40 years ago, when I first heard of a strange electronic network invented in America, I was very interested. 35 years ago, like so many others, I thought we were in for a beautiful digital ride.
Today, I am more and more convinced that for all the NYT commenting we get to do, we have shot ourselves, and the planet, in the foot.
Is the Internet good or bad ?
I am more and more voting for terrible.
37
So the social media version of Snopes.
Good for them. It's not young people losing their money, it the parents and grandparents the young people are getting the money from (either ethically or not).
Bust'm all and good riddance to bad rubbish.
20
If they wanted to be educational, they would simply post videos on youtube.
It's the politics of resentment. What's better than bringing down the wealthy? Bringing down a pretender that deserves it.
They're just after their own kind of fame, and an article in the NY Times. Bravo for them, I guess.
3
Sounds like anti-capitalism to me. There is no such thing as a scam. Just smart entrepreneurs who know the art of the deal. Why hold them back with this witch hunt spreading FAKE NEWS about these true hard working Americans? Haters gonna hate. BallerBusters should be exposed as frauds and banned. MAGA! ;-)
13
Started with the now sadly very famous Kardashians who can do absolutely nothing -- but look expensively glamorous in photos -- and made a fortune doing it.
30
@K Henderson And more power to them. They sussed out the opportunities of social media way before everyone else and with their TV series - built on it. Whether or not you like them is besides the point but their marketing / business game- every one of them- is strong.
1
@K Henderson Incidentally, that family does astound me, since, for the life of me, I fail to see the glamour in them.
21
I will believe it when you show me a picture of a SIGNED deed and title.
2
@Larry L Could be forged -
@stache , the title and deed will have a document code and can be searched in public records
3
This way to the Egress....
3
I'm not on instascam or fakebook. I'm also not rich. But, I am definitely smarter than people on instascam and fakebook.
23
This is the second article in a week about young people falling for obvious internet scams. In theory, young people are supposed to be more internet-savvy than your stereotypical grandpa. The reality seems to be much sadder.
It's clear to anyone paying attention that information literacy desperately needs to be taught in schools starting at a very young age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_literacy
26
“I’ve been looking for girls to bust, and there’s nothing. People can go bust models, like one was busted for the clouds in her pics being the same. I don’t care about that.”
On Instagram, majority of "models", "fitness girls", "fashion designor", "yoga instructors" are actually prostitutes.
That has been revealed by plenty of articles already, like "Your Favorite Instagram Model May Be a Prostitute" for example, and websites like "Tag the sponsor" who test the instagram profile for sex inquiries.
2
People are delusional. Hence the proliferation of Hermes Birkin handbags.
19
@MichaelT
Agree with you, ”Bringing Home the Birkin!”
3
So can they go after the scammer in chief?
23
Gee, Trump University anyone? This fools are just emulating their Grifter in Chief.
40
Have an acquaintance that is heading down that path. She's done a new things that in this niche of an industry, but nothing to the extent that she's cultivated her persona to be. She's better at selling herself than selling her product or her work. And people are paying her money for it. The ones that are actually running a real business don't have time to sell a myth about what a great business person you could be.
It kills me that she's encouraging people to try and make money from a dead end field, making people feel like it is a personal failure when the truth is that the market isn't big enough.
10
@Jen Nobody ever went broke underestimating the American public. PT Barnum.
13
I remember the same idea on the back of comic books in the 1950's and 60's-Tred of having sand kicked in your face? Get huige muscles fast!". The difference was that most people over age 11 knew that they were just ads for "instant water" and I recall how they were shredded by other forms of media, like MAD magazine.
I wonder where our schools are and why they don't teach a 1 hour course in " common hustles and scams".
One of the saddest aspects of this roblem is that people who feel their dreams have been spat on often become scammers themselves. The most basic idea of hustlers is that "as dumb as I am-there are ten people dumber then me". The "Nigerian " email scams which were popular in the 1990's prove this , if nothing else.
