Bitcoin Forum

So I was contacted by a client for a writing job. The pay they proposed was just too good and I was happy and poised to earn thousands of dollars in bitcoins once again. I was eager to take on the content creation job, but alas it was not to be.
The hiring fellow, who I met on Reddit wanted me to create "fake news articles for some crypto projects". I was like ""what?". Yeah, I heard well...create fake news and make them look real enough for some crypto projects and earn thousands of USD in BTC. I told him that's not ethical and people would lose money. He said no, that folks will rather make money. That's how I let a lot of money slip through my fingers. This conscience of mine. I'm sure someone somewhere has taken the job.
I'm sure some folks somewhere will lose their money as a result.

This is why I don't believe too much in influenced article, many of which are paid promotion of which the owners of the project directs, as an influencer it's not easy to turn down amazing deals even if it's going to cause harm and loss of capital.
If you did turn down the proposal for you to write a fake promotion message then I must say you are one of the few good eggs in the article creation sector.

Many people from poor countries do this because the pay is just too good to pass. For you $1k was a lot, but imagine what it means for someone in India who earns $10 a day.

Do you still have this guy's email? Asking for a friend ;D

Upload it somewhere like on https://imgur.com/ and you'll get a bunch of links. One of them will be a bbcode link. Paste it in your post and you're all set.

Let it go. I assume you have a huge following on reddit or in other platforms? I think you did well rejecting the offer. That person was right when he said some people would make money from the hype as a result of the fake review or write up but more people would lose.
 
You can use apps like imgur to post a screenshot but wait until you reach junior member rank or buy a copper membership. You need to have an activity count of 30 and at least 1 merit to become jr. member. You already fulfilled one so you just need to increase your activity count.

Editing post to add links explaining rank requirements and copper memberships,

Ranking and activity - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0

Copper membership - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2385104.0

People does really have their own principles in particular things in life whether they would be accepting it or not and in your case it do shows that you dont like on others to lose money but majority of

people would definitely accept this job and wouldnt mind about conscience or something as long they could earn that much on just simply writing those fake news articles or something.
As long they could make money then thats what matters and  they dont mind others situation if they lost but still i could say that OP you did well on this one
but lets accept the reality on how this market works.

What's the project name so we can all steer away from it ?


also this  


For academic purposes of course ;)

You just did the right thing.

Well, these fake news to hype projects have became common and became basis of many investors upon researching. As we tell them to do DYOR, they might find those articles that has been made to make it look good.

I think just like a feature in YT videos, articles should also show if it's a sponsored article from that certain project that hired that writer.

well i think you need to post this:

1 - who contacted you

2 - project name

3 - if possible post the dialogue you had with them

4 - the value they were offering you for the work

this will help us to find out if there is a project that is in this forum or if the person you contacted has already been here on the forum

i commend the OP for turning down such good opportunity to earn money. later on, you will find better job than creating fake articles and you will thank yourself for not submitting yourself to that kind of temptation. at least you can live peacefully with yourself and you know you haven't done wrong to anyone.

@OP, since you are a newbie, you can post the links coming from imgur as suggested. get share link as BBCode(Forums), some higher rank members will just post the image for you.

OP, based on what you said. I have a reason to believe you're people and seem to like to impact the community positively but for most experienced crypto investors what you just said is not something new and if i could remember correctly it all started when ICO was trending then.
Mind you, this is one of the reasons why people are advised to always dyor first.
 

Sounds like the kind of odd job that you could find someone to do in exchange for Bitcoin.  In fact, I just might know a guy who could help...

Most information we get today are not well filtered, the news and articles can be written by a biased writer, and what more do you see invalid write ups and information.
It's best you get from first hand information else they're totally blah!!
It's unfortunate people will do whatever to get money, with the high rate of inflation across the world, the pays cool, and you see them diving in!

OP, You did the right thing. Unfortunately, not everyone has such high moral standards. I imagine there are countless people who would accept such a job without hesitation. Our online lives are filled with misinformation and fake news, with social media providing the perfect platform for it to spread. So many people will gladly accept such a position because they are not conscious of the damage they are doing, and do not see any harm in pushing a misleading agenda.

That is why it is important to make sure you are not falling for it. When you see information that you believe to be fact, you need to start looking at it with a critical eye. Always look for other sources to corroborate the story. Ultimately, you should become your own reporter.

