have you seen Youtube Recently published “Slippage Bot” ads use Chat GPT And promises to help you earn passive income through cryptocurrency? This is a scam. It deceived a lot of people while using unsuspecting actors hired on Fiverr who didn’t understand what they were hired to read. One of the actors told Gizmodo that despite his face appearing regularly on YouTube, under an account he had no control over, he ended up not even getting paid.
These videos all follow the same basic script. They started with an actor saying they personally used ChatGPT to create a bot that would allow anyone to make money without any real coding knowledge. Early in the video, the actors warn that there are many scammers in the cryptocurrency community, so it’s important for viewers not to interact with “unfamiliar wallets” and “unknown exchanges.”
After getting a sarcastic warning about the scammers, the script dives into where you can copy code that can be pasted onto a website that will purportedly perform so-called front-running on crypto exchanges. Of course, you have to connect your crypto wallet for the whole process to work.basic idea, also known as sandwich attack, is a real thing that unscrupulous cryptocurrency traders do to extract money. But if you try to execute the code in the video, this won’t happen.
If you actually just briefly glance at the code, there’s nothing inherently questionable other than the promise of free money. But that’s because the real wallet address has been chopped into pieces and hidden inside. Anyone who connects a Metamask wallet and runs the code simply sends their cryptocurrency to one of the many wallets controlled by anonymous scammers.
The videos all follow the same basic script with only slight variations, and the only real difference between many of the videos is the wording about how much money you should make using their techniques.Sometimes the title and thumbnail will promise $2,000 per day or $3,000 per day, while others list amounts in Ether or as a percentage. But anyone who follows the video instructions will make zero dollars and instead send their cryptocurrency to the scammers.
Gizmodo has not found evidence that anyone appearing in these videos knew they were participating in a scam. In fact, three people we spoke to were hired by Fiverr to do video and voiceover work. It’s obvious why these scammers hire real actors. By investing hundreds of dollars on gig sites like Fiverr (one actor told us he got $500), these scammers allow real people to be the face of their scams without revealing their identities, while making real money.
As you can see in the compilation of short videos we’ve compiled below, the script being read is the same in hundreds of videos on YouTube.
These videos are causing quite a headache for some of the actors involved, as it seems like there are tons of new YouTube accounts posting them every day. Actors have no control over how the videos are used, and even if they are able to delete some, they keep reappearing on other accounts.
“I’ve been contacted by Internet security professionals, OSINT enthusiasts, […] One of the victims, as well as multiple people in my real-life relationship, saw the video on their feeds,” one of the actors, Scott Panfil, told Gizmodo via email on Sunday.
Penfield, a 41-year-old New York music teacher, went on to say that at least four “real friends” have contacted him since seeing the video in the YouTube ad. Every time he discovered a new video, he contacted YouTube to have it removed, but it was a complete game of whack-a-mole.
Penfield contacted Fiverr to inquire about the account that employed him and was told that the account had been terminated. But he said Fiverr insists it can’t do anything beyond that. A spokesperson for Fiverr told Gizmodo in an email on Tuesday that the company had blocked the account brought to their attention and would provide Penfield with some kind of compensation after he did not receive payment.
“Any attempt to deceive or deceive others is a clear violation of our Terms of Service and is strictly prohibited. Allowing anyone to use the services provided by Fiverr to promote intentionally misleading information or fraud, or that may cause financial risk to our users, is against our community standards,” a Fiverr spokesperson said.
Many scam videos are unlisted, meaning they won’t appear in regular YouTube and Google search results. But they often come in the form of paid ads, as you can see in Gizmodo’s March 23 screenshot below. The video featuring Panfil on the far right is “sponsored,” as indicated below the title by the fact that the video is being promoted through YouTube’s advertising program.
Anyone who clicks to view content from the presumed creator Other videos I’ve only seen five or six created recently.These videos tend to be general explanations Technical topics Like NFTs and smart contracts, this makes it seem like whoever created this YouTube page knew they were talking about cryptocurrency.
But the people on each YouTube account have no control over the content that appears on it, as you can see from the account below that uses the Penfil avatar. These people were hired for just one video on Fiverr, and their videos were reused over and over again.
Most tutorials that serve as smokescreens don’t even have a narrative. They’re boring and nothing more than a cover for paid ads that aren’t visible in a basic search on YouTube. Again, the people who appear in these ads may not know that they are promoting a scam.Their videos are widely used multiple accounts.
Another thing all these YouTube videos have in common is that the comments are overwhelmingly positive, which is apparently the result of some bot network trying to add credibility to the scam.
Oddly enough, Gizmodo first learned of the scam about a month ago while combing through consumer complaints filed with the FTC mentioning ChatGPT. We obtained these complaints through the Freedom of Information Act, and one complaint, filed on December 27, 2023, did come to our attention:
I found a video on YouTube by “etsy web3 dev”, a YouTuber titled “I make $1,248 a day using ChatGPT Arbitrage Trading Bot – Passive Income”.
I followed the instructions and deposited 0.5 Ethereum from my Metamask crypto wallet into the Etherscan contract I was instructed to create. I did create the contract and then used the compiler in ChatGPT 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. The next day I tried again with 0.65 ETH and still nothing showed in my contract. I suspect the YouTuber stole my money by instructing me to defraud my Ethereum, which is now worth a total of $2,500.
The name of the person who filed the complaint has been redacted by the FTC, which is standard practice when the agency releases documents through the Freedom of Information Act, so we were unable to contact the person directly. However, the name of one scam video threw us into trouble and we found hundreds of other videos with similar titles, all of which promised easy passive income. They all use the same script and are read by real people.
Since we started investigating this scam, YouTube videos have become more common, like other videos on social media report I’ve seen them quite a lot in recent days. YouTube spokesman Javier Hernandez said the platform “has strict policies in place to protect the YouTube community” and that six channels were terminated for scams and other deceptive behavior.
“We are also reviewing relevant ads and will take appropriate action against those that violate our rules. advertising policy“, Hernandez said via email.
Most of the videos feature real actors, but in some we never see anyone appear except in thumbnails.While almost all of the videos we found containing this scam feature male actors, there are some that feature male actors female voice actors But they rarely have visual representation real woman In the video except some thumbnails.
How much money did these scammers make? This part is difficult to calculate exactly, but Gizmodo messaged one victim who said he lost 1 ETH, which is about $3,300 at current prices.According to various anecdotal reports Cryptocurrency Forum The amount these scammers are swindling will almost certainly reach into the hundreds of thousands or more.
There are some video commentators trying to warn people about this scam. But they don’t get much attention.this videoFor example, despite being online for nearly a year, the site has only 75,000 views at the time of writing.Disturbingly, some videos claiming to debunk scams are actually just trying to push their own version of a scam By debunking other videos and claiming them There is a real robot that can generate this kind of passive income.
It goes without saying that you should be wary of anyone promising easy money. If you’re an actor looking to do some work through Fiverr, make sure you understand what you’re reading. Because even if you get paid, you may experience some major setbacks if it turns out to be a scam.