A rule of thumb to use to help people resist is:
"If someone is actually so rich ; why would they waste time on the wire , instead of enjoying themselves?
18
Think I know the reason ballerbusters can't find women grifters on Instagram. One word: misogyny.
There is a type of man who can't stand to see a successful woman, and will do what ever it takes to bring her down from the safety of his keyboard. Never underestimate a troll's desire to prove a woman isn't what she says she is. One women in this article was "exposed" because of the clouds in a image. Men by contrast are taken by their word. Women face more scrutiny due to gender, not due goodness or anything like that.
Female grifters are out there. They just can't practice their grift on the internet as easily as men can.
14
@Jen I had some trouble deciphering what you were trying to say, but I think I understand. I actually agree with you, but there may be better points to argue towards. Scammers are detestable people preying on those less fortunate or wise, so for a woman to not be able to break into this field almost seems like a good thing. In a roundabout sorta way, it's a good thing for a bad reason.
3
The bigger issue should be, why are (young?) people so desperate to fall for this... and I mean all get-rich-but-first-pay-me-money schemes. Rationally, if someone cracked some of sort of code, why would they waste their time hogging these venues. They'd be out "being successful" instead. For the few with philanthropic motives, they'd likely not charge for it, or not much at least.
Whether it's being naive, or arrogant, I can't think of too many good reasons why there seems to be such fertile ground.
Nonetheless, I applaud anyone unmasking scammers.
6
I hope they'll go after multilevel marketers. So many of them use social media to project an image of wealth and success with the goal of suckering new distributors for their downline.
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@M. But I've made thousands with Amway.
7
@M. God yes, please. MLMs are the worst.
7
If only there had been something like this in the '70s, we might never have been saddled with Trump.
19
@NCJ Not everything is about Trump
2
@Mickey Dee
Really? It seems disingenuous not to say it. We’ve all (I hope) been thinking it — almost what the article is about. “The Emperor has no Clothes,” time to reread that children’s book.
6
But, I'm trending on Twitter!
5
Maybe they can get Trump’s taxes out in public?
10
This is, no joke, the most heartening article I've read in a while. The sooner the young learn about reality vs. fantasy particularly vis-a-vis how easily reality is faked on the Internet, the sooner we'll have fewer voters backing con men like Trump, and we might bet a semblance of a chance to fix the problems that social media has so enormously exacerbated.
23
This is all a very new scam or a very old one.
I often wonder who gets taken in by Nigerian 419 scammers, or people who talk to telephone "psychics" or people who get enmeshed in multi-level marketing schemes.
But I do already know the answer. It's the same people who buy the books with titles that include the phrase "secrets that experts won't tell you," or click on websites that feature "one weird trick," that will unlock fortune to people who aren't educated enough to know better.
It's the people who believe that all their problems in life stem from some scapegoat that unethical politicians will blame. Or that there are secret cabals whose mission it is to keep people like them down. Or that people who go to the trouble of going to college and getting advanced degrees are actually less intelligent than them, because they obviously lack this mythical "common sense."
In short, its people who are always looking for shortcuts and are surprised that way leads to scammers looking to prey on their stupidity.
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@George Peng
Excellent, exactly right.
8
@George Peng
Sometimes it's just people who are desperate for money, desperate enough to attend Trump University.
7
I can vividly recall my entrepreneurial spirit of silliness of my youth before the internet. I responded to ads in magazines via snail mail only to have my actual mail box flooded almost daily with chain letters, sometimes 50 or more letters a day at one point. I wanted to start a mail order company, but lacked the formal training and the seed money to get anything off the ground, but I still believed I had it in me to pull off some kind of financial miracle and there were never any lack of people willing to lend fuel to my fantasies.
Of course I feel for multi level marketing as well despite the fact I was and still am pretty much an introvert with no desire to sell face to face. At one point I began selling by phone for several shoddy telemarketing scammers, but the final straw was one selling "credit card repair" and the company owner telling me face to face in all earnesty "These people want to get ripped off".
