My priest told me to watch this video 1.3 million times to have success in scamming a New York Times author that shall not be named. Seems like a win win win to me.
Benn this is one of your best videos, the sudden turn from the scam to actually interview the guy and do a sociological review of the current state of Ghana leading to it is just amazing. Keep on!
You make for a good investigative youtube journalist. Not that you are uncovering specifically huge things, but videos like this one are really compelling. Your ability to state your thoughts clearly and on simple terms is definitely above the average of people I follow on youtube. I hope you keep doing these kinds of explorations in the future.
I really hope Psuedo-Andy Greene does start a youtube channel; I'd watch it. I also hope that you continue to sprinkle in these 'off the beaten path' videos, because they're great.
Absolutely loved this video. I just wrapped up a situation where I was being targeted for a LinkedIn graphic design job scam yesterday so the timing was eerie and on point. Thanks Benn. Have a good one!
The sad thing is I know some musicians who have fallen for scams like this. They believe in their dreams so much that they're not at all skeptical when someone they've never met messages out of the blue to tell them how great they are. The musician sees it as someone finally recognizing his value. That credulity, coupled with the "do whatever it takes" mentality of true believers, makes musicians especially prone to scams like this.
This was SUPER cool. Great way to take something annoying and instead of approaching it as "ugh what a pain" and turning it into a learning opportunity is so cool. Not enough people do that. Also appreciate the informative dive in Ghanian culture and the technoreligiosity. And now, to brush up on my pidgin.
Something you said resonates with a recent experience. I had a very helpful conversation with a rep from BMI last week (for reference sake; I’ve been with them for years and this was the first time I spoke to someone there and didn’t come away with tears of frustration). One thing I tried to learn was how much I could expect in royalties from a performance of an extended classical piece I composed. She could only tell me that it was “substantially more “ than the price of the license, and said that antitrust laws prevent further disclosure. That might be true but it makes it an impossible job to try and plan for the future…
I absolutely love your seemingly bottomless talentpool. I think videos on music production, the music industry, product review, etc is very understandable, but the top-tier level of your sciencey and investigative journo content has always impressed me greatly. Banzai!
Only learned of your existence after the Bitwig Spectralgate incident. Then I bumped into this video, and it was really interesting, so I subscribed. The Juju is flowing for sure.
""I had no idea...the level of deception, the extent of the lie." Christopher Boyce (Falcon and the Snowman). Bravo, Benn. What an intricate and entangled weave was this! I've been waiting for one to top WHAT WE SOUND LIKE TO ANIMALS. You did it with this one!
I am reminded of the "Techno-Religosity" In William Gibson's "Count Zero" with the difference being The Gods are actually AIs. Imagine AI as a scammer. Thanks for this post-- it gives a context to why the scammers do what they do. As for the way the word is pronounced I would say the differences are because of the various dialects used in West Africa like Gullah and Geechee in Costal South Carolina and Coastal Georgia.
This was super interesting and informative, and I really appreciate the nuanced take you gave the subject of scammers in developing countries. The popular "scambait" content where people try to expose scammers have never sat right with me. Sure, scamming people is wrong, but when you consider the wealth gap between places where scamming is prevalent, and that most of them are just trying to provide for their families, it's all just a big moral grey area at that point. Not like western industry has never done anything to exploit developing nations 🤷
The concept of scambaiting is to waste as much of a scammer's time as possible so they don't have a chance to scam vulnerable people. I recommend watching a few Kitboga videos. He explains the goal of the scammer, and what he's doing. He regularly gets banking info from scammers that's used to reverse transactions and he reports the information to the FTC as well. Other scambaiters go further, using the remote connection the scammers themselves asked to establish in order to retrieve all of the information scammers have collected on targets, then deleting all of that information and as many other useful things on that computer. This gives them a chance to contact victims and hopefully help them, and forces the scammer to restart their scam from absolute zero. (Wasting their precious time in the process.)