I wonder which sites does the reddit guy spread the fake news? the biggest crypto news are coindesk, finance.yahoo and cointelegraph. Well maybe they shared on their small project, but those websites I mentioned before didn't made any research and just reposting what does other news posted. Most of fake news is discuss about Bitcoin, probably he's one of whales who want to buy dip and after many people realize it's fake news, the market recovered and then he sell his coins.

Not to doubt what you say, I just tend to doubt the stories I read on the forums. To give it more credibility you better post some pictures as Yogee has explained to you.

Assuming it is true, congratulations for doing the right thing, I guess you have a clear conscience. The bad thing is that, as has been said, someone else will have agreed to do the job, especially if the payment is a significant amount for that person.

Almost all the altcoins have done this in the past or are doing it today. "Altcoin advertiser" has always been a thing, I'm just skeptical about the payment part since most of them are just advertising the shitcoins and shittokens they are bag holding to get them pumped so that they can sell and minimize their losses.

I'm also curious, but I'm guessing that it's already too late anyway. Chances are, the project already rugged and made off without any consequences. Really one of the downsides of anonymity and freedom.

This is how these fake shitcoin projects create these attractive articles to show people big promises but have nothing to do with it just in hope that some people get fooled and invest in their project.Once they have gained the desired profits they just stop responding to people and investors loose their funds in one go.You did really a good job by giving up this job because earning money at the stake of others is morally unethical so appreciate you for that.

I wonder how effective these "fake news articles" would be at pumping the price of some shitcoin or NFT project.
How many 'investors' would say "I read this article about this altcoin or that NFT project,so I'm definitely gonna buy."?Reading some article simply isn't enough to convince someone to buy shitcoins and NFTs.
Perhaps the quantity of the articles about a certain crypto project is more important than the quality.
The people would be more comfortable buying,when they see 100 articles about a certain crypto project.
I guess that this is the secondary way to create fake hype around a shitcoin.The first way is to use paid social media influencers to pump the project.

Yep you let the money slip. Conscience can sometimes be that bad for the business. A writing job that pays thousands in BTC doesn't come aroundevery day.

It could have been a chance for you to make money and have something of a source of information. You might find out what they are up to.
I know it's unethical to disclose thier information but what sort of fud were they planning to spread?

I do not understand one thing is that by creating fake news articles how will it impact the popularity of the project? You need to publish those articles on popular crypto news sites in order for them to have any effect?
Anyways I like your honesty that you did not fall for the greed of money and did not accept unethical work. I hope you will get better legit work with even more payments.

Thats obvious, for someone to make money, other one has to loose it from their pocket, otherwise from where the money would float? Think air? Never. The only proper circulation is from the corporate advertisers or sites who take the escrow payments and are legit.

I do odd jobs all the time but I stick to the websites which are legit and double check the offers I am doing.

Sometimes the game could be even different one than what you were doing. They will ask nicely and will offer good amount of money to do the job. However, they will also send suspicious links from the job they are providing and make us click the links ending up to the hacks and what not.

It's just those internet of things. Its good you did not pull the job.

Yes, everyone has a price. ;)

Money is such a double-edged sword that it's impossible to win on either side. Either you lose your morals and become a scammer or cheat others so you can make a lot of money, or you lose your money and have your morality crushed into the dust of hopelessness and forget that you ever had them to begin with. Either way, the balance of power is skewed.

This is purely one of the organized ways of scamming people especially the newbies, that's why much emphasis is laid on the extent to which a particular project is being research on, such people  don't mind employing professionals and experienced users and pay them high just to facilitate their evil perpetration.



Dear bitcoiner, do not be disturbed when you see the  wicked prosper, for they are just for a little time.

I disagree. It doesn't have to be a team member or a developer who is part of just that one project. In his OP, OddJobsForBitcoin said that he was asked to create fake articles "for crypto projects". Plural! It could be a service provider who works with multiple partners on creating hype and fake articles to make projects X and Y sound better than they are. Sharing the information publicly can create the opposite. Those interested in participating in such activities would know who to contact and what it pays. 

It's great that you have realized your call of conscious and didn't take up the job that allows you to play with your own ethics. But I am sure someone must have blinded by the offer of money and make thousands of dollars through their ill practices. It's unfortunate but that's the reality of journalism today. In my country, every political party keeps their own new channels to spread their propaganda through fake news. Even the ruling party of my country has a team of IT professionals and graphics designers to create fake news and narratives and then spread them through social channels. That's the game in today's world! I am happy to see that you didn't take up the job and let the money slip through your fingers but fortune favors the brave and I am sure you will find some better offer soon! 

I've told my story a couple of times on the forum but I don't mind repeating it.