12
@Martino (continued from an earlier comment by my same username about this article)
One day I received a phone script from the company claiming the company that had been ripping people off for decades had obtained the customers phone number from nefarious companies that has already ripped them off promising to "fix" their problems once and for all. The script literally had the words "HAHA SUCKERS" written on it.
I finally took that script to the county consumer fraud office. They had been trying for years to nail them for fraud and that script was the final nail. Nearly everyone working for the company, myself excluded was convicted on multiple counts of wire fraud and other charges with several getting sentenced to seven years in prison.
12
We've heard of the "flower power generation" and "generation X". I guess we should call this newest group "generation I'll believe anything I read on line".
I once read an article that claimed 10% to 20% of young people believe the world is flat. How can you help these kind of people?
18
@Ex New Yorker , how does one become an "ex New Yorker" and what will it cost me to find out?
6
@Ex New Yorker Gen X is getting scammed by MLMs constantly, Boomers give their cards to robo callers, etc. All generations of humans are gullible. We can't just blame one. There's always another grift.
12
@Ex New Yorker OK, Boomer.
8
If you really want to help with true journalism go after the high school and universities selling eduction that leads to no job or knowledge. busting a kid is okay but put your work to real use and take care of the fundamental issue.... we graduate kids from high school with only the ability to take a test. but the education system.
15
Hah! I'm the complete opposite of those discussed in this article - rich, with enough money stashed away to live very well for the rest of my life, no mortgage or other loans ... but living quietly and unostentatiously in a middle-class neighborhood, with nice but not flashy cars and a large but not mansion-sized house with no gold fittings in sight. Thus the neighbors thing we are 'just getting by' - and we like it like that - no 'keeping up with the Jonses' required. Is this humblebragging?
21
@Mari We are exactly like you. Some of our friends make comments about why don't we remodel the kitchen. ("It's very functional as is", we reply). Last year one of them asked my husband how he could afford to retire. They haven't made the connection yet on spending patterns and retirement.
12
@Mari l am living in a coop and take the bus but I enjoy trading and concerts... I must admit the better half drives a Benz but her name ain't Janice.
3
@Mari Yes, and it’s not a good look
9
It's not really that people are pretending to be rich, or 'expert', or any number of other bold claims.
The point really should be, and has been for time immemorial:
Why does it matter so much to you?
34
@David Bartlett Did you even read the article? The people faking their success are doing so in order to leverage that success into tricking young people into paying for fake classes, seminars, etc. for large sums of money. Their "success" is the tool they use to scam people.
20
@David Bartlett
I guess it stats to matter when the posers start trying to scam people out of money for courses in how to become rich too. I doubt anyone would care if these posers were doing nothing but pretending to be wealthy. It’s when the posing turns into a scam that problems start bubbling to the surface.
16
@Greg
I was trusting that the philosophical approach to my comment would be self-evident. For a literal or more practical interpretation of 'scammers' and their 'scammed', other Times readers, to be sure, will offer very helpful suggestions.
1
Sadly, my FtM trans Oldest child is one of these nascent Insta influencers. He really WANTS to do something with the platform, but it's difficult to get any traction in a venue where eyeballs are bought and actual content doesn't matter. Youngest also flirted with Influencing in a much earlier time when it was somewhat easier to draw real attention, not fake attention.
But fake Influencers, fake programs, fake attention, fake news, fake votes... it's a fake world we live in. Fake lives. Fake futures.
Instead, we tell them to borrow $100,000 to go to college without the real promise of actual real jobs with which to pay it back. We never mention that only 25% of the population is really cut out to DO those Information Economy jobs. Everyone else should actually become electricians, hairdressers, work service jobs... and all those things should pay enough to live on and have medical insurance and live with dignity in old age.
Most of these young people are substituting fake Insta lives for any sense of hope about the future. The problem is... no matter WHAT you do, no one has any dignity or hope for the future.