The main problem is identifying individuals with their nationality. In this case is not America, the exploitative first world country, being scammed, it's musicians trying to make it in a ruthless industry. If anything it takes away accountability from the ruling class. It's not "re establishing the equilibrium" if 3rd world low class scams 1st world low class
@@8thlvlMage I've seen Kitboga's videos and streams before, as well as other scambaiting content. I don't think he's necessarily doing anything wrong, and I do think it's commendable to help victims and prevent future scams. The content just feels gross, and the genuine anger/frustration that the scammers express isn't entertaining to me. I imagine a lot of the individuals working in scamming call centers are being exploited as well. I think the audience of people who salivate over scambait content and dehumanize the scammers bothers me more than the content itself, it feels like a lot of the people are more interested in schadenfreude than justice. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to excuse the scams in any way. The people who set up these scam operations and/or make the majority of the profit are absolutely scum and nobody deserves to be scammed.
@@biggsly I get it; I get the empathy. I get the empathy for people assumedly living in dire conditions looking to make a buck for food. But still, I don’t approve no matter how poor they may be, and I rebuke them. Why is that? I don’t think that scamming is a good (karmic) cause-even if the scammer is poor. They may be thinking they are scamming “well-off Westerners,” but in reality, it’s starving, struggling artists they are scamming, some of whom have been trying to make it in the biz for years if not decades. Starving artists that need money for mixing, mastering, videos, legit promo + food, housing, that may have a college loan to pay off, etc. I have pals in their late thirties, early forties-fifties even still working hard, trying to make it. Indies are already losing money on some legit submission sites (many curators are not giving most submissions a fair chance)… Losing dollars on pure, total scams (whether it’s impersonators or fake promo/PR services) in this current inflation at that is only causing harm to those artists. I could empathize with those scammers, but I empathize with fellow indie acts a lot more.
There's a difference between understanding why they do it, and allowing them to scam others. Personally old Gertrude with dementia needs AND DESERVES her money a lot more than a. Guy who makes their money scamming vulnerable people.
Just wanted to say thank you for the david elsewhere shirt. I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who actually knows who he is. It's a very appreciated reference =)
Your investigative videos are some of my favorite TH-cam content. I always seem to learn a little bit about something really interesting from them that I probably would have never encountered otherwise, and I appreciate it. Thanks!
THis is fascinating. I know some Canadian folks who went to Ghana to work as a doctor/nurse team in rural Ghana. They told me a lot about the culture, but I had not heard about Sakawa.
"Funny" thing: A musket is called a "Dane gun" in languages belonging to cultures on the former danish african west coast, because they were introduced to the concept by danish colonists. Improvised muzzleloaded firearms are still used today by poachers in these parts of the world, and they are still called "dane guns"
Nice video. Whenever I had some time, I used to talk to the scammers sending me unsolicited private messages, trying to find out more about their background. They tend to break character pretty fast, I rarely had to tell them more than 3-4x that I know they're an impersonator.
Hey Ben. It is utterly surreal to me that your channel is not one of the greats on youtube. Im well aware that the ... well everything-system is not a meritocracy, but god damn man. You are an excellent entertainer, musician, dripping with authenticity and your videos have this quality that .... really nothing else seems to match. Yes i'm a musician but i feel your channel goes beyond the topics related to music and can easily break into mainstream audiences -- im not sure why it hasn't. I hope it does some day. I've also said this before in comments but youre also just an amazing human being. I wish you nothing but health and good fortune and good days, youre just a great dude. Love from Cairo x p.s: im going to join your patreon the second i have disposable income. Musicians / producers in cairo earn jack shit but things are looking up.
I have come to really enjoy this channel. So many music TH-camrs are cringe hacks, but Benn has an honesty and articistic talent and integrity that transcends his music...which is great, too.
I've never seen anyone so open minded about scammers. Ghana has a life expectancy of 64 years and the average daily income is 14.88 cedi (a little over $1.00 USD). It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that people in harsh living environments don't mind scamming us more well-off westerners, especially if they themselves were afflicted by others in some way. Thank you for unbiasedly bringing awareness regarding the whole issue. Great work!
I get the empathy, but I still can't approve, and I rebuke them. Why is that? I don’t think that scamming is a good (karmic) cause-even if the scammer is poor. They may be thinking they are scamming “well-off Westerners,” but in reality, it’s starving, struggling artists they are scamming, some of whom have been trying to make it in the biz for years if not decades. Starving artists that need money for mixing, mastering, videos, legit promo + food, housing, that may have a college loan to pay off, etc., and it's a time of inflation. I have pals now in their late thirties, early forties-fifties even still working hard, trying to make it. I could empathize with those scammers, but I empathize with fellow indie acts a lot more.
