I love Instagram.
Where else would I be able to post stuff like this . . . and get away with it.
If I posted this anywhere else, people would just call me unstable and self-absorbed.
More than usual.
But there’s one thing I’ve been noticing on Instagram a lot lately.
And nobody’s talking about it.
Welcome to week one of Scam Month.
That’s right, this November, I’m super cozy, and all four videos are going to be
about scammers!
Week 1: Instagram Scammers, then we have Jay Shetty, Raid Shadow Legends, and uh, what’s
his name again?
Oh, Shane Dawson.
November 24th.
Before we get started, I have something really exciting to announce.
I’m making a video longer than ten minutes.
It’s going to be almost 30 minutes long, and I'm going to upload it on my second channel
as a premiere.
So, subscribe to my second channel, I put a link in the pinned comment and description
for that.
But that’s enough about myself.
Let’s talk about me for a second.
Or more specifically, memes for a second.
I am a meme connoisseur.
If you send me a meme, I’m definitely going to laugh, but I’ve also definitely already
seen it.
Sorry.
I get my memes from all over but Instagram is generally my favorite, because people post
10 at a time and I don’t have to put effort into finding them.
You look at your phone in when you wake up in the morning, click into the meme, swipe
swipe swipe swipe swipe, and then bam. it’s 3 AM.
And you still have to edit your video.
My sleeping pattern is just—to even call it a pattern is a crime against mathematics.
But because the average meme post on Instagram has about 7-10 slides, I starting seeing some
weird things thrown in with the memes.
Weird advertise-y things.
So I decided to conduct a mini-investigation.
I looked at a LOT of memes for this video.
Uh, most of them were pretty awful actually.
But I found enough to realize that Instagram meme pages are running a black market.
So here we have a Marvel meme post from @couldn’t_choose_a_fandom.
I’m not a big Mavel fan, but I enjoy Marvel on the gram.
Just not when it’s connected to a scam.
Okay I think I just accidentally invented the art of poetry.
I find new things I’m good at every day and it’s so annoying, like why coudln’t
God have just given me a list.
But as you notice, this post has four slides.
Slides one, two and three are just overused Marvel memes.
Then slide four: bam.
Link in bio to purchase.
So my first thought was . . . these look awful.
If you let me wear something like this out in public unironically . . . you do not love
me.
But I decided to be brave and follow the link in the bio anyway.
It takes me to Beautiful Halo dot com.
So here we have a bunch of truly awful Marvel merch.
Now, I didn’t get to the bottom of whether or not this was official Marvel merch, but
I was born with eyes, so . . . I mean, look at this.
It hurts.
And seeing as the tab is called “Superhero Merch” and not “Marvel merchandise”--
Yeah, this is . . . this is fake.
So this already weird, right?
Random shop selling random merch, being promoted by a random Instagram account.
But this is just one example.
Or so I thought.
Here we have the account: @IsThisTumblr.
There are seven slides, and slides one, two and three are tumblr memes.
And then slide four, more clothes.
Now, these aren’t Marvel clothes, these are just like . . . a Walmart version of Hot
Topic, which is kind of like saying a Walmart Version of Walmart.
But I follow the link and their bio and BAM.
I’m back on Beautiful Halo.
It’s just a different section.
Looks like more copyright infringement though, I see Pikachu, Kermit the frog.
I like how the Kermit one says . . . cute cartoon dinosaur pattern.
You’re already disrespecting our boy by putting him on this Godawful hoodie, AND you’re
not even going to use his real name because you don’t want the legal smoke . . . but
then you’re not even going to get the species right?
Wait til Disney finds out that you ripped off both Marvel AND the Jim Henson company.
These people are begging for a lawsuit.
So we have two different accounts pointing to Beautiful Halo.
That’s when I started getting a weird feeling about this.
@isthistumblr and @couldn’t_choose_a_fandom have nothing to do with each other, but they’re
both promoting the same service.
And you know where else that happens?
YouTube!
This is a brand deal.
I love sponsorships, next year I’m going to find one for every single video, not even
kidding.
But I also legally have to inform you that it’s a sponsorship.
I can’t just be like hey guys, I just want to interrupt myself for literally no reason
and tell you about Beautiful Halo-VPN-Share.
No reason, but I have a code with them . . . somehow.
I don’t where it came from, but apparently you can use it to save 10%?
So that’s really weird, but there’s a link in my description.
For unknown reasons.
That have nothing to do with sponsorships.
Like, just say it’s sponsored by Beautiful Halo, or at the very least that you’re using
an affiliate link, because that’s actually required by federal guidelines.
But here’s the thing.
I can't ever leave things alone.
If I find one \, I want to immediately find ten more.
