfil-faced account below, the people featured on each YouTube account have no control over the content that appears there. These people were only hired for his one video on Fiverr, and their videos are being reused over and over again.
Most of the tutorials don't even have narration, which acts as a smokescreen. They're boring and only serve to cover paid ads that don't show up on even basic searches on YouTube. Again, I would like to emphasize that the people appearing in these ads probably do not think they are promoting a scam.and their videos are used all over the world some accounts.
Another element that all of these YouTube videos have in common is that the comments are overwhelmingly positive. This is clearly the result of a bot network trying to lend credibility to the scam.
Oddly enough, Gizmodo first learned about this scam about a month ago while looking into consumer complaints filed with the FTC that mentioned ChatGPT. We obtained the complaints through the Freedom of Information Act, but one complaint of his, filed on December 27, 2023, caught our attention.
I found the video “I used ChatGPT arbitrage Trading Bot to make $1,248 per day – Passive Income” by a YouTuber named “etsy web3 dev” on YouTube.
I followed the instructions and deposited 0.5 Ethereum from my Metamask crypto wallet into the Etherscan contract I was instructed to create. I created a contract and used ChatGPT's compiler to generate profit from the 0.5 ETH I sent from my Metamask account. Nothing was found in my wallet and the YouTuber was unable to respond to my messages. I tried again the next day with 0.65 ETH and still nothing showed up in the contract. I believe this YouTuber obtained my Ethereum through fraudulent means in order to steal my money, which totaled $2,500.
We were unable to contact the person directly because the name of the person who filed the complaint was redacted by the FTC, which is standard practice when the FTC releases documents through FOIA. . But knowing the name of the fraudulent video sends us down a rabbit hole where we find hundreds of other videos with similar titles, all of which can easily be used as passive income. I was promised that I would get it. They all used the same script and were read by real people.
Since we started investigating this scam, YouTube videos have become more common, as have other videos on social media. report I've been seeing it frequently over the past few days. YouTube spokesperson Javier Hernandez said the platform has “strict policies to protect the YouTube community” and that six channels were suspended for fraud or other deceptive practices.
“We are reviewing the ads in question and will take appropriate action against ads that violate our terms.” Advertising policy” Hernandez said in an email.
Most videos feature real actors, but there are a few that don't feature any people at all beyond their thumbnails. And nearly all of the videos we found containing this scam featured male actors, some of which also featured male actors. female voice actor However, they were rarely expressed visually. real women Apart from that in the video, some thumbnails.
How much money do these scammers make? It's hard to pinpoint this part, but Gizmodo sent a message to one of the victims, telling him he lost 1 ETH (about $3,300 at current prices). Based on various case reports, crypto forum The amounts extracted by these scammers are almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
There are several video commentators trying to warn people about this scam. However, they have not received much attention.this videoFor example, despite having been running for nearly a year, it has only 75,000 views as of this writing. Disturbingly, some of the videos that claim to debunk the scam are actually just trying to push it. own version of fraud By debunking other videos and making claims. They are We have a real bot that can generate this kind of passive income.
Needless to say, you should be wary of anyone who promises easy ways to make money. Also, if you are an actor looking to get some work through Fiverr, make sure you understand what you are reading. Because even if you receive the money, if it was a scam, you may face great dissatisfaction in the future.