Even though I read the title of the video I was still very caught off guard by the speed at which this video escalated. This went to depths I was not expecting.
How are you providing this much value and yet only have 200k subs?? Just found your channel and I’m an immediate fan, can’t wait to deep dive into more of you’re content!
Amazing I can get Synth reviews and then a lecture on an Occult Wet African scam subculture I had no idea about , on the same channel. Fantastic content Ben, thanks!
This is my favourite video of yours so far and I’m going to increase my patrion donation because it is so interesting. I’m sure this will go viral as. Your gonna be rich mun!
I honestly thought this was going to be some weird cheeky shitpost of a video LOL. Well done, especially with the empathy for someone just trying to survive and turning it into an opportunity.
I get the empathy, but I still don’t approve no matter how poor they may be. Why is that? I don’t think that scamming is a good (karmic) cause-even if the scammer is poor. They may be thinking they are scamming “well-off Westerners,” but in reality, it’s starving, struggling artists they are scamming, some of whom have been trying to make it in the biz for years if not decades. Starving artists that need money for mixing, mastering, videos, legit promo + food, housing, that may have a college loan to pay off, etc. I have pals in their late thirties, early forties-fifties even still working hard, trying to make it. I could empathize with those scammers, but I empathize with fellow indie acts a lot more.
The fact that Outlaw Ocean is getting awards deserves its own dedicated investigative video and is the most enraging part of this video to me.
Hell yeah
My priest told me to watch this video 1.3 million times to have success in scamming a New York Times author that shall not be named. Seems like a win win win to me.
Sharing this with everyone I know so I can see the "My reality has fractured" followup.
Benn this is one of your best videos, the sudden turn from the scam to actually interview the guy and do a sociological review of the current state of Ghana leading to it is just amazing. Keep on!
I couldn't have said it better!
Must be all that juju!
This is the craziest "I am a musician youtuber" video I've seen so far and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making it. Totally awesome.
You make for a good investigative youtube journalist. Not that you are uncovering specifically huge things, but videos like this one are really compelling. Your ability to state your thoughts clearly and on simple terms is definitely above the average of people I follow on youtube. I hope you keep doing these kinds of explorations in the future.
Ah yes, the logical follow-up to a drum machine review. Man, I love this channel so much!
5 and a half minutes in and this has been one HELL OF A rollercoaster so far! O_O
I really hope Psuedo-Andy Greene does start a youtube channel; I'd watch it. I also hope that you continue to sprinkle in these 'off the beaten path' videos, because they're great.
spooky season delivered 😤
Absolutely loved this video. I just wrapped up a situation where I was being targeted for a LinkedIn graphic design job scam yesterday so the timing was eerie and on point. Thanks Benn. Have a good one!
Man, only 30k views, I saw this thing on my recommendations days ago, but only now have I clicked on it. Good video
The sad thing is I know some musicians who have fallen for scams like this. They believe in their dreams so much that they're not at all skeptical when someone they've never met messages out of the blue to tell them how great they are. The musician sees it as someone finally recognizing his value. That credulity, coupled with the "do whatever it takes" mentality of true believers, makes musicians especially prone to scams like this.
TH-cam keeps dropping your channel off my suggestions list. Heaps to catch up on now, which is a bonus. 👍🏼
This was SUPER cool. Great way to take something annoying and instead of approaching it as "ugh what a pain" and turning it into a learning opportunity is so cool. Not enough people do that. Also appreciate the informative dive in Ghanian culture and the technoreligiosity. And now, to brush up on my pidgin.
Keep doing what you do man, this is the pinnacle of journalism.
Your run of videos this past year has been insanely engaging.
This is one of the most insane videos I have ever seen on TH-cam. Massive respect haha
This is the From Dusk Till Dawn for internet scams. A magical, perfectly edited masterpiece.
Your diligence. Yes yes a thousand times yes.
Oh man, I loved every minute of this, thank you for making it!
This... this was probably my favorite video of yours so far. Outstanding trip down a very interesting and obscure rabbit hole.