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@Dejah
"only 25% of the population is really cut out to DO those Information Economy jobs."
Twenty-five percent? The actual number isn't even in the single digits.
29
@Dejah
"we tell them to borrow $100,000 to go to college"
Aren't there still old-fashioned parents who save money and pay for their children's education? It used to be that way. Or do parents have to own every gadget on the market, do children have to be given every new toy advertised on TV? (Unfortunately, I believe the answer is: "yes, they believe they have to".)
19
@Fran - yes, those parents still exist, old-fashioned or not. You don't read about them and their children because they successfully manage their money and assets to ensure their children leave college with no loan hanging over their head.
To do this, being "rich" is not a requirement - it's all about priorities...
22
Seems the president* worked this scam too. It was called "Trump University" and cost him $25M in restitution by the time the NY AG outed him and forced him to shutter the scam. #MAGA!
154
The world needs more Ballerbusters exposing more heinous scams, starting with medicare and medicaid fraud.
35
@Charles Most Medicare and Medicaid fraud is perpetrated by doctors, so the gains from catching it would be huge.
I just hope the government won't make these benefits even harder to obtain for ill people who merit them. They tend to be so ill or otherwise impaired that it's a major struggle to get and keep the benefits (I'm the guardian of a disabled adult daughter).
Sadly, reforms always seem intent on hurting ordinary folks, and ignoring the Big Fish perpetrators.
14
This story makes me feel so old.
26
@JMF absolutely love this! Thank you!
5
Poor Marie Antoinette was ahead of her time. Back then, the ultra wealthy were beheaded for robbing the peasants blind. In 2019, her “let them eat cake” posts from Versailles would make her an “entrepreneur” and an “influencer”.
37
I feel neglected. I never get ads on Instagram trying to sell me some course on how to become rich and famous. All I get are are ads on how to improve my photography.
21
@Douglas Mancill No need for FOMO :) They're similar if not as egregious. I regularly get one about how to become a successful lifestyle photographer. The "photographer" posting it has mainly fake followers. Sigh.
1
IG used to be so great in the beginning...sharing pics with friends and not having FB blowback threads. Now it’s just one big advertising platform for companies and “influencers” (Is that “really a thing?” )...I’ve been asking myself why I still even bother, ho hum...next!
22
@beachbum: I'm pretty capable with technology and in no way a Luddite, but what in heck is a "thought leader?" Archimedes was a thought leader, no? Da Vinci was a thought leader. Heck, Plato was a thought leader.
3
Why not fake rich people promoting themselves to the ignorant and stupid. We have someone in the White House who does this.
82
A easy way to spot the fakes is to do a n number search of a private jet supposedly owned by someone. The FAA spells out the owner and their address. I suspect a lot are registered to Netjets.
20
Also, most people, even a lot of wealthy people, do not own jets. The vast majority of young influencers are not going to be able to afford that. To get to that level you need to be past middle age and have a lifestyle/self-help brand that predates social media. I can think of a few people. The young are apparently dim for falling for this but at least they are in good company.
10
Welcome to late stage capitalism. The fake rich trying to sell fake riches to the desperate.
Choose class solidarity instead, vote for Sanders or Warren and stop trying to win a zero sum game with almost impossible odds.
127
@Kenneth
Both Sanders and Warrent are multimillionaires. That's class solidarity?
7
@Kenneth
Two of the best presidential eras we ever had from the standpoint of what their policy proposals did for the poor and working classes were Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy/Lyndon B. Johnson, all fabulously wealthy men with consciences.
The key isn't whether your president is from the same class you are, it's whether your president has a Democratic supermajority to pass their policy proposals as legislation in the first place and strengthen and enforce them in the second place.
23
Welcome to late stage capitalism. The fake rich trying to sell fake riches to the desperate.
Choose class solidarity instead, vote for Sanders or Warren and stop trying to win a zero sum game with almost impossible odds.
