#james somerton scam

[ellestra]

Farming content James Somerton style

Edited: I cleaned up sentences, removed typos and added some links

You've probably seen the latest hbomberguy video that highlights plagiarism problem on youtube. He gives several examples many I never heard about but I've been recommended iilluminaughtii before and watched some of her stuff before getting tired of seemingly endless volume (now I know why). But then he gets to the real subject of the video and I did watch a lot of James Somerton videos. And I liked many of them. I liked them a lot.

I didn't give him any money and, as much as it came as relief, I kept thinking how this must feel so much worse for people who did. I thought about supporting him for a moment when he posted (in April this year!) how his videos are getting less views because youtube algorithm and demonetisation of gay creators (it's a real thing so it was easy to believe) and he will be forced to stop creating if people don't sign up to his patreon. But I was casual viewer and he seemed big enough so I didn't. It must feel like such a betrayal to those who created a real community around him. Just like his film production company it's clear now it was another of his scams. It's infuriating how well it worked.

Somerton deleted his patreon now (along with his twitter and discord server) so there is probably no recourse for those affected. The only good thing is that someone big enough highlighted what he did (and brought receipts) so he had to stop. When smaller creators called him out it either went unnoticed or he managed to make himself a victim (and send his fans after them). He actually did what Anita Sarkeesian was accused of and gaslighted his followers about it. His misogyny just adds an extra bitter taste to this.

At the end hbomberguy talks about how if Somerton was open about what he was doing this could've been his niche. He said it just as I was thinking basically the same thing. I'm sure there is a market for field review type of videos. Not review like movie or book review but in academic sense when you take other people articles on the subject and compare to show the state of research on the subject on at the moment.

This kind of reviews doesn't need any original research. The value is in giving people overview of where the field is at and pointing them to the actual research so they can read more in depth about the results. If you already did the search for all the sources this is a perfect format to use them. Most people don't have time or resources to comb through all the resources themselves but they like to learn about it and this is why videos like that are popular. That's why iilluminaughtii, Somerton and al. were able to cash in on it.

But of course this kind of things have to properly cited. And they cannot be just all quotes. You have to make coherent points not just make stuff up for the transitions (lies that actually made Todd in the Shadows make a video not about music). I suppose that's too much work. Too much effort when you need to crank out content to satisfy all the sponsors.

I was glad to find out I already watch most of the queer creators recommended in the hbomberguy's video (and put on this watch list) as an alternative (I would add Caelan Conrad to it - funnily enough I found them through their video about antivax movement). I trained my youtube recommendations well in which way it skews but it's easier to kick out all the obviously awful when you know what talking points to avoid. It's much harder to spot grift when it pretends to care about the same things you care about. Somerton was saying all the right things. It just wasn't his words.

Did he even believe any of it? I bet he'll insist on yes but the laziness says otherwise. It seems like it was all just for the money and fans this angle gave him. That he enjoyed being cool to the audience he built and the stuff it bought him. Be gay do crime for real. Only he didn't write that one either.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #youtube drama #youtube plagiarism #todd in the shadows #archeology tube #james somerton conman #james somerton scam #youtube #plagiarism

[pikachu-says-peekaboo]

Kinda wish that people would be giving the same kind of criticism and scrutiny to Internet Historian that they have been giving to James Somerton. IH is a much bigger and more well known channel and his cave video got a lot more attention. Like I know his video got taken down, and he's only done this to one video (that we know of) but he employed the same sort devious tactics to try and hide his plagiarism, so would be nice to see the same sort of outrage for him too.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #internet historian #like i don't think he's losing so many subscribers or shouting down his patreon #not excusing what James did because he totally did steal other people's work and scam his audience out of tens of thousands of dollars #but like #wish we could see a consistent sort of energy towards a much bigger youtuber #and like my guy really let an antisemitic conspiracy theory run rampant within his fanbase instead of like admitting the truth #i feel like for internet histoeian hes just gonna bounce back from this in a month with no real consequences ugh ://

[greensleevesii]

Love the idea of James Somerton skipping town like a con man after getting exposed.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #todd in the shadows #scam #plagarism #funny post #funny #humor

[phoenixyfriend]

I think referring to the James Somerton situation, or the hbomberguy and Todd in the Shadows videos in general, as "YouTuber Drama" is really underselling the level of academic dishonesty, intellectual theft, and malicious misinformation being discussed and spread by this man and others like him.