This is pure gold.
Something you said resonates with a recent experience. I had a very helpful conversation with a rep from BMI last week (for reference sake; I’ve been with them for years and this was the first time I spoke to someone there and didn’t come away with tears of frustration). One thing I tried to learn was how much I could expect in royalties from a performance of an extended classical piece I composed. She could only tell me that it was “substantially more “ than the price of the license, and said that antitrust laws prevent further disclosure. That might be true but it makes it an impossible job to try and plan for the future…
Ben, whatever success you get is not thanks to drinking your own blood, but due to you motivation, intellect and hard work. Thanks for the video.
This was genuinely excellent
Consistently underrated channel. You had me at your custom reverb testing app.
Wow. This video certainly took me for a ride!
always knew you as the flashbulb but have just discovered these videos yesterday, so impressed , wow!
What a wonderful piece of journalism!
This is like getting a new Reply All episode. Just golden.
I absolutely love your seemingly bottomless talentpool. I think videos on music production, the music industry, product review, etc is very understandable, but the top-tier level of your sciencey and investigative journo content has always impressed me greatly. Banzai!
The beginning of this video was wild for someone who is already a little nauseous lol thanks bro love it
Only learned of your existence after the Bitwig Spectralgate incident. Then I bumped into this video, and it was really interesting, so I subscribed. The Juju is flowing for sure.
Fock yeah! What a mind.. what a great example of Not being caught up in stereotype ways of thinking! Very refreshing, thank you! 😊
This thing certainly took a turn. I don't even know how to think about this, let alone what to think about it.
this was a wonderful little rabbit hole
Benn you act like a master of arts and science of yore. And I viscerally admire it.
Your content is challenging, educational, enjoyable, and perhaps even...gulp...moral. Keep making music, videos, and taking risks. Thank you.
Standing ovation
I think this is the best video on TH-cam. Possibly the best media ever created. Thanks Ben
This is one of the most interesting, informative, hilarious and soulbreaking videos I've ever seen. 10 out of 10.
""I had no idea...the level of deception, the extent of the lie." Christopher Boyce (Falcon and the Snowman). Bravo, Benn. What an intricate and entangled weave was this! I've been waiting for one to top WHAT WE SOUND LIKE TO ANIMALS. You did it with this one!
Wow this was fascinating and took an entirely unexpected turn.
I came for musician scams, instead learned I should put snakes on my keyboards.
i do enjoy all the music and gear related videos and then these videos of real investigative journalisms just knock it out of the park
Shout out to the David Elsewhere t-shirt lol. Dope. Great video!
I am reminded of the "Techno-Religosity" In William Gibson's "Count Zero" with the difference being The Gods are actually AIs. Imagine AI as a scammer. Thanks for this post-- it gives a context to why the scammers do what they do. As for the way the word is pronounced I would say the differences are because of the various dialects used in West Africa like Gullah and Geechee in Costal South Carolina and Coastal Georgia.
Wow! Your breadth is really inspiring. Thank you.
Best Ben Jordan video yet
Yeah dude, running this like Pleasant Green does. "Hey, quit lying to me, and I'll pay you for honest work and information."
Ooh, do a comparison between this and the prevalence of MLM in American non-denominational churches!
Interesting video Benn. Not what I was expecting.
I love how your channel has become a cornucopia of knowledge. At this point, anything and everything can happen here.
Fascinating. Excellent work
Finally a breathe of fresh air in the world of music related content. Liked and subscribed. Keep it up!
Oh my god I can't believe the Voodoo Boys in cyberpunk is literally just based off of this.
the best music production science random journalism historical content creator there is, and it's not close. brilliant stuff
literally liked, comment and shared to avoid that bad juju
awesome coverage of our adventure! Thanks for all of it
This was super interesting and informative, and I really appreciate the nuanced take you gave the subject of scammers in developing countries. The popular "scambait" content where people try to expose scammers have never sat right with me. Sure, scamming people is wrong, but when you consider the wealth gap between places where scamming is prevalent, and that most of them are just trying to provide for their families, it's all just a big moral grey area at that point. Not like western industry has never done anything to exploit developing nations 🤷
The concept of scambaiting is to waste as much of a scammer's time as possible so they don't have a chance to scam vulnerable people. I recommend watching a few Kitboga videos. He explains the goal of the scammer, and what he's doing. He regularly gets banking info from scammers that's used to reverse transactions and he reports the information to the FTC as well. Other scambaiters go further, using the remote connection the scammers themselves asked to establish in order to retrieve all of the information scammers have collected on targets, then deleting all of that information and as many other useful things on that computer. This gives them a chance to contact victims and hopefully help them, and forces the scammer to restart their scam from absolute zero. (Wasting their precious time in the process.)