9
Without consumer demand, you cannot legitimize a "fake lifestyle."
8
What is a baller?
8
@Cunegonde Misthaven Check another source like Urban Dictionary, but I think it refers to a ball player (e.g. basketball, football) because they often make a lot of money and live lavish lifestyles.
3
@Cunegonde Misthaven I just checked dictionary. com.
"A baller is a basketball player or a successful person who lives a lavish lifestyle similar to a professional basketball player's. It can also be used to describe someone who or something that is skillful or excellent. The term is often pronounced and written as balla in African American Vernacular English."
3
But if you don't look rich and glitzy and exciting - does the platform promote your posts? Probably not. That seems to be case over at Facebook. If it's not controversial, political, fake, dazzling, selfie, or selling something - then it doesn't get any airtime. I posted a news article about restoring ancient books in Timbuktu, and it got zero likes. Facebook decided it was "boring".
25
Sounds fascinating
13
Glad to hear there are people investigating these false claims and scammers. It should be illegal to lie and influence people like that. There are so many immature people who are vulnerable to these scams. Instagram should be regulated to delete accounts of people who do things like that.
22
Should have been around for Billy McFarland and the Frye Festival!
37
@MGH and Trump University.
35
Those Instagram fakes are just imitating Trump.
60
Bragging is not my usual forte, but I am going to make an exception today in light of this article.
Glad that I was, and that I still am, wise enough not to have any accounts on social media!
161
@DoggedDetermintion ditto
11
Hey, I am just glad that I was, and still am, too broke for these scammers to target!
21
@DoggedDetermintion
Well, yes, but . . . you did register your account to post comments here, didn’t you.
This is a place where people express and share their opinions etc. with one another.
Sounds a lot like a social media account.
10
This is like watching Don't Breathe. I don't know who to hope for and wish I hadn't come.
4
The saddest thing for me is that young people are swept up in the glamour and easy money of becoming an 'influencer.' They give up on their education, truly believing that "school doesn't work."
Kudos to @BallerBusters for pulling back the curtain on some of these frauds. I'm sure the folks at Facebook and Instagram won't do it.
179
@Bob
No, the saddest thing is that so many kids are willing to slavishly "follow" and imitate self-styled "influencers". A bunch of lemmings, saying "OK, Boomer!"
28
@Bob So true, old people never get caught up in scams.....oh wait. nevermind.
16
@Bob
Check the student loan stats. School - financed by borrowing huge amounts - doesn't work for most people. It's only human nature to look for a short cut on instagram / facebook.
4
You can still incorporate a LLC and hit the ground running (with not much else).
1
@Kirk Cornwell One does not “incorporate” an LLC.
21
I’m not up on what items confer status for young people. As with the divide of much of our culture, there doesn’t seem to be agreement on want objects confer status. Maybe it is the much talked about experiences/travel that confer status. However, in a culture that glorifies overwork, even posting about your trip to Fiji will seem frivolous to some.
Trying to look rich is not only gauche, but in a country with increasing populist anger, not a great strategy.
Read Elizabeth Currid-Halket’s book The Sum of Small Things. The entire book is about how many people no longer show off status with objects but with inconspicuous consumption like saving in your 401K, being exquisitely educated, raising children with massive amounts of social and cultural capital.
36
Behold the Age of Hustling on steroids!
24
I am becoming peeved by the number of Instagram-focused articles in the NYT lately, infiltrating every corner of the paper. The majority of Times readers, I would imagine, really are not concerned about who is on Instagram or how they may/may not be using the platform. Just because an article is in the Style section does not mean it has to be devoid of any...heft. There was no take-away from this piece, save for anyone over the age of 17. When it comes this type of PR fluff, say less.
40
@Jared Wood That's like saying you don't care about important news in Detroit, because you don't live in Detroit. I'm not on Insta, but for my generation, it's the predominant social network, essentially replacing the church social on a massive scale. It's worth reporting on.