- 2016. out of work and circumstance forced me to be confined to home for a time.
- looked online to see if people'd pay a freelancer for writing. I'm a decent writer, not the best but I know my way around certain topics.
- rates were horrific. Starting around $2 to $5, but I took them. Wrote for hours, all day, could even crap out tens of articles a day. Not fake, just for content.
- then people in crypto also looked and liked. Rates went a little higher for niche topics (gambling, AI, data, blockchain, etc.). Still wasn't great rates, but you can see some of my Trust settings for an idea of price back in 2016/17.
- Then Bitcoin rallied hard in 2017. The $2 easily became $25. I'd done hundreds of articles by then, dissertation works especially got me higher rates. Enforced savings and discipline meant I had a modest account. BTC ATH made it very worthwhile, and here we are about twice the price of 2017 ATH.

You don't always have to DCA or buy if you keep on earning and getting paid in Bitcoin. It's not going to make you wealthy, but over time, your earning power is much higher.

The actions like that are unethical and it may contain the elements of crime. Just imagine, Someone in 3rd world country don't know who did the article and think that its a popular journal or something like this, he may trust and lose too much.

You did the right thing. Hopefully, the fake news will not affect the people who read it. I'm sure you'll get a better project than before that can earn you a lot of money for what you're doing today.

If somehow, I met an article, videos, or whatever about something that looks suspicious, I will not continue reading it and search for the other news. The audience has become smarter today and will not follow what they read from the source.

If they're willing to scam people and mislead them into giving money to fake projects, they can also easily scam their writers. But, regardless of whether they pay writers and how much they pay, it's indeed a very unethical thing to do, and I'm glad you said no. I honestly don't understand how people can do stuff like that for money and not feel very bad about it. They are taking part in crimes, making others lose their funds!
I disagree that everyone has a price. I think it really depends on a person and on what's expected of you. Also, it depends on whether you care deeply about the thing you're supposed to do or not.

Obviously you don't understand the meaning of this idiom.

It depends on your definition of "price." In the financial sense - then yes. It's true that some people hold certain values so strongly that money can't "buy them". But that doesn't mean there aren't other ways to make them change their minds. As an example, where do you draw the line when someone threatens your life or your family? I know, I'm exaggerating, but it proves my point.

That's what influencers and celebrities doing lately for money. Yea, it's pretty sure someone else will take over the job even you ignore to do it, but you did the right thing. At least no one lost money for you. I don't follow this kind of promotional article or video ever. Because I know what is behind that. Everyone should ignore this way to save their hard work money.

Well, giving a false information already is somehow a crime but this one will vary from what country you are in. I think it depends on someone if they want to believe what they read somewhere on the internet but we should also practice the do your own research and find a reliable source and not just a link that you find somewhere on the internet.

And I don't a trusted site will give some News like a fabricated one would dare to give a false information to everyone, they might lose their customers if they do the odd job. I believe it was some small time journalist who wants to gain popularity by creating fake news or could it be they were paid to manipulate the market.

What are the fraudulents are making plans to make money out of the common people. This could also make people loss interest over cryptocurrency. Op has done a good job among the influencers who gets paid and trap the common people for easy money. We've got so many platforms to invest and analyse. Good is to understand the true value of the project, study the project and invest than just getting trapped by such fraudulent acts.

then i must say that you made a perfect decision because indeed you may earned thousands of dollars but there are many people that will even loss millions of dollars because of your collaboration with those scammers or Liars , this will not bring any good result in crypto and even in your own life.
thanks for that attitude and trust me there are more offers to come in the future that will bring you legit profit and income without hurting others.

You've done a true service to everyone of us and to the whole crypto ecosystem. You're worth emulating by all article writers and content creators. But for the sake of money, somebody must have filled that job and written that fake news. That's why online contents, whether videos or articles, are not to be trusted immediately. We should all treat them with a grain of salt. This is another reminder for us to always verify the information that we've gathered online. We need to assess the reliability of our sources as well because everybody could post anything online.

Still, it will be better if we know more details about the requestor. Like if he knows where those articles will be published or did he gave any names of the projects on which fake reviews were required.
Really these days it is very hard to get genuine news about crypto projects. I prefer to use multiple sources of information and not just focus on a single news source to avoid fake news.

It's sad that there are always people who will take advantage of the situation especially when money involves no matter where the source is. Thankfully there are always people who are willing to turn down those kinds of offers and continue to walk in the face of the earth with a conscience. This story will become a big lesson for the investors because they will know that articles about certain projects especially good news about them are not always real rather it's just some kind of bait to lure them.

