Influencers, affiliate links and scams

[Yogee]

....Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that?

I'm not a lawyer but I'll try.

The key phrase here is "turned into scam" which means it started as a legitimate company. It is important to know that since these so called influencers have no prior knowledge that the owners would turn out to be scammers or that the project is a scam from the start. They will become liable if they're already aware of the fact and still promoted it.

[Nwada001]

Influencing have turned to profit making business, it's all about what the influencer is to gain and not what others are to lose..
Most of the celebrates, internet influencer they focuses on becoming some brand ambassador not just because they like the brand or because of how good their service is but it's because of the payment which they are getting from them.

It's only in this forum that we user's strongly stand against scam sites that are not in favor of their customers.. which is why here is highly rated for their services.

If not for the pay I see no reason why celebrities will be going about advertising sites which have bad reputation, especially sites like 1xbet which has the worst reputation ever which I have come across here in this forum.

[darkangel11]

Bitboy is a scammer who promoted scam coins and FTX and then when everything got exposed changed his stance and started stalking SBF and attacking other FTX promoters. The guy clearly thought an attack is the best defense. This guy should lose all his subscribers. I don't understand why people are still following a scammer who promotes so many shitcoins on his channel and takes money from developers to do it.

That Lark guy is the same. He gets paid to promote a token with that token and dumps it right away so he promotes things he doesn't want to hold and doesn't believe in. He'll say whatever you pay him to say.

How can people watch these paid shills? There's no pleasure and no profit in it.
They are using you!

In the first incident, which occurred in February 2021, 62,500 UMB tokens were sent to an address associated with Davis immediately after its promotion. Shortly after the ad campaign ended, the wallet dropped them, resulting in a $136,000 profit. According to ZachXBT’s analysis, Davis reportedly made $56,000 by selling the assets he had promoted just a few hours earlier. This trend was also seen for DOWS tokens.

Since then, Davis is said to have promoted and sold off a portion of the tokens he was given to promote SHOPX, BMI, PMON, XED, and APY following their respective launches.

https://thenewscrypto.com/crypto-influencer-lark-davis-denies-pump-and-dump-allegations/

[eaLiTy]

Do you believe so-called influencers are concerned about investors? Do you believe their followers are genuine? I don't believe it, and I wouldn't believe them either. Yes, they may have some genuine followers, but when those followers are deceived by his affiliate links, they will unfollow that influencer. It's quite simple.

Influencers are basically scammers who take money from any company to advertise them and they literally never care about the reputation of the product and all they care about is how much they are able to earn by promoting them and there are a lot of self made influencers popping up on a daily basis.

As a result, we can conclude that they do not have genuine followers. Influencers are paid by the team as well as by affiliates. So they don't need to worry about his followers because he only cares about money.

The problem is, real celebrities like Floyd Mayweather, John McAfee, Tom Brady promoting scams and that is the biggest problem we are facing in this space. Hope everyone pays their price for promoting these scams in the form of huge fines and then they will think twice before promoting any scams.

[Easteregg69]

Do you believe so-called influencers are concerned about investors? Do you believe their followers are genuine? I don't believe it, and I wouldn't believe them either. Yes, they may have some genuine followers, but when those followers are deceived by his affiliate links, they will unfollow that influencer. It's quite simple.

Influencers are basically scammers who take money from any company to advertise them and they literally never care about the reputation of the product and all they care about is how much they are able to earn by promoting them and there are a lot of self made influencers popping up on a daily basis.

As a result, we can conclude that they do not have genuine followers. Influencers are paid by the team as well as by affiliates. So they don't need to worry about his followers because he only cares about money.

The problem is, real celebrities like Floyd Mayweather, John McAfee, Tom Brady promoting scams and that is the biggest problem we are facing in this space. Hope everyone pays their price for promoting these scams in the form of huge fines and then they will think twice before promoting any scams.

When you influencer tells you to sell then you sell! No later accusations.

Because if you don't then you are not influenced. I take my beer now.

[bitgolden]

....Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that?

I'm not a lawyer but I'll try.

The key phrase here is "turned into scam" which means it started as a legitimate company. It is important to know that since these so called influencers have no prior knowledge that the owners would turn out to be scammers or that the project is a scam from the start. They will become liable if they're already aware of the fact and still promoted it.

I would say that it should be based on knowledge, and if they knew it was a scam then they should be held accountable and if they didn't know then they shouldn't be. If we were to talk about all the people who supported an "eventually turned out to be a scammer" we would have to jail all of wall street for supporting Madoff and Enron at some point in time.

