I've been very interested in business my entire life. And while scamming people might not be
the most ethical of businesses, it is still a business nonetheless. And if you've been
on YouTube at all and left a comment in the past year and a half you've probably noticed
that there are a lot of scams going on in the comment section. And getting rid of all these
spam comments is the most frustrating game of whack-a-mole that I've ever played. Comments
lately have been using the same profile picture as larger channels and try to siphon people away
to Whatsapp or Telegram telling them they've won some giant prize, only to get them to pay
shipping for that prize and never send it. It's been a sickness spreading throughout YouTube,
especially tech YouTube, for quite a while now. I've even had Marquez down there trying to hand
out free stuff. And just to be 1000% clear, I will never ask anyone for money. And I have never used
WhatsApp or Telegram. I only communicate through verified channels just like any other YouTuber.
It's been almost two years now of me trying to get rid of all these spam comments,
but as soon as I block one, more come back and change the name ever so slightly,
even misspelling “telegram” or becoming “Mr. Rig Everything,” “John Rig Everything.” With
millions of different variations it's impossible to fix this problem without help on the YouTube
side of things. And even though MKBHD made a video about this 10 months ago,
the problem is still here. I'm getting emails from people every day asking me if I got their PayPal
payment and if I've shipped their free phone yet, when it's just the scammers doing their scamming.
So me being the business curious person that I am, I decided to message the scammers myself
and see what their business is all about. I created a Telegram account for the very first
time so I could message the scammers and they responded. And it actually was fairly interesting.
So I reached out to them and said “what did I win?” and after a few
hours they responded. “Hello, how are you doing? Welcome to my giveaway page.”
And I said, “That's amazing! What did I win?” And they asked for a screenshot of the comment. I
sent them a completely different screenshot since they didn't actually respond to me specifically.
And they said, “Congratuations you won. You're among our shortlisted winners. Thank you for
watching and showing love, and thanks for being an active subscriber to my YouTube
channel.” And we went on. I said, “For sure, it's an honor to speak with you.”
“How long have you been a subscriber?”
“For two years.”
“That's cool. I hope you've learned a lot from my channel?” As he's pretending to be me,
of course. I said I have learned a lot, since I am me.
“I really appreciate you all of my subscribers for the love you guys have shown to me and for
that I have decided to randomly select some of my subscribers from my comment section,
which lucky for you you're one of them, which makes you the winner of an iPhone 14 Pro Max.”
“Wow, thank you so much!”
Then he asked for my delivery information, which I assume he was going to ask me to pay for shipping
after I gave that to him. So I said, “Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Okay mate.”
“I will give you $200USD if you tell me where you are from and how many people
you work with. I'm curious about your business here on Telegram.”
And he said, “Really? Okay $100USD up front and afterwards you send me the remaining 100USD.”
This is a business and he was negotiating. And he said, “I can stop if you really want me to.”
So I said, “$20 before, $180 after.”
We negotiated back and forth. I said “$50/$150 or no deal.” And then we went after payment
methods...PayPal, Venmo. And finally he asked if he was really talking to the real Zack Nelson.
So I sent him a picture with a piece of paper written “telegram scan” on it with the date
so he knew for sure he was talking to me. And after talking a little bit more about
payments we get to the juicy stuff. He said he was scared to accept this offer. And I said,
“how come?” And he said, “Hold on for a while. Because I make more than $200USD.” And I said,
“How much do you make?” And he said, “I make like $1000 a day man.”
And I said, “Dang bro, nice work. That's a lot of money. Across all YouTube channels?” And he said,
“Yours only, man. You've got a lot of subscribers who are ready for the giveaways.” I think he's
calling you guys stupid. So I said, “do you do other YouTube channels as well?” And he said, “No
matter what you post to your YouTube channel I'll still have someone who's willing to pay me. Got
some pending right now who are ready for payment because we talking to you they are on hold.”
I can tell the English is just slightly off which makes me start to think that he's not
from the United States. And I said, “business is business.” He said, “If you really want me
to stop we can talk real deal, no $50.” I think he's trying to get me to pay him a lump sum
to stop the whole business, which...
And I said, “I'm just curious about your business. I appreciate the hustle.” I'm
not going to pay you to stop though. That's YouTube's job.”
He said, “Really? Okay man.”
I said, “Are you from the USA?”
Then he said, “I'll gladly continue to spoil your reputation.”
Which isn't very nice. I said, “I tell people all the time it's not me. Not much else I can
do.” Which is true. I say in my...I don't know, basically any video I do a giveaway I mention the
spam comments as well as on my YouTube Community page, and on Twitter. I talk about it a lot.
And he says, “When I scam them I won't let them know I'm a random scammer. Even
if you do a video saying you are not the one no one is believing you man.”
So I say, “Are you from the USA?”
He says, “I guess you are not ready for business. I'll go attend to subscribers.
I always tell them I'm the real Zack and I just scam them. Lol, so cool right? And easy.”
At this point I didn't think I was going to get anywhere with them so I just gave
him a thumbs up emoji. And he says, “I don't let them know I'm a scammer they
all will be thinking they was scammed by you. What are you so curious to know
about?” after I didn't respond for a second. I said, “How much money you
make and how easy it is. Which you answered. Just curious. No hard feelings! No enemies.”