You are right, it has now become a normal thing and it’s not just only in the cryptocurrency market but everywhere. I always see influencers and content creators who make content about products and projects that they know nothing about or have never ever tried before. People really have to be careful with whatever contents that are coming from these influencers these days, because most of them don't care about their brands, they only care about making money.

So, we really have to be careful and whatever information that we are getting we have to make sure that we look into it no matter how interesting it may seem, it is better that you look into it yourself and be sure of what you are about to get into, so that you don’t make a mistake you will end up regretting later.

You accept it or not, people will still lose money. That is how investing works but if that actually happened, kudos to you for picking your peace of mind rather than a short-period worth of money, which can be used to maybe invest in some of the interesting NFTs or cryptos you have in mind but never mind.

I think people nowadays won't be falling to these kinds of tactics, right?

Absolutely right as he left the job so there will be another person who will be very happy to publish these fake articles for them in exchange for money only.They both have taken out their funds but who is at the loss? The people who got convinced from these influencers and invest in those dumb projects not giving any return and are pure scam.So as you said staying away from them is best solution.

It is really good that you have such a mindset because only a few people would be ready to turn down such an offer. nowadays there are so many articles and videos that are being published by influencers all over the internet just to mislead people.

It’s just like on YouTube you will see so many YouTubers and influences who will make content to promote project that they are not even sure about and by doing so they mislead their followers and viewers just because of their own selfish interest. Most of them only cares about the money that they will be making and they don’t care about building Trust with their followers.

This is a little brave of you to bring it up, I know there are a lot of articles online that are extremely scammy, but if you are a really good writer, I believe you will be able to persuade us. I remember the days when most of the articles on the internet were true and I trusted them, but now I only see advertisements and it makes me sick, which is why I no longer trust the articles that I find on Google search; instead, I rely on the news or from a legitimate source now, as well as on forums, where the majority of people are speaking the truth.

luckily you think about it, no matter how small the money maybe you will feel how painful it is from someone who is just learning to invest, and this makes the layman will fomo on a project, even though this is human because of greed, but I appreciate that you think far from just the payment you will receive, many people make traps by using the services of content creators, continue your conscience from the smallest things because behind us receiving payments it is also better if there is no duping and no one is hurt

You can never say that, If a fraud like that keeps on existing that means there are still a lot of people that's going to fall for it. Just do the basic math, the OP was offered thousands of dollar to spread fake news and milk some money from their clients/investors once that fake news works.
Cryptocurrency is one of the best way to do it because these fraudsters can opt to stay anonymous.

Just took the words right of me. I believe someone else must have done that job already and most likely for less than what the OP was offered and this is the faith crypto investors fall into especially those that are looking for shining projects from crypto influencers online and why some will rather only invest in already established projects in the market. Weldon OP for turning it down regardless.

Thousands dollars for writing fake articles? Or even just for posting news (which is easier to create than a good article). I never know shilling cost that much. According to how shilling looks on bitcointalk (quality of written posts), I thought it is a kind of cheap promotion. But thousands for articles? Either you would have to write hundred of articles, or you have an account with huge karma and have a solid reputation on reddit, or, which is more real, you would be scammed and not paid for your job at all.

I am always admired by people with good deeds like you , imagine instead of gaining thousands of dollars you choose to deny this offering because of your concern to the other people that might become a victim of this scammers ?
why i did called scammers? because making fake reviews or fake articles is an obvious way of showing how scam their project is.
never become greedy when there are thousands of people to be a victim .

Well, we don't know what was asked of OP and what kind of content was expected from him. We also don't know the length of those articles. $1000 does seem like a lot, but it all depends on how much he would need to write and what the word count is.

He wouldn't necessarily have been scammed like you said. If they want someone to do PR for them long-term, I assume they want that person to be happy and even recommend their services to friends and other content writers. $1000 is nothing if it can lead to fake hype where victims will invest tens of thousands of dollars based on the content they have read.

I appreciate you for being very selective with your clients and rejecting the $1000 offer to create fake hype although sometimes the news doesn't directly affect the crypto market, but the range of bids is very high for 1 article or contracts for multiple articles. Chances are he is the admin of several websites and telegram groups to post fake news about cryptocurrencies en masse.

I'm not reading crypto articles too much and now with what you have shared to us, I will never read crypto articles again.