109
@Jared Wood I'm a middle-aged person who's interested in stories like these, because they show a corner of the world that I'm fairly removed from. (I do use Instagram, but my corner of it is focused on personal photography and art.) And I have a teen who may become immersed in social media in the future, and it's good for parents to have some perspective on these things. I wouldn't say this article is "PR fluff" – it's an interesting look at how the age-old tradition of snake-oil salesmen is thriving today online, and how some people are trying to expose their methods.
148
@Jared Wood The stuff that's occurring on Instagram has real world ramifications. It's incumbent on the older generations and the press to warn folks not to fall for these scams.
59
This is hilarious.
The middle class pretend to be rich.
Without realizing that the really rich always pretend to be middle class.
305
@Susan
Great point, but I think the current occupant of the White House has reset the standards on this.
6
@Susan
"the really rich always pretend to be middle class."??
Oh my, not in a LONG time. They are now going to GREAT pains to make it abundantly clear they are not "middle class".
"Middle class" is a dated concept in any case.
5
@Michael c
As they say: "Donald Trump lives the poor person's idea of how a rich person lives"
If we ever see DT's tax returns, that will be the ultimate #ballerbuster
8
I'm surprised to read that many of the scammers are men0 it seems like there are many women in this space selling creativity courses, entrepreneurship summits and grow your blog courses- Marie Forleo comes to mind, as does a whole bunch of blogger/influencer conferences.
13
We used to sell designer gear to a woman who would then post photos of her in it, bragging about her fabulous life and "style." Then she would return it all! Maybe she will get caught....
94
@Eva: Gosh, good post. I bet that happens a lot.
10
Trying to emulate TrumpU.
70
@George More than that. From his TV series to his business ventures and eventual presidentship Trump's life has been much more about promotion than substance. He's more a symptom than a cause though, as our nation turns into one giant MLM.
17
There's a sucker born every minute. Caveat emptor. All that glitters is not gold. I think it's human nature to want to believe you can get something fabulous for very little or nothing. Though such scamming preceded Trump, he is living proof that a scammer can become the leader of the US. People wanna bee-lieve.
32
I have a real watch. It cost me $17 at Target. Keeps near-perfect time. I flaunt it.
My previous one cost $5 at Walmart. Also, perfect time for a decade, but not possible to replace the battery.
68
@Jonathan Katz
Congratulations-you may be starting a new trend, the AntiBallers. I really hope you posted your $17 watch to your IG-I would follow you! Wait, I forgot, I don't have an IG account.
17
@db cooper You should get one. They’re totally free. Unless you value your time or your privacy.
32
@Jonathan Katz
whoops. looks like i overpaid. my target watch, a Timex, cost $35.
5
Back when the Internet was new, you would wait for your modem to make its chorus of dings and beeps, then wait for just one more moment for AOL to open and tell you that you got mail.
In those days getting an email was amazing and exciting too. But there was one email that pretty much ruined it for all.
It read ‘get rich quick! Send me $5 and I’ll tell you how!’, and people did, and they got told to resend the same email to a bunch of other suckers, hoping they sent you back a bunch of $5’s, so you too could get rich.
Young people would do well to hear that story. Maybe then they can stop sending money to scams promising fortunes while you lay on your couch doing nothing.
55
So facebook is for fake news. And IG is for fake people. #heavysigh
187
@Sarah totally, but this is great because I like to know about the interweb because we do have a teenager who has an IG account.
7
@Hulagirrrl - I have 4 grown kids and the quickest way to get kids to quit doing anything is for dad to say, "wow, this is cool!" and start a profile of your own promoting your cover band.
21
It’s tempting here to reach for P.T. Barnum or H.L. Mencken, but only indirectly.
The very serious writers have been telling us for some time now that “tech-savvy” young people are creating new digital lifestyles. Right.
Tech smart. Life dumb.
49
"Instagram has always been good for all kinds of braggers. "
This is gonna be my social media warning forever.
44