We have seen so many companies turned out to be a scammer and so many business executives and celebrities supporting them until they found out it was a scam. Which means we can't punish them for it until it's obvious to everyone, after that if they still support it then we could actually say it could work.

[Captain Corporate]

I agree with this. If you are talking about someone from inside, like literally they became part of it, then it could change in that case. If they are not inside, and they are not aware then they could get paid and promote something, it has happened a million times before and its not a problem at all. However, if we are talking about someone that ever gets shares, like becomes a partner with it, even if just getting token payments, then the trouble is they have to vet the company enough to know if they are legit or scam. You can just promote, but if you become part of it, you have bigger responsibility.

[Kryptowerk]

One of the most common and easy ways to profit in crypto industry is to promote affiliate links to online platforms such as casinos, exchanges and micro earnings websites. Probably most of us have already done it in the past, or still do this during the present moment.

However, what if you had the reach of 1 million subscribers? Millions of views? And if you endorsed a platform to all those people which turned into scam?

[...]
What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

All I can say is, it was very interesting to see the different ways people that promoted FTX dealt with its implosion a few months back. It is as you would expect: The whole spectrum from not-even-mentioning a thing to their subscribers, via blaming FTX and SBF but instantly continuing with other promotions to the very rare "I will not promote any CEX from now on" reaction.
That being said, yes, if you promote something and create any kind of revenue from it, you have at least the responsibility to check if it is not an OBVIOUS scam / ponzi etc. And as soon as you get any info that things could be shady it is also your responsibility to immediately stop the promotion and inform your viewers/listeners etc.

If you do your due dilligence before accepting a promo-partner you'd probably need to rule out 95%+ of potential partners in crypto space from the start on.
You will probably lose some of the most lucrative deals. Which is why too many influencers and youtubers don't do exactly that.

[examplens]

at the moment when the influencers promoted them, all of them were doing business legitimately. no one can blame them for that, In the end, I believe that not most of the influencer is directly involved in the "fraud" scheme itself.
it is something completely different if someone promotes an obvious scam, although this is also subject to different interpretations, given that the first Google showered us with advertisements from dubious platforms.

[aoluain]

I don't follow any influencers other than the likes of Michael Saylor on Twitter, if
he can be classed as an influencer.

I pay less than zero regard for anything others than Bitcoin, probably an exception
for Litecoin and Montero but outside those I don't care for them.

The way I see it is Influencers promote "crypto" not Bitcoin. They promote projects
which they themselves benefit from. It's sad that so many people can't see it?

[Yatsan]

I agree with this. If you are talking about someone from inside, like literally they became part of it, then it could change in that case. If they are not inside, and they are not aware then they could get paid and promote something, it has happened a million times before and its not a problem at all. However, if we are talking about someone that ever gets shares, like becomes a partner with it, even if just getting token payments, then the trouble is they have to vet the company enough to know if they are legit or scam. You can just promote, but if you become part of it, you have bigger responsibility.

That is simply how influence works. For sure they are aware of it and they are just doing it to earn money from promoting those projects by disregarding the risk the are exposing to their audiences. If you would observe, they'd be deleting contents of such project once scam is already obvious, like they never did they part to promote it. That's just how money works for them. It is guilt which would be their problem afterwards but most of them are simply used to it, and will continue such scheme project after project. This also the reason why people should stop relying that much from influencers simply because they are doing their job. We, as investors, would be the one incharge still, with our funds.

[harapan]

Another example of these influencers that doesn't know what they do but are big public figures in the world is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Do you know he's been an influencer for Binance without knowing the harm using exchnages can cause especially when you're holding for longer term.

Michael Saylor can also be a good influencer likewise bad but when you see stuff's like from who you folly learn to check for what's right and wrong so you don't get mislead. It's also the same scenario with Elon Musk, all he does want is the push up of doge coins.

[RAppleby]

Scams are all around us. We must distinguish whether they are telling the truth or not. Many people tend to exaggerate what he promotes because they have received a lot of benefits. However, there are still many influential people whose fans are more "real". He does not want to lose fans and will not participate in some scams. Be skeptical about what others say, don't believe it completely.

[traderethereum]

The responsibility will return to each person who wants to participate in the promotions these influencers offer.
The influencers are just offering something that might be of use to their followers and if the followers don't seek more information, it will be their fault of the followers.
Every time we want to join a promo, we must be able to find or search for a lot of information so that we will not be scammed.
Of course, these influencers also definitely don't want to be blamed by others because they only give something to their followers and everything will return to them.

