#podcast scam

[acrylicalchemy]

ARTISTS AND CREATORS BEWARE!!!

There is a very convincing podcast scam going around right now. I was contacted by someone claiming to be the manager of a popular podcast offering me a well-paid opportunity to be a guest on their show. It seemed legit, was well written, was personalized, even had working links. They had contracts and tried to set up a Zoom conference. That's where they get you. They're trying to gain access to you Facebook page. I got a second request for a different show today which is what ultimately tipped me off. If it seems too good to be true, it might be. Trust your gut.

I'm grateful I didn't lose access to my page, but these things are pretty disheartening. It's extremely tough being an artist and the market is absolutely brutal right now. I feel like I'm drowning every single day. The thought of having income coming my way really boosted my spirits, and I knew that if this turned out to be a scam, it was going to be really rough given the current struggles. It's so sad that they target artists, people that are often already struggling to get by while giving everything they have to a world that sometimes doesn't support or sustain them.

[sewgeekmama]

Exclusive Invite to Call Her Daddy Scam

I received a surprisingly convincing new podcast scam e-mail titled Exclusive Invite to Call Her Daddy Live Broadcasting Show. It’s the same old podcast/Facebook scam set-up to try and steal my page, but they have taken it up a notch and actually tailored the message to include my personal details. While earlier versions of this scam have been a copy and paste sort of message, this one is…

[zil-street]

Shop updates! I currently have these stickers up on my ko-fi.

I’ve added a selection to the Arthur and John sticker so you can buy up to 5 for the pricing of one. I have a decent stack of these left over from convention/ren faire season, and would like to find a new home for them.

These stickers (minus #1 Mascot for now) are also up on my redbubble. It can be a bit cheaper to buy (especially if you are outside of the U.S.A.) so for the foreseeable future any new designs will be uploaded there.

Also have a Scam Likely sticker for all my DnDads lovers.

[thatoneartistinthecorner]

I haven't drawn him in a while 📞☎️

[yesterdayiwrote]

Ummm Carmen released a book now?!

Lol, yes, so it seems!

I mean... I haven't exactly hidden the fact I'm not a fan of hers or of wag culture in general, but I saw this and... it really sums up what it is that bugs me about the whole thing.

Not to be patronising but I really hope people realise - This isn't a book, it's a recruitment scam ploy for Female Invest. It's not a book with a reduced subscription, it's a reduced subscription package with a free 'e book'. You can't buy this book on it's own, or without giving your personal details to their company. You also will be auto-enrolled into an auto-renew subscription that will be £99 a year after the first year.

I'm not going g to tell people what to do with their money but just... please don't go rushing in to buying this just because it has her name on it. It's bad enough when WAGS are selling you overconsumption and overpriced designer shit you don't need but... I'm really uncomfortable with this one, because there's incredibly mixed reviews on Female Invest as a company (some positive but an awful lot not - I'd advise you to do your research on them), and also not much clarity on her own credentials. Having a famous boyfriend, a 500k insta and a LinkedIn really isn't enough to go on when offering around financial advice to people.

Obviously it's everyone's personal choice to make, but... I'd definitely tread carefully here. It's very... grifty and full of red flags. Companies don't tend to just offer you memberships at less than 50% their alleged market value... the fact you're getting an extra thrown in suggests neither of the end products are worth that in the first place 😬😬

[screecherofthenight]

Guys. GUYS. I was thinking about a Wolf 359 social media au and I came to an earth shattering realization. Kepler is a story time youtuber. he’s a fucking STORYTIME YOUTUBER. I’m having a moment.

[justbearsart]

🖍️ 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚄𝚗𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚢 💥

[honktraband01]

need a Malevolent and Dungeons & Daddies crossover RIGHT TF NOW.

[crayycrayon]

finally a good post in the malevolent tag

[chickenboi27]

HeLlO iTs mE sCaM liKleY!!

One of my favorite characters from dungeons and daddies podcast. I don’t remember why in my brain he’s a lizard man, but he is.

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[hoodiedeer]

im genuinely starting to think every site with a "I don't like this ad" button actually deliberately shows you more ads when you say you don't like them. am I insane or is this a real phenomenon that people don't talk about.

i rarely ever hate an ad badly enough to bother using it, but I have noticed this on spotify, youtube and twitter, EVERY ad I have disliked or sometimes even reported suddenly becomes like 80% of the ads I see as soon as I do so

[sewgeekmama]

Jimmy Fallon Spoofed in Podcast Scam

The Facebook podcast scam that won’t go away is now using Jimmy Fallon Management to lure in unsuspecting victims in an attempt to take over high-profile Facebook pages. As usual, they’re offering a couple thousand dollars upfront, and the event is sponsored by Nike. They’ve even started purchasing legitimate sounding domains to up the level of deceit, as this e-mail came from Jimmy Fallon…

[toytulini]

me, stupidly and weirdly resistant to listening to audio books vs reading a physical book for no real reason: man i wish there was a way to like, read a book while i crochet like i do with tv shows and movies and podcasts

[thatoneartistinthecorner]

You've just been scammed!! ⭐

[bibleofficial]

god bless sleeping 12hrs nightly