I mean its wrong to generalize all crypto articles since we know that not all articles are fake but its really hard to distinguish which are true and which are fake. Information in the internet really can trick us investors isn't it? With regards to what happened to you OP, you can still take the job that they gave to you but... I doubt that you will be happy with the money that you got knowing that you did because of creating fake articles that might make some investors lose their money. Its a good decision for you not to take it and there are other better and more ethical jobs online. Just take your time finding it :). Thanks for sharing anyway at least I know what will I do now.

Many of them are actually paid by respective project owners. If the tone starts introducing the project, then, you will get the vibe that they are not promoting it freely but being paid to give good review (despite some of them don't know the real use case of the project). If you have been long enough, you will know how these writers are endorsing projects blindly without giving substantial content. As long as they mention the project and highlighting its features.

I have been in content writing for over 6 years, and it is very rare for people to get scammed for not getting their salary. What you just need to do is write first, just one article, and ask for the money. Go with one article per payment method for a long time, then do like 2-3 articles if you start to trust them. Then you move from there, like writing 5 for payment, then 10, then just do monthly and stay there because there is no need for more waiting.

All in all, even scammers do end up paying for their content writers if you want to pay, and if they don't, they can only scam you for one article if that is how they want to do business.

People are going to learn once they get victimize but there will always be new people that will enter crypto, this makes them continue with their motive because they know there is someone that will fall for it. They promised the writers to write articles and get paid but I don't think any writer will agree if there will be no upfront payment and much more if the offer is too good to be true but even if we say that they will be paid, this was still not right and the op did a good job there for refusing the offer.

Pretty sure good karma can come on his way and he can get more than what he supposed to receive. Anonymity features of crypto can be an advantage but it can also be a disadvantage depending on the user.

"conscience" something that is lacking in most people, not very many people pay attention to it or br bothered about it. Obviously this client of yours don't really care about the number of people that will get reckt with this singular act, his aim is to make money regardless, assuming @op is the ambitious type, he would gladly take the job.
I commend your self discipline despite how tempting the offer was. This space will be much better with our collective effort to do what is right.

I commend you for choosing the right decision because if I were you, I will also do the same. I will choose my conscience over thousands of dollars because our dignity isn't comparable to material things or even money. One of the factors why it's hard to rely on articles is that they aren't reliable because they're usually created to deceive people so we should always be skeptical and wise.

OP should make the project name public so people can stay away from this scam project, but we shouldn't force him to reveal the contact's name. If he did that I think it would be very dangerous for him, that's part of the deal (I guess).
I hope OP will provide some more information like the project name on the forum so we can evaluate it more fairly.

You still have a good conscience when you think about it, because you're not tempted by the big paychecks the job offers.
and I think many people will be blinded by a large salary just for personal gain and harm many people, making articles related to crypto and with a large salary will definitely have a big impact on those who read it and will be hypnotized when reading it, because the salary and work results will Spadan which I think the contents of the article must have been well designed and of course will bring profits by fooling and harming many people.
I applaud the OP, because if that were to happen, there would be a lot of people who don't trust crypto because they got scammed.

I've been away for a few months so I'm just seeing this. I was actually scammed by a writing scammer for writing $500 worth of content before requesting for payment. That was years ago when I didn't have much experience anyway.

Then you my friend have a big heart, many people would have take the job without worrying about the consequences on others who will invest in the project, what I want you to know is that this is now a norm in crypto space today, many new projects are paying youtubers to shill their nonsense too.

This can never happen with Bitcoin but with altcoin nonsense like this are filled up in every corner of crypto space, people don't care if other people lose money, in today's world money rules the world, including the mind of millions of people, we just got to live with it.

You choose to reject the offer and I bet someone somewhere already took the job, people are going through a lot and this is enough for them to take any job they can find, you are just different that's why and its good, most times when the paycheck is too good its probably evil in a sense.

You have a kind heart because irrespective of the amount of money they offered you, money that could probably solve a lot of financial problems, you still were considerate that if you earned that money, a whole lot of people will lose theirs. That’s the right thing to do and I’m not sure how many people can boldly do that but thank you for saying no to the offer, you don’t know how much trouble you’ve taken out your hand. How would you even live with the guilt if you heard that someone lost all their life savings because of you, would you even find it easy to forgive yourself?

There are jobs that will you more than the typical salary you have and if you're in the gigs, there are those that have lesser pay but the task are also not that much to think of.

And with these writers doing odd job like writing a false news, it's truly unethical and if you're okay doing those type of articles or news, you are misleading a lot of people.

IIRC, I also have this friend before but I don't know where he is now that had done gigs like this. Spreading false news but not related to crypto but with celebrities. The hype and impression he make within the day he said is the most important one and that made him lots of money.