# I've been scammed by a Fiverr freelancer for YT promotion.



## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

Yeah, I know when you read something and it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Well, the guy had 200+ 5 star reviews on Fiverr. So I figured how on earth could he achieve that if he was scamming?
Anyways, so now I have people spamming my videos with dislikes and comments. I've already reported the guy to Fiverr yesterday. I am mixed about the platform, because it helped me complete the very music I'm trying to promote.
I'm running ads as well. But now all of my work seems to be getting undone by this scammer's methods. It appears that what he did was just pay a bunch of people through a site called Picoworks. I called him out on it and contacted Fiverr. It seems that at the time every worker at picoworks was just instructed to sub my channel and comment on the latest video - which at the time was my demo version of Out Of Control (and I am running ads for the finished version).
What do I do? I don't want to lose my channel. Here's the video.


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## davidson (Jul 20, 2021)

I'm confused as to whats happened. Am I right in thinking you paid for subscribers via a guy on fiverr, You got the subs, but you're not happy that they aren't genuine fans of your work, so to speak?


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## Nils Neumann (Jul 20, 2021)

Reviews can be easily faked on every Plattform.
What exactly did you buy from him?
Clicks? Subs?


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## MA-Simon (Jul 20, 2021)

Just listened to your track, not bad!
I do have some constructive feeback though. The timing of the drumkit and the piano does not work all that well together. I think they might play on a different beat? It is very weird that the accents on the drumkit are different from the chords of the piano. Like listening to two demos at the same time.


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## Henu (Jul 20, 2021)




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## reutunes (Jul 20, 2021)

My advice, for what it's worth...

Remove that video. If you're using YouTube as a promotional tool for your work, you shouldn't be uploading unfinished demos anyway, only completed songs. In addition, the comment section has become toxic and may turn off any potential clients and collaborators.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

davidson said:


> I'm confused as to whats happened. Am I right in thinking you paid for subscribers via a guy on fiverr, You got the subs, but you're not happy that they aren't genuine fans of your work, so to speak?


No, paying for YT promotion is different than paying for subs. There are legitimate ways to promote a channel - through blogs, Instagram, etc. At least that's what I've read. I'm trying to pay other people to promote my channel. I'd do it myself if I knew how. I'm also releasing content regularly - at least trying to. 
Of course there are all sorts of scams out there that just add subs to your account.
In the description is says "Professional Campaign for 100% Real and Organic"
I already feel bad enough about falling for it. It's been since highschool that I feel for this level of scam (multilevel marketing scams). 
The gig does not state anywhere that it's just "adding subs." 
The whole point is to get legitimate engagement. Otherwise my channel is no good. 
No, I'm not happy I got the subs at all because they were from picoworkers, and not organic sharing, etc.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

Nils Neumann said:


> Reviews can be easily faked on every Plattform.
> What exactly did you buy from him?
> Clicks? Subs?


Said nothing about buying subs. Said that through organic promotion I would get the subs. 
So indirectly, yes. But I didn't directly pay for subs. Again, I feel like an idiot for being duped.


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## osterdamus (Jul 20, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> Said nothing about buying subs. Said that through organic promotion I would get the subs.
> So indirectly, yes. But I didn't directly pay for subs. Again, I feel like an idiot for being duped.


Maybe I’m failing to understand. Are all the negative comments etc the freelancers doing, like from a troll army? Or is the campaign working, but missing a target audience and therefore resulting in negative comments?


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## FireGS (Jul 20, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> paying for YT promotion is different than paying for subs.


and yet, this is exactly what was done.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

osterdamus said:


> Maybe I’m failing to understand. Are all the negative comments etc the freelancers doing, like from a troll army? Or is the campaign working, but missing a target audience and therefore resulting in negative comments?