This isn't makeup gurus accusing each other of being inappropriate at a birthday dinner or a philosophy channel getting in hot water on Twitter for having a controversial queer celebrity do a voiceover line without fully vetting everything he's ever said.

It's large scale plagiarism and hundreds of thousands of dollars of profiting off other people's work without even credit.

(And 64k in scams. That too.)

And no, I didn't know who any of these people except Harry and Todd were until now, with the exception of MAYBE having heard of Internet Historian in passing, so I had that same "who even are these people" response as most of you.

People like James are why I cannot in good faith just Tell people my college major.

#hbomberguy #todd in the shadows #james somerton #current events #YouTube #YouTuber Drama #Phoenix Talks #plagiarism #academic dishonesty

[solisaureus]

In the wake of hbomberguy and toddintheshadows's takedown of James Somerton, I hope what people learn from this is that you are vulnerable to being scammed and lied to on the internet all the time. Even if you think you aren't. ESPECIALLY if you think you aren't. There is significant financial incentive for people on the internet to lie to you and influence you to think a certain way. It is happening to you every day, on youtube, on tiktok, on reddit, on tumblr. James Somerton is not the only culprit and there are tons of other scammers with reliable reputations that just haven't been caught.

What can you, as an audience member, do to shield your mind from misinformation and propaganda? I'm not going to expect everyone to fact-check everything that they hear or read on the internet, as that is simply infeasible with the sheer volume of information circulating online. But here are a few ways you can sniff out bullshit:

Watch for sources. If you watched the hbomberguy vid, this is probably already at the forefront of your thoughts. If a quote, image, or footage is unattributed, if citations are absent (this is literally the norm for informative posts on social media like tumblr and reddit, I very rarely see sources cited), or if sources cited look dubious and biased, take the information presented to you with a grain of salt.

Pay special attention to shocking claims. If someone on the internet tells you something outrageous, it is likely meant to outrage you. Public outrage is power -- before you get up in arms, verify the information that caused your reaction.

Fact-check when it matters. Some things are more important to verify than others. World news, politics, science, and medicine are rife with misinformation and directly affect people's safety. Before you spread a post you saw about, for example, COVID vaccines, look into how backed up it is.

Keep in mind that some things are disputed or unknown. It's natural to want answers, to want an authority to tell you how to feel about something. But sometimes the truth is unclear, and there are multiple contradictory opinions out there. It is okay to wait for more information to come out before you make up your mind on an issue.

Misinformation that you agree with is just as dangerous as misinformation that offends you. Todd in the shadows touched on this, but people are more likely to look into the validity of a claim if it offends them, and are more likely to accept it without question if it backs up their pre-held beliefs. But if your beliefs are being influenced by bullshit, you need to know about it, even if that causes you to change your stance on something. Especially then. Again, it's infeasible to fact check everything you hear, but keep this bias in mind when considering the above points.

There is way more to this topic and more informed people than me have weighed in on it, but I've been thinking about it since the videos came out and wanted to share my thoughts. These are things that I keep in mind for myself when evaluating info on the internet. There are tons of books out there on how to spot misinformation and the huge detrimental impact that misinformation has on society and I plan to read them next year. Educating yourself is important!

#robin text #todd in the shadows #hbomberguy #james somerton

[patricia-taxxon]

JAMES SOMERTON FOCUS ON THE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE GET BETTER FIND A CAREER OUTSIDE THE SPOTLIGHT SHUT THE FUCK UP TAKE YOUR SCAM BUCKS AND USE IT FOR THERAPY

#cilantromixture

[sagegarnish]

In Sept/Oct 2021, James Somerton was called out for stealing Hannibal fanart. He made a poll, and reposted 4 Hannigram arts from various (uncredited) artists, and asked his followers what they thought was the best one to use for his upcoming video thumbnail. The problem? He didn't credit them, and never asked them beforehand posting their work. When a number of Fannibals VERY POLITELY suggested that he not repost artwork, and asked him if he'd contacted the artists, he got extremely defensive and aggressive. He went rage mode, was arguing, and blocking anyone who said it was a breach of etiquette. He threatened to not release the video at all, and apparently was rude to someone IRL?