[davis196]

This is an old topic and there was a forum thread about this subject. There's no need to make another one for the same topic.
Anyway, we can put the blame on the influencers, only if they knew that the crypto projects were scams from day 1. This should be proved in court. Without such proof everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Some influencers harmed their own reputation, by promoting crypto companies, that turned into scams. Those influencers probably have the right to sue the crypto scams for defamation or fraud(even though they got paid for doing the advertisements). I'm not a lawyer, that's just my two cents about this topic.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

The truth is that, that this guys promoted this platforms does not mean they were part of the scam or contributed to their bankruptcy, this issue is not peculiar to crypto currencies alone.
One thing i want you to understand is that, as members of the crypto community, at some point in time, we as individuals will likely find a project we truly believe in, and after investing so much of our money in it, i will do all we can to make sure the project succeeds, and that includes promoting the project to help make it visible to other investors and as well.
If at some point such a project collapse, then people must understand that we dont have crystal balls that tells us which promote would stand the test of time and which would not, so it is clearly not their fault that those projects end up failing, beside, those project succeeded, did very well, made good money for its early investors, before they collapsed, the promoters were only doing their job as promoters, they aren't the CEO or part of the founders of the project, as an investor, you should always do your own research before deciding to invest in any project, regardless of who is promoting it.

[worle1bm]

I once saw a thread on twitter explaining that how one of the famous crypto influencer was making fool of the people through promotion of scam coins as he was paid huge supply of those coins by the team just to make easy profits.He get the coins on his different address and then after the investment he pulls out his profits making like $300k or something like that but people who follow his advice only loose.So I have no faith in these so called influencers pretending to have knowledge but promote projects because they are paid actors and we should not fall for their trap.

[jaberwock]

Celebrities are only good at representing, if they wanna be paid then follow the instructions. Yep, we know that they have limited knowledge in this field, but is it entirely their fault? What if they're also part of the victim?
I believe that many seasoned millionaires (not influencers) have also fallen for the scams of these companies.

Not entirely their fault of course but it's only the public who thinks that it was their fault. If im a celebrity, I think I won't just accept the deal easily but I will research first if the thing that I am going to promote is scam or not but I can value my reputation more over the money.

As a celebrity, you will still get a lot offers and I believe that most of them are legal and fair companies so why can't we just go on them instead? Like we said earlier, celebrities or influencers, are only being paid to promote so they never invest on the same project that they promote but for a regular individuals or those millionaires, they are the ones who can get scammed big time.

[Iroh]

What do you think about these people? Do they have any responsabilities when promoting companies which turned into scam? Should they be held accountable for that? Is it right to profit over your audience's losses? And is there more responsability involved when it's an influent person promoting affiliate links, instead of random crypto enthusiasts sharing their links in social medias?

Personally, I would not at first glance, trust anything an influencer promotes. Most times, a majority of them tend to promote anything that would be profitable to them first irrespective of it’s a legit and a responsible project or not.
Famous individuals could also be hired as influencers as they’ve got a lot of followings on their social media.

They should have some sort of responsibility to their fans and followers who in most cases would gullibly believe whatever the influencer puts out. But selfishness tend to get in the way as a whole lot of  influencers would promote anything for a quick buck.

Influencers aren’t knowledgeable in all things and in some cases aren’t knowledgeable at all in whatever they’re actively trying to sell to their viewers. Influencers aren’t a recommended source of investment opportunities.

[uneng]

How can people watch these paid shills? There's no pleasure and no profit in it.
They are using you!

Regards Lark Davis I don't know how he managed to gather a large public, as I see nothing special about him. But Bitboy I believe it was because he boasts a networth of 28$ million dollars and a wealthy lifestyle, theoretically achieved through crypto investments, especially altcoins. And the public like this kind of people who are surrounded by tons of money and have an imposing speech, due to it sounding convincing.

at the moment when the influencers promoted them, all of them were doing business legitimately. no one can blame them for that, In the end, I believe that not most of the influencer is directly involved in the "fraud" scheme itself.
it is something completely different if someone promotes an obvious scam, although this is also subject to different interpretations, given that the first Google showered us with advertisements from dubious platforms.

I think the right thing to do would be those celebrities donate the money they were paid by the scammers to the victims, being it earned from referral comissions or official contracts.

The way business is being done, it's too good for scammers and their promoters, while the customers/investors' side end completely screwed up.