The main problem is identifying individuals with their nationality. In this case is not America, the exploitative first world country, being scammed, it's musicians trying to make it in a ruthless industry. If anything it takes away accountability from the ruling class. It's not "re establishing the equilibrium" if 3rd world low class scams 1st world low class
@@8thlvlMage
I've seen Kitboga's videos and streams before, as well as other scambaiting content. I don't think he's necessarily doing anything wrong, and I do think it's commendable to help victims and prevent future scams. The content just feels gross, and the genuine anger/frustration that the scammers express isn't entertaining to me. I imagine a lot of the individuals working in scamming call centers are being exploited as well. I think the audience of people who salivate over scambait content and dehumanize the scammers bothers me more than the content itself, it feels like a lot of the people are more interested in schadenfreude than justice. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to excuse the scams in any way. The people who set up these scam operations and/or make the majority of the profit are absolutely scum and nobody deserves to be scammed.
@@biggsly I get it; I get the empathy. I get the empathy for people assumedly living in dire conditions looking to make a buck for food. But still, I don’t approve no matter how poor they may be, and I rebuke them. Why is that? I don’t think that scamming is a good (karmic) cause-even if the scammer is poor.
They may be thinking they are scamming “well-off Westerners,” but in reality, it’s starving, struggling artists they are scamming, some of whom have been trying to make it in the biz for years if not decades. Starving artists that need money for mixing, mastering, videos, legit promo + food, housing, that may have a college loan to pay off, etc. I have pals in their late thirties, early forties-fifties even still working hard, trying to make it.
Indies are already losing money on some legit submission sites (many curators are not giving most submissions a fair chance)… Losing dollars on pure, total scams (whether it’s impersonators or fake promo/PR services) in this current inflation at that is only causing harm to those artists. I could empathize with those scammers, but I empathize with fellow indie acts a lot more.
There's a difference between understanding why they do it, and allowing them to scam others.
Personally old Gertrude with dementia needs AND DESERVES her money a lot more than a. Guy who makes their money scamming vulnerable people.
This was not the video I was expecting. It was way more interesting. Thanks, Benn!
Thanks for the rabbit hole, now I'll have a longer list of books to read and things to watch
Just wanted to say thank you for the david elsewhere shirt. I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who actually knows who he is. It's a very appreciated reference =)
As a first time viewer of your channel, this is not what I expected AT ALL!!! But goddammit was such a good video, you’ve earned a new sub
I’m here because a witch doctor came to me in a dream and told me to… “smash that like button on Benn Jordan’s new video”
I'm so happy I found your channel at the beginning of the pandemic, you are enthralling and always take me on a funny, insightful journey.
I have to say I love the David Elsewhere shirt.
This entire story is cyberpunk as fuck.
You might be my favourite investigative journalist
oh this video gonna blow up, but because of the ritual. This topic is fascinatingly told by you Ben
Your investigative videos are some of my favorite TH-cam content. I always seem to learn a little bit about something really interesting from them that I probably would have never encountered otherwise, and I appreciate it. Thanks!
I'm both impressed and confused by how this video came into existence lol WOW amazing
THis is fascinating. I know some Canadian folks who went to Ghana to work as a doctor/nurse team in rural Ghana. They told me a lot about the culture, but I had not heard about Sakawa.
You deserve 1.3 million views Per video. Every single one is a banger
A Ghanaian spirit made me watch, like and comment on this video.
This is really interesting and a great video. Sweet David Elsewhere shirt btw
"Funny" thing: A musket is called a "Dane gun" in languages belonging to cultures on the former danish african west coast, because they were introduced to the concept by danish colonists. Improvised muzzleloaded firearms are still used today by poachers in these parts of the world, and they are still called "dane guns"
LMFAOOOOOOOOOOO Always coming through, not with the CONTENT ™️ we seek, but the CONTENT ™️ we deserve.