So I was wondering, what other online stores are doing this?
Here’s a post from @tumblermemes, where the 4th slide is an ad.
And you know what, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re all on the fourth
slide.
Four out of ten.
That’s, in the middle, closer to the beginning, which is where most sponsorships are found
in YouTube videos.
So this ad says “My dad bought me this portable mini projector from @zeeverastore.
We spend quality family time by watching old memories on this awesome projector!”
Wow.
“My dad bought me”, I like how they’re trying to make this ad look like . . . not-an-ad,
but like a meme.
This does not look like a meme.
Show me somebody in the age range of . . . being alive that says things like “we spend quality
family time by watching old memories”.
But I still clicked the link.
Now we’re on Zeevera dot com.
Zeevera?
I’m just going to call it the Photoshop store because none of this stuff looks real.
Now we’re on the Photoshop store, which appears to be another online shop, but selling
home products instead of clothes.
But this one is advanced.
This one has reviews.
“Maggie Witting”.
5 Stars.
“Like!
Picture: for those watching movie is no screen film or a smart TV Full Hd... but to watch
good in a dark room!”
I mean, now I have to buy it.
Look, I have nothing against people who struggle with English.
I struggle with English sometimes, and it is my native . . . and only language.
But if you’re going to make up fake reviews with names like “Maggie Witting or Colten
Fahey” . . . maybe try to make the English sound a bit more convincing?
Also, none of these review pictures actually show the product working, and they’re all
five stars.
This is so sketchy.
When I decided to start Scam month, I didn’t think I would actually find scams this easily.
This next post is from @slu—oh, I’m not going to say that.
These are like cute Twitter memes.
But then the last slide: Sunflowers symbolize adoration, loyalty, and longevity.
This necklace opens up to a message saying “you are my sunshine!”
So this ad is supposed to look like not an ad, but a Tweet from @hadexoxox.
10,000 followers, and all she seems to do is retweet baby photos and cat photos.
Oh, and links to other jewelry stores.
Yeah this is definitely a real person.
So the website from the Instagram post is called Lavandulas . . . Lavandulas?
It looks identical to Zeevera and Beautiful Halo.
This one at least seems to be real jewelry though.
I mean, it’s probably very cheap, and they were still using deceptive advertising practices
but, you know.
Jewelry seems real.
Real cheap.
So we’re up to what, three stores now?
This one is from @artisttoolkit, they post art memes and the last three slides are all
an ad.
“Tag a friend and if they don’t respond in 2 minutes, they owe you this dino”.
I guess I’ll try.
@ArianaGrande.
I’m sure she’s my friend, I bought all her albums.
Now, again, the dinos themselves seem to be real.
The reviews definitely look a lot more real.
But if all these people bought it through these Instagram posts, they don’t realize
they just gave money to a company using deceptive ads on them.
It’s honestly kind of upsetting, these people are just trying to live their lives—well
they’re scrolling through Instagram—These people are just trying to escape their lives
but they’re being targeted with these weird ads, many of which seem to be promoting scams,
and all of which are definitely scummy because they’re undisclosed sponsorships.
Now the last post I have to look at is from @memeplanter, and lo and behold, the fourth
slide is an advertisement.
You know what, on my Instagram account @dangelno, I’m going to start posting 10 photos at
a time.
The first three are going to be ads, but the fourth photo is going to be a picture of me,
and then all the rest are going to be ads.
So @memeplanter posts an ad for Special Airpods case.
And now I’m on Zeevera.
And right off the bat, I see Mickey Mouse, Monster’s Inc, and Elmo . . . all in the
same picture, so.
I think we get it.
All I have to say is, I want to be there for that lawsuit.
What gets me about all of this is . . . I’ve done sponsorships before.
I have no problem with accepting money to promote a service.
But at the same time, I have an audience because of my content.
Say what you will about the videos I’ve uploaded, but at least I created them.
I mean, it’s a low bar, but I passed it.
These meme pages are taking screenshots of other content, adding no commentary, and then
getting brand deals out of that.
But they’re not even willing even to tell you it’s an advertisement.
Now, I’m aware that I just gave Beautiful Halo and all these other weird stores a ton
of free advertising, because you know, tens of thousands watch my every move.
But honestly, don’t buy anything from Beautiful Halo.
Consider this an anti-sponsorship.
Do no buy anything from any of these people.
But, if this video gets . . . any amount of likes at all, I’ll make a video where I
purchase all of these products and then test them out myself.
But that concludes week one of scam month!
And until then, looks like I’ve gotten ten minutes of content out of this, so leave a
like, tell me what you think, and subscribe if you haven’t already.
Thank you for watching and a big thank you to my 220,000 subscribers.
Okay bye.