It's probably from picoworker trolls/whistleblowers to be honest. I am paying for adverts through YT as well. I have yet to get a negative comment from those. Only even a few dislikes as well. 
I think what the freelancer did was just pay people on picoworkers and send them to my channel to like and comment on the latest video. The latest video at the time was this demo track.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

FireGS said:


> and yet, this is exactly what was done.


Yeah I paid someone who said they would do organic promotion, and they just added subs through picoworkers. Exactly.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

Henu said:


>


huh?


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## ka00 (Jul 20, 2021)

But it’s possible the pickworkers were promised payment for subbing but didn’t get it and started disliking as a result. That’s what one of the comments seemed to imply.

I’m sorry this happened to you. I think the scammer will just say the word “organic” wasn’t defined in advance. Paying humans (i.e. organic beings) to sub as opposed to bots, might fit a legal definition of “organic”. I’m no lawyer though.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

Nils Neumann said:


> Reviews can be easily faked on every Plattform.
> What exactly did you buy from him?
> Clicks? Subs?


He had been a member since 2017 and has 200+ reviews. I get that you could probably fake reviews. But be active for that long and not be found out? 
I like fiverr for some things, but I've certainly learned my lesson with this stuff.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

ka00 said:


> But it’s possible the pickworkers were promised payment for subbing but didn’t get it and started disliking as a result. That’s what one of the comments seemed to imply.
> 
> I’m sorry this happened to you. I think the scammer will just say the word “organic” wasn’t defined in advance. Paying humans (i.e. organic beings) to sub as opposed to bots, might fit a legal definition of “organic”. I’m no lawyer though.


yeah, I'm sure that's what his argument would be (the technicality of "organic"). 
I didn't even know such a thing existed until I saw a comment "I'm from Picoworkers" and so I investigated and holy crap! Well, shoot, that's probably how he got the reviews in the first place. Just pay people to accept a custom offer of a small amount or something. Wouldn't take much of an investment to get a good number of fake reviews. Now you're scamming idiots like me.


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## Kony (Jul 20, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> He had been a member since 2017 and has 200+ reviews. I get that you could probably fake reviews. But be active for that long and not be found out?


This doesn't sound like an intentional scam but a misunderstanding.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

Kony said:


> This doesn't sound like an intentional scam but a misunderstanding.


Nah, it's a scam. He says he will promote the channel organically in order to help you acheive monetization. This is only possible with real engagement. Fake reviews fall off, sometimes immediately.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

reutunes said:


> My advice, for what it's worth...
> 
> Remove that video. if you're using YouTube as a promotional tool for your work, you shouldn't be uploading unfinished demos anyway, only completed songs. In addition, the comment section has become toxic and may turn off any potential clients and collaborators.


I did as you've suggested.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

I still can't believe I fell for it. Anything that says they will get you to a certain place, there's something suspicious - especially with promotions like this. There are no guarantees. I've done legitimate Spotify Playlist promotions through OmariMC and they always warned me that they cannot guarantee the projected amount, because it also depends on the quality of your track, etc. 
There really are no real, genuine shortcuts without something being faked. 
Thanks for the comments.


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## Toecutter (Jul 20, 2021)

Listened to some of your songs like Out of Control and I sincerely think you shouldn't resort to paid engagement to grow your channel, it can backfire (like it did) and get your account blocked. It's easy to spot the fake "organic" accounts, just be patient and grow a real audience, no need to game youtube.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

Toecutter said:


> Listened to some of your songs like Out of Control and I sincerely think you shouldn't resort to paid engagement to grow your channel, it can backfire (like it did) and get your account blocked. It's easy to spot the fake "organic" accounts, just be patient and grow a real audience, no need to game youtube.


Thanks, I appreciate that. 
Well I wish people would be clear and honest about what they're doing. He should just say "I'll pay people on picoworkers to sub your channel" lol But ofcourse a scammer isn't going to be upfront. 
Fiverr did end up refunding the full amount and cancelled the order for me. They're definitely siding with me on this one.


