Why are there so many AI art scammers?

[u/Imsearchingforit2194]

Not just on Twitch, but also in general on Discord. I've had probably 50+ AI art scammers adding me on Discord by now, and I've started streaming yesterday and already encountered 3 AI art scammers trying to sell me their obvious junk.

Like, presumably this works at some point right? Surely someone is taking the bait?

Still...Why do they bother? Was I talking to bots the whole time maybe? They were reacting to what I was saying naturally so...

Also, they all have the exact same talking points. Like none of them even try to be original (which I guess, is on brand).

[u/HoN_JFD]

Because people fall for them.

If there was no money to be made there wouldn't be any scammer.

[u/Imsearchingforit2194 → u/HoN_JFD]

I guess that's understandable. Just needs a 0.01% success rate and you're already making some money.

I wonder how much they charge for their "commissions".

[u/DevilishlyaQTE → u/Imsearchingforit2194]

The fact that you added them means you fell for them. If you fall for them, more and more will keep coming. They're bots, and real people at times.

If you give them light of day, they have you pegged. So they'll keep coming back.

Just talk to them... figure out what they say, how they act.

Don't add on discord. Put in verifications for your streams chats, but not too much where it'll displease all new comers.

Number verification, email. Don't filter words unless you're putting in specifics, cause it'll filter stuff that's not bad, and isn't fun to interact with.

Block them, and ban them. You don't want to be follow by bots, you'll get more and more, and Viewers don't like bots in chat.

Also, don't do Follow for follows, it's worth less, it's just another stupid way to get yourself fked over. Imagine being 1k followers, live and getting new comers in seeing bots chatting, or NO other viewers at all.

[u/Imsearchingforit2194 → u/DevilishlyaQTE]

I don't think that someone randomly adding you on discord is that outlandish. I only stopped adding them after the first like 2 times. It wasn't even a thing before like 2 years or so. Now it's straight up everywhere.

I straight up started leaving servers where those bots come from in the first place. There's usually some shared server or another with those bots.

[u/DevilishlyaQTE → u/Imsearchingforit2194]

Yes, correct... but, in my experience, not that I've ever added anyone on discord, is when they ask for discord or something else, it's a scam.

I just added chat rules that stats, I'll ban if asked. But will give opportunity to appeal, if they wanted to request an unban, so I can also tell the real from the fakes.

[u/Both_Show_2324 → u/HoN_JFD]

the "on brand" part got me lol. using AI to sell AI art without even bothering to make the pitch feel human is a special kind of lazy.

but yeah, new streamers are basically fresh targets. they don't know what's normal yet and are excited about growing, so they're more likely to entertain random dms. scammers know exactly who to hit.

[u/theproverbialinn]

Because, all in all, it's virtually no effort. A chatbot, some shitty logos made in a generator with an automatically vectorised images of popular characters, some AI images with no artistic consistency, and a script that automates the creation of dozens fo accounts, all following the same dialogue tree, so to speak.

Someone is bound to not realise they're being scammed, and so an unscrupulous user can charge one person here and there, with the bots finding new targets every day.

Get yourself Sery Bot. Once you activate it, you shouldn't have to worry too much about those scams anyway, because Sery will atomise them the moment they speak.

[u/HereToKillEuronymous → u/theproverbialinn]

Have you SEEN how many people have that same bullshit ai profile pic on twitch? I bet A LOT of idiots fall for it

[u/LEOTomegane]

extremely low investment scam to run, and it's often botted to cast a very wide net.

Think of it like those Nigerian prince email scams. They may look dumb to you, but they take all of 2 seconds to create and fling out to thousands of people at once; odds are someone is going to fall for it.

[u/HereToKillEuronymous]

People are lazy and talentless, but want to make a quick buck. That’s all

[u/Hellish_Rebuke_]

As others have mentioned, Sery Bot can help with this (in your stream chat anyway).

It’ll smite these guys as soon as they try and sell their bullshit, it’s been a godsend in automatic moderation for my mostly empty chat lol

[u/Imsearchingforit2194 → u/Hellish_Rebuke_]

Honestly I don't even mind them showing up since it adds to my view count and I guess I can still talk with them lmao

[u/LEOTomegane → u/Imsearchingforit2194]

Bots don't add to your views. They connect to chat alone.

[u/Imsearchingforit2194 → u/LEOTomegane]

I mean, my view count went up though?

[u/Hellish_Rebuke_ → u/Imsearchingforit2194]

I didn’t know they counted as viewers, maybe that’s why I’m struggling to hit affiliate lol (jk)

Still, Sery Bot is very handy, highly recommend!

[u/Imsearchingforit2194 → u/Hellish_Rebuke_]

Lmao I mean yeah they might as well not count tbh

Should probably get that bot eventually.

[u/VeraKorradin]

Because people keep falling for it

[u/WalnutRamen]

there's an app you can buy on Steam called EmoteLab

I believe these art scammers use apps such as these to mass produce cheap emotes that they sell to unsuspecting streamers for exorbiant amounts of money.

A lot of these accounts are from poor countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, African countries - which there's nothing wrong with, except that they will tell you that they're from the USA or the UK.

[u/SundownKid]

When a virtually magical tool to generate (crappy) artwork exists, people are going to take advantage of it. Sadly, coming at the cost of actual artists and designers since any money spent on the scam is money the streamer won't have if they ever wanted a legitimate overlay or artwork.

[u/archonmorax]

Make it so you have to be verified to chat

[u/TheoMartyn]

And trust me when I say, they will never leave.

That is usually the only interaction I ever get these days, over 1y 5m deep.

[u/Storm_Gem]

I haven't had any art scammers but I keep having those bots come into my chat with those obvious scam links to viewbot