Scams That Should be Illegal

Prisoner James

James talks about scams that should be illegal.

He talks about textbooks, MCNs, etc.

Prisoner James appears in this video as well.

This video was uploaded on August 25, 2019.

## Transcript

0:00
Me and my twin sister used to share a single Neopet account.

0:03
Which was a dumb decision, because it was completely free to make a second Neopet account-

0:07
And we already struggled at sharing things in the non-virtual world.

0:11
But the reason we co-ran our Neopet account was because we didn't want to put our pets through a divorce,
0:16
And because we wanted to save up our Neopoints for a paintbrush.
0:19
For those of you who grew up with real video games,
0:21
in Neopets, a paintbrush was a super-rare item that would change your neopet's appearance based off the paintbrush you used.
0:27
There were christmas paintbrushes,
0:28
baby paintbrushes,

0:30
Guy Fieri paintbrushes,
0:31
and an invisible paintbrush that just...
0:34
Turned your Neopet invisible.
0:36
Why?
0:37
When I said that paintbrushes were a rare item, I meant it.
0:40
You see, your average neopet paintbrush would sell for about...
0:42
1/2 Million Neopoints.

0:45
And the most me and my sister had ever saved up was about 100,000.
0:49
[James] WHY DID YOU SPEND 3K ON FOOD? WE'RE TRYING TO GET PAINTBRUSHES!
0:54
[Faith] IT WAS FLOWER67'S BIRTHDAY, AND YOU SPENT 4K GETTING THAT STUPID JACKET!
1:00
[James] THE JACKET IS COOL AND YOU KNOW IT!
1:02
One day, my sister went searching in the back alleys of the internet
1:05
for other ways to obtain a paintbrush.
1:06
And she stumbled upon this website that said:
1:09
"Get Free Paintbrushes!"
1:10
And all she had to do was enter in her username and password,
1:13
and they'd send us a fairy paintbrush!
1:16
Oooh!
1:16
And in a moment of desperation, she entered in the login details of our SHARED ACCOUNT
1:21
into a shady website.
1:23
And you'll never guess what happened next...
1:26
We log in our account and there were 3 fairy paintbrushes in our inventory and-
1:30
JUST KIDDING! We got hacked.
1:32
And we lost all 100,000 of our neopoints

1:35
and we never got the paintbrush we were promised.
1:37
But we learnt a valuable lesson that day which was:
1:40
People will try to scam you so, trust... no one.
1:44
We were lucky enough to only lose virtual money.
1:46
But some people aren't that lucky.
1:48
On the internet you have to deal with people trying to scam you constantly.
1:51
There's probably comments underneath this very video of people using

1:55
my name and profile picture saying:
1:57
"Click on this link and get a free gift card!"
1:59
And they always use a stupid amount of emojis so their comment sticks out more.
2:03
I thought it was obvious those comments were fake but some people still fall for them.
2:07
Listen, we need to get one thing straight about our relationship.
2:11
If I ever, use this many emojis...
2:14
I want you to shoot me.
2:16
Scammers like to target non tech-savvy people or what I like to call: Babies and Baby Boomers.
2:21
There's a lot of things you can do to help prevent people from taking advantage of you on the internet.
2:25
But my rule of thumb is:
2:26
if something sounds too good to be true...
2:29
it is.
2:29
No one's giving out free gift cards,
2:31
Your long lost uncle didn't wire transfer you money,
2:34
And you can't get free paintbrushes.
2:36
You can't cheat the system that's just life, man.
2:38
Also if you ever get a popup saying:
2:40
"Your computer has a virus! Call this number to fix it."
2:44
Don't.
2:44
A guy with an indian accent named Jason will charge you real money to "fix the virus"
2:49
but won't do anything.
2:50
Cause you never had a virus in the first place.

2:53
But those are all illegal scams.
2:54

People go to jail over those scams.
2:56
Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!
2:59
Millions of family suffer from it every year.
3:01
However there are some scams that are, for some unknown reason, completely legal.
3:05
And frankly, I think we should reopen alcatraz for the people who do these scams.
3:10
(009 Sound System Dreamscape) So here's my list for the top 4 legal scams that shouldn't be legal.
3:14
The first legal scam is mobile games.
3:17
I was doing a show with this nine-year-old kid named Ariah.
3:20
And in the show, he was going to punch me like this: (Ariah punches James).
3:22
And one day while we were rehearsing Ariah asked me:
3:25
[Ariah] Can I play some games on your phone?
3:26
So I gave him my phone and his Dad told me
3:28
[Ariah's Dad] Hey man, I don't even trust my kid with my phone.
3:31
And I thought: What's the worst thing he could do besides tweet something or delete my YouTube channel.
3:36
But he did something, so much worse.
3:39
He downloaded a free game,
3:40
and inside the game you could buy a VIP Member version.
3:44
that gave you extra lives and more skins.
3:46
The thing that was a scam was that the app gave you the VIP member
3:49
free for 3 days then charged you $6 a week!
3:54
That's a dollar a day, not including Thursdays, to play some stupid mobile game.
3:59
It's more expensive than a Netflix Subscription and
4:02
a tasty, hot and ready $5 Little Caesars pizza.