Sidebar: the Blood was procured, how, exactly?
One of my favorites videos from this channel! You're a rare kind of American, Benn ❤
Benn this is really incredible!!
Nice video. Whenever I had some time, I used to talk to the scammers sending me unsolicited private messages, trying to find out more about their background. They tend to break character pretty fast, I rarely had to tell them more than 3-4x that I know they're an impersonator.
Honestly, not what I was expecting but great video as always man
Benn is the best TH-camr
Hey Ben. It is utterly surreal to me that your channel is not one of the greats on youtube. Im well aware that the ... well everything-system is not a meritocracy, but god damn man. You are an excellent entertainer, musician, dripping with authenticity and your videos have this quality that .... really nothing else seems to match. Yes i'm a musician but i feel your channel goes beyond the topics related to music and can easily break into mainstream audiences -- im not sure why it hasn't. I hope it does some day. I've also said this before in comments but youre also just an amazing human being. I wish you nothing but health and good fortune and good days, youre just a great dude.
Love from Cairo x
p.s: im going to join your patreon the second i have disposable income. Musicians / producers in cairo earn jack shit but things are looking up.
I have come to really enjoy this channel. So many music TH-camrs are cringe hacks, but Benn has an honesty and articistic talent and integrity that transcends his music...which is great, too.
Incredible video. Really enjoyed watching it! 👌
I've never seen anyone so open minded about scammers. Ghana has a life expectancy of 64 years and the average daily income is 14.88 cedi (a little over $1.00 USD). It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that people in harsh living environments don't mind scamming us more well-off westerners, especially if they themselves were afflicted by others in some way. Thank you for unbiasedly bringing awareness regarding the whole issue. Great work!
I get the empathy, but I still can't approve, and I rebuke them. Why is that? I don’t think that scamming is a good (karmic) cause-even if the scammer is poor. They may be thinking they are scamming “well-off Westerners,” but in reality, it’s starving, struggling artists they are scamming, some of whom have been trying to make it in the biz for years if not decades. Starving artists that need money for mixing, mastering, videos, legit promo + food, housing, that may have a college loan to pay off, etc., and it's a time of inflation. I have pals now in their late thirties, early forties-fifties even still working hard, trying to make it. I could empathize with those scammers, but I empathize with fellow indie acts a lot more.
Even though I read the title of the video I was still very caught off guard by the speed at which this video escalated. This went to depths I was not expecting.
How are you providing this much value and yet only have 200k subs?? Just found your channel and I’m an immediate fan, can’t wait to deep dive into more of you’re content!
I receive from time to time, Instagram messages from "management" or "agent agencies" to hire me, in exchange of an small fee.
Amazing I can get Synth reviews and then a lecture on an Occult Wet African scam subculture I had no idea about , on the same channel.
Fantastic content Ben, thanks!
This video is the best of TH-cam. 👍
brilliant video. Amazing. Well done
Benn, this was such a good video
Your videos keep getting better and better. Beautifully done!
This is my favourite video of yours so far and I’m going to increase my patrion donation because it is so interesting. I’m sure this will go viral as. Your gonna be rich mun!
I honestly thought this was going to be some weird cheeky shitpost of a video LOL. Well done, especially with the empathy for someone just trying to survive and turning it into an opportunity.
I get the empathy, but I still don’t approve no matter how poor they may be. Why is that? I don’t think that scamming is a good (karmic) cause-even if the scammer is poor.
They may be thinking they are scamming “well-off Westerners,” but in reality, it’s starving, struggling artists they are scamming, some of whom have been trying to make it in the biz for years if not decades. Starving artists that need money for mixing, mastering, videos, legit promo + food, housing, that may have a college loan to pay off, etc. I have pals in their late thirties, early forties-fifties even still working hard, trying to make it. I could empathize with those scammers, but I empathize with fellow indie acts a lot more.
I'm totally watching this millions of times starting right now
This was an amazing video. Commenting just for entanglement so that hopefully TH-cam pushes this to more people.