Getting scammed online is something many Australians try to avoid, but one Shark Tank judge deliberately let himself get scammed 100 times.
Sabri Suby, 38, is like any other Australian who is targeted by telemarketers and fraudulent ads on social media.
And although there are many who fall into these scams without knowing it, Mr. Suby wanted to find out What were these scams like? and where they came from.
‘It’s getting out of control. I (normally) have a little fun with them, but this time I decided to go all the way and see what Internet rabbit holes they would take me down and the lengths people will go to to scam people. ‘ he said.
‘And I think with everything that’s happening with AI and robotic calls and all that it’s going to be more prevalent. So, being a man of the people, I have set about it.
Shark Tank Australia judge and marketing expert Sabri Suby allowed himself to be scammed 100 times to investigate how these scam ads work and still fool people. Image: Supplied
According to the digital marketing mogul, it took very little effort to find them thanks to social media algorithms: they found him.
‘Algorithms are very smart basically with your stuff once you click on one and you click on a scam. And that is. You fall into a hole of constant and endless ads for all kinds of scams, whether it’s organic content or ads themselves,” he said.
“I just picked the weirdest, craziest, wackiest things I could find and thought, ‘Let’s try it.’
One of those he found and classified as a “cool product sold in a cool way” was pure Himalayan Shilajit resin.
“It’s this black tar substance that comes from the Himalayas and India, and it basically says it contains all the essential minerals,” Mr Suby said.
‘And they market it in a way that will double your testosterone, increase, quote, the size of your pencil, and do all these outrageous things for you.
‘Crazy AI ads for this one. The ad starts with something like “this is what would happen to you if you ate nothing but Shilajit for seven days.” “And they just continue to make completely false claims, baseless claims.”
But the worst type of scams he encountered were those that used AI fakes of popular celebrities and influencers to give fake endorsements.
‘There are some that are like Mr. Beast’s AI fakes and sell iPhones for a dollar. And because it has such a young audience or there will be a sweepstakes app that will be a betting app, they will use Mr Beast to promote it,” Suby said.
“As soon as you put in your credit card, that’s it, they’re going to hit that thing, take your money and that’s just a scam.”
These two ads show people bragging about making money through AI-generated scams.
It’s not just the image of the popular American YouTuber whose image has been used for these scams, as Suby said he came across some showing Elon Musk, Scarlett Johansson, Joe Rogan and even Robert Irwin.
‘They choose someone who is a credible figure and who has a relationship with their audience. And they just completely steal their identity,” she stated.
Beyond using smarter AI tactics, Australian Psychologists Association president Sahra O’Doherty says scams target people’s emotions to trick them.
“When we talk about fraudulent products, or even legitimate products that are sold with quite deceptive marketing, it is often because they can feed our sense of insecurity or anxiety about ourselves,” he said.
‘So when we buy something we probably don’t need, but it’s sold to us as if we needed it. Usually the fact that we are not good enough or that we do not fit a particular image that we wanted to intervene in is due to our insecurities. And it is often sold as a quick fix.’
O’Doherty advises people to do their research before buying anything they see on social media.
Psychologist Sahra O’Doherty said scammers prey on people’s insecurities
‘We have access to some type of research at our fingertips. We can go through the process of not just trusting ads or influencers. “We can do a little Google search, we can read reviews, if we have a suspicion that it might be too good to be true,” he said.
“We can search for that product with the word scam next to it and we can see if there have been other people who have reported something similar.”
And while it might be easy to blame social media companies for the presence of these scams, Sudy said it’s up to people to use their common sense.
“You can’t put protective barriers on the Internet,” he said.
“You need to operate intelligently and be very skeptical of everything you see online, and apply critical thinking.”
Considering the ease of access that children have to the Internet, Sudy also advises parents to talk to them about scams to prepare them for the future.
“I have three daughters, they are all under seven years old, and I am already teaching them about this,” he said.
‘When we’re in the car and I get a robocall, or I’ll pick her up in the car and show my daughter firsthand what these people are going to try to do. And then they’ll ask me a million questions about it.
“It is that critical thinking that must be given to them and that will serve them for the rest of their lives.”