4:05
Now some of you might be thinking,
4:06
"Okay, yeah that's a ridiculous price for a mobile game.
4:09
But that's not a scam, they tell you how much it's going to cost right there on the screen''

4:13
But here's the thing, roughly zero people bought the VIP member pass
4:17
because they were fans of the game and didn't mind the price.
4:20
NO ONE IS WILLING TO PAY A WEEKLY BILL FOR A GAME WHERE ALL YOU DO IS THIS:
4:25
[Kevin MacLeod - Carefree]
4:27
But 100% of the people who pay for the subscription are kids
4:30
using their parent's phone and bought the VIP pass because they have no concept of money.
4:34
And you don't even have to enter in your credit card information
4:37
so it's easier for kids just to hit the "Purchase 6000 Gems" buttton
4:41
It's targeting kids and I don't like it; SCAM.
4:43
I wish I had the confidence of a mobile game developer
4:46
to charge someone $312 a year to play their stupid game.
4:50
My proposal to fix this scam is to ban mobile games entirely and everyone play Tetris 99.
4:55
Nintendo Online is cheaper than the VIP club subscription anyway.
4:58
The second legal scam is...
5:00
COLLEGE.
5:02
Textbooks.
5:03
We live in a society, where all human knowledge and misconceptions
5:06
are contained on the Internet.
5:08
But if you print out that knowledge and bind out the pages
5:11
suddenly you've made a best-selling book that people are required to buy.
5:15
There are some textbooks that are just a CD or a code
5:18
that you need a computer to even access the book
5:21
so what's the point of BUYING the textbook
5:24
if you have a computer that's connected to the internet in the FIRST PLACE!
5:27
And don't tell me that the books are better for people that don't have internet.
5:30
I know you have an internet connection...
5:32
cause...
5:33
c'mon
5:34
My solution to this scam is to drop out
5:36
and make YouTube videos.
5:37
The third legal scam is...
5:40
psychics.
5:41
I don't wanna debate whether or not psychics are real.
5:44
Because they're not. My horoscope told me so.
5:46
My belief is that no one can talk to dead people
5:48
because we're not living in a cartoon.
5:50
And it just makes me sick that there are psychics who are taking advantage of
5:54
people who are grieving, and are so desperate to talk to their loved ones again
5:58
that they'll try anything. Even paying people to lie to them.
6:02
\*tss\* Ooooh I burnt my finger on that
6:04
ｈｏｔ ｔａｋｅ
6:05
Now, I don't think that every psychic out there is trying to scam people.
6:10
most of them are, but I do think
6:11
there are some psychics
6:13
who legitimately believe that
6:15
dead people use them as a vessel to talk to their living relatives.
6:18
And in their 3 eyes, they are helping and giving their clients closure.
6:22
I understand that a very small percentage of them are just trying to help.
6:27
But it doesn't matter because they're all fake.
6:29
My soulution to this scam is that you don't pay a psychic unless they can guess how much money
6:33
you're going to pay them. Should be.. close to zero hopefully..
6:36
And the last legal scam is...
6:39
Multi Channel Networks. Wait, did you guys hear that?
6:42
It sounds like bridges being b u r n e d.
6:45
When your YouTube channel starts growing, you'll be contacted by a Multi Channel Network.
6:48
or, MCN. And they'll make empty promises that if
6:51
you join their network, they can help your channel grow
6:54
and earn more money! And they'll brag about how many people are in their network,
6:57
but really, that just means theres less of a chance they'll care about you.
6:59
And all you have to do to join is give them a percentage
7:02
of your YouTube money every month. And once you sign your soul away,
7:05
what the network will actually do is nothing..
7:09
except take a cut of your money every month.. It's like showing your dog a
7:12
tennis ball, and then pretending to throw it, and then when the dog
7:15
realizes, he's chasing nothing,
7:16
he's already signed a three year contract to keep chasing the fake ball.
7:20
I know this last scam might not apply to everyone watching,
7:23
but if this video helps at least one up
7:25
and coming YouTuber to not join an MCN, than it
7:28
will have been worth it. So that's my list for the top 4
7:30
legal that should.. not exist
7:33
and D I E . I don't think this video
7:34
I don't think this video is gonna actually change anything, people will always
7:36
be greedy and try to get money anyway they can.
7:40
So, anything you should take away from this video,
7:42
is that I'M GIVING AWAY FREE GIFT CARDS! CLICK THE LINK IN THE DESCRIPTION TO CLAIM YOUR
7:45
PRIZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!
7:47
MMMM, good morning everyone, I hope you enjoyed my list of
7:50
of the top 4 legal scams that should be illegal..
7:53
If theres any psychics in the audience that I offended.. uhh..
7:56
you shoulda known before watching this video that I
7:59
don't agree with you.
8:01
and theres any MCNS watching this video..please stop emailing me.
8:04
so, I'm really excited to announce some HALLOWEEN
8:07
MERCH. Which includes a FREAKING HALLOWEEN
8:10
COSTUME. I know it's August, but I don't really
8:13
get a lot of chances to update you guys on things, so,
8:16
we're doin it now. If you wanna get your hands on a costume,
8:18
You should order it soon, because we only ordered
8:21
a certain amount of costumes, so once they sell out,
8:23
they won't be ready until.. next year..
8:26
If you have any questions about the sizing, or the shipping,
8:28
then be sure ta ask my business email,
8:31
Thank you for reading the subtitles, and sticking around to listen to the endcard,
8:34
I know a lot of people click off once the endcard starts, but..
8:38
.. at least you're cool..
8:41
Subtitles by: Hannah King, \*insert names here if you helped\* and until next time,
8:43
w e a r y o u r s e a t b e l t .
English