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## michalioz (Jul 20, 2021)

You don't need Fiverr for something like that. Just start your own FB/Google ad campaign, it's easier than talking to random freelancers.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 20, 2021)

michalioz said:


> Why don't need Fiverr for something like that. Just start your own FB/Google ad campaign, it's easier than talking to random freelancers.


I've got two ads running right now through google.
I honestly don't know how Facebook ads work. It seems like you need to have your own business page on FB first? Am I misunderstanding that correctly though? I'm not great at running stuff like that.
Spotify ads also seem straightforward and easy to set up as well, kind of similar to the google ads.


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## michalioz (Jul 21, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> It seems like you need to have your own business page on FB first? Am I misunderstanding that though?


You can promote a FB page or an external one. Onl you know how to customise a campaign and by doing it yourself you can choose the appropriate demographics and shared interests e.g. show it to people who like Depeche Mode. I've done it mostly to see how it works as you can cap it with a really low budget but the point is that it's so easy that you don't need a third party to run it for you.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 22, 2021)

michalioz said:


> You can promote a FB page or an external one. Onl you know how to customise a campaign and by doing it yourself you can choose the appropriate demographics and shared interests e.g. show it to people who like Depeche Mode. I've done it mostly to see how it works as you can cap it with a really low budget but the point is that it's so easy that you don't need a third party to run it for you.


Thanks for the advice!
I'm wondering though what is the most effective thing to advertise? Aside from musical releases, I also create sample libraries from time to time.
It seems streaming services pay so little, that they would not be wise to advertise? (the ROI wouldn't be good?). Would it be wise to advertise my Youtube channel? 
The tricky thing I'm facing is not knowing what to focus on. I am perfectly happy being a chameleon myself and doing tutorials, full musical releases, and other random videos. But would it alienate certain subscribers? Now that I have an official artist channel though, it seems they separate my music from other videos. I guess I'm of the mindset of being myself even if some people don't like it. I absolutely loathe the idea of being a "brand" and having to fit into some mold or expectation. I wouldn't be able to keep up some fake schtick for too long.
I also don't like the idea of having to manage separate YT channels for each little niche I have.


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## michalioz (Jul 22, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> Thanks for the advice!
> I'm wondering though what is the most effective thing to advertise? Aside from musical releases, I also create sample libraries from time to time.
> It seems streaming services pay so little, that they would not be wise to advertise? (the ROI wouldn't be good?). Would it be wise to advertise my Youtube channel?
> The tricky thing I'm facing is not knowing what to focus on. I am perfectly happy being a chameleon myself and doing tutorials, full musical releases, and other random videos. But would it alienate certain subscribers? Now that I have an official artist channel though, it seems they separate my music from other videos. I guess I'm of the mindset of being myself even if some people don't like it. I absolutely loathe the idea of being a "brand" and having to fit into some mold or expectation. I wouldn't be able to keep up some fake schtick for too long.
> I also don't like the idea of having to manage separate YT channels for each little niche I have.


I haven't done what I am suggesting, so take it with a pinch of salt. If I were you I'd create two landing pages, one for my artistic side (songs, videos etc.) and another one for my professional side (samples etc.). I'd make the links to YT very obvious (e.g. a huge YT thumbnail would be the first thing that people would see) which would make it easy to discover my channel. You can also put everything else in there as a snapshot of who you are e.g. Spotify, BandCamp, Patreon etc. Then I would create separate campaigns (Google, FB or whatever) for the artistic and professional pages, maybe even with different names.


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## AudioLoco (Jul 22, 2021)

You shalt not post unfinished demos on the internet


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 22, 2021)

AudioLoco said:


> You shalt not post unfinished demos on the internet


Well it was deleted. But... I still have some other demos up.
I had some minor success more than 10 years ago on YT when I would just post myself rambling on guitar. I don't know. I think I've already set a precedent that I post more than just finished songs. In fact, finished songs is kind of a new thing for me haha
I guess I'm still finding my identity as far as what I want to present on YT.


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