He said, “Okay, how about our deal? $50 to start.” And I thought this is where we're
going to get somewhere. So we figured out that he does have a PayPal so I sent him
$50 for PayPal family and friends since I'm friends with the scammer now. And we verified
the payment and then he said, “Alright. Confirm. Let's get started, I'm listening.”
So I said, “are you from the USA?” He said, “no sir.”
I said, “I said where are you from?”
He said, “Ghana precisely.”
“That's good money in Ghana!”
“Yeah man. Taking care of my siblings in school.” Which is very kind of him.
“How long have you been doing it?” And he said, “a month or more ago.”
“Really? I thought they'd been here for years. Other people?”
And he said, “just my first trial and I've made almost a millions.”
“Million dollars or Ghana money?” He said, “in Ghana money.”
I said, “I'm impressed. How much do people send you for shipping?” And he said,
“hold on while I send you a list.” And he did send me a screenshot and I think the
list was...it deleted by itself afterwards. It was like $100, $150...I think there were even
a few $200 items that people had sent him. Which is kind of sad because usually people
who are falling for this kind of scam don't have that money to be giving away in the first place.
And I said, “mostly through cash app?” And he said,
“I got all payment method. For your India subscribers. Even got a link for card lol
man. Never left any money for a subscriber.” Which I assume never left out any money which
makes me think that this is a rather sophisticated business he has going on.
So I said, “you don't do any other channels? MKBHD or Unbox Therapy?” And he said,
“lol still considering that but I'm not done with your
yet. Your subscribers are the best. Ready to pay coz of the trust man.”
I said, “I see other Telegram comments on other channels – are they other people?” He said,
“definitley those are my brothers. We 4 into this.”
I said, “Ohhh that makes sense. All family? Or just friends?” And he said,
“Family man. We have nothing to survive on.” I said,
“I understand. It is hard out there.” He said, “yes man, really hard no parent.”
And I said, “can I ask your first name?” And he did tell me his first name but I'm
not going to post it here. Just because he's doing something unethical doesn't mean we need
to be unethical back. So I said, “remember to not take too much money. The people you
take from are real people with hard times as well.” And I said...I was kind of finishing
up with the conversation now and I said, “can I pay the rest of the money? $150?” You know,
finishing my end of the deal learning about his business transactions. And he said, “It's
my pleasure. Though I watched your channel before I started.” I said, “how old are you?” He said,
“21. Why not we make a deal. I really know you want me to stop you just can't say it.” And I
said, “It is your honor. Not mine. But I have no hard feelings for you.” Which is true. He said,
“Why are you saying on YouTube and Twitter they should not be paying man?”
I said, “I have to protect my viewers. But that doesn't mean I hate anyone.”
“I understand I know what I'm doing is wrong but things are
difficult here sir. You are an honest man and I just admire you
why watching your channel. But man I just had to I'm so sorry though.”
I said, “no hard feelings. Good luck with everything! Try to stop someday.”
He said, “can you just help me and my poor siblings. Promise to stop right away.”
And at this point he tries to get me to pay him more to kind of stop the whole operation together,
but you never know with those kinds of things. You can't really negotiate with scammers. I could
pay him a massive lump sum to stop and then he could just continue doing it the next day.
Finally he said, “Okay it's been confirmed.” After he got my last $150 payment. And he said,
“I give you my word not to proceed with such acts on your website anymore. That is certain.
But I assure you my partners will also need to be settled before leaving your website. As soon
as you settle them no one else will bother your YouTube channel. Henceforth I'll send
you their Telegram profile right now sir.” Which he did and they were both variations
of my own name that I would have to settle up with to get them to stop. And I can't really
blame him. He's probably a very poor person in a very crappy situation. But poor people
robbing other poor people doesn't make him some kind of Robin Hood. It's still pretty messed up.
And honestly I don't really have a solution for this problem either. YouTube already has account
verification but obviously that's not working. I wonder if making the comments more verified,
like highlighted or with a bigger checkmark if that might help. Or making it so that new
accounts have a waiting period before they comment. Or even disabling strange fonts and
usernames. All of those are viable options. Or if you ban one account from a certain IP address,
that IP address stays blocked across the entire channel. I don't know. The truth
is that people suck sometimes and that's not going to change. And honestly we don't
know if everything he said was 100% true. I do believe the majority of what he said,
except that I really doubt he was making $1000 a day. Scamming people is business and he probably
is making good money to keep it going for two years, but $1000 a day seems like a lot.
This method of scamming people has been around for quite a while and it's probably not going
anywhere in the future, so the reason I'm making this video is to draw attention to
it and to let people know I will never ever ever ask you for money. And I will never ever
use WhatsApp or Telegram. I am, however, not going to stop giving away phones since
we can't let a few bad actors ruin a good thing. Just have to be diligent
and make sure not to message any of those spam accounts. And if you ever do see any of these
spam comments out there in the wild, just remember it's probably a very sad, lonely,
21 year old from Ghana who hasn't quite found his way in life. But I hope, eventually, he does.
Thanks a ton for watching. And I'll see you around.