He was upset about people calling him a thief and scammer, yet... he is one. As we now know. I personally did not see a single death threat. He was blocking people for just saying "You should credit the artists, this isn't cool." He posted THIS as a response.

This was his "apology'. Yes, he uses his sick mother as an excuse. His sick mother that NO ONE even knew about. People were literally just saying "Hey, credit the artists, don't steal ppls art" and he immediately went into anger and defense and excuses.

After this, he deleted this non-apology, as well as the hannibal posts, and pretty much all evidence of what happened. He scrubbed it all really shortly afterwards. So believe me when I say this is a PATTERN with him.

I'm really not surprised his "apology" video went how it did. I just feel salty that he was GENUINELY AWFUL to multiple friends of mine, wiped all the evidence and kept scamming.

Anyways, I just don't want people to fall for his crocodile tears. I understand he probably DOES feel shitty. Because he was caught. He is hoping everyone just feels sorry enough for him that they'll keep paying him, and he can just leave up his videos and patreon.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #internet drama #fannibals #hannibal fandom

[vicissicude]

reading the transcript of james somerton's video and here's some notable stuff for people who dont want to watch the 34 minute long thing:

it opens with him saying his media blackout is because he was in the hospital for "trying to do something really stupid"

the first thing approaching an apology in this apology video is at the timestamp 2:20

immediately after saying "i'm really really sorry" he says that in title cards he tried to put "this is based on this person's research or this person's book" but he "knows that isnt enough now"

"there were a lot of times that stuff just got put in and there was no attempt at crediting anybody and i'm really really sorry" nice passive voice james

he claims he didnt know he was hurting people doing this

he spends two minutes explaining how long he's been friends with nick and all their history and that nick has not spoken with him since "this happened"

"I also want to apologize for the misinformation and just outright lies that ended up in the videos I can honestly say that I never intended for any of that stuff to be in the videos. And most cases I didn't write it but I should have […] I should have been more diligent about factchecking" he never intended lies to be in the video, just pure good research that he stole. research that he later says he took for granted

he briefly thanks harris and his team for the fund set up for victims of plagiarism and says he wants to help but doesn't know how

less than a second later he's saying that all claims and estimations of how much he makes online are overestimated and that he split everything 50/50 with nick

he says his plan moving forward is to reupload all the videos, put credit in the description, and then somehow send the ad revenue for those videos to the authors whose research he stole. do those authors want that? wonder if he even asked them. i mean if he stole my shit for a video i wouldnt want him to reupload with a credit in the description and whatever paltry cents i get from the few views he'll manage after this

"I never thought anyone thought that I was doing like journalism on stuff. I don't think anyone did, but the people who actually were doing it should have been given the credit they deserved." wild sentence bro

he once again defends his title card citations in two videos and appends "but now I know that's not how citation works" so why are you still saying it...

at some point he'd like to do videos again, and his plan for that is "videos that are fully sourced where I will put a link to the script where you can find all of the sources so that everyone is properly given the credit that they deserve." now i could be reading this purposefully negatively but this just sounds like a description citation again but with extra steps

he wants to be a "really good example" of proper citation

"People think that I hate ace people and women and bisexual people and lesbians and that's not true. I'm sorry that stuff made it into the videos. I promise you I did not write that stuff. I should have been a lot more extracting when Nick and I would be editing scripts but I promise you that I don't think those things […] when it came to that I would just kind of run with Nick's judgement and his observations and stuff like that." SO THE ONE THING THAT HARRIS SAID WAS NOT PLAGIARIZED AND SEEMED TO BE JAMES'S REAL OPINION HE WANTS US TO KNOW THAT HE DEFINITELY DOESNT FEEL THAT WAY AND WAS JUST PARROTING NICK'S OPINION. but dont worry right after this he assures us he's not trying to "throw Nick under the bus"

he says he thinks they were just trying to do videos too fast and writing and editing too fast

"Telos was never a scam. It was never a grift or anything like that I swear it was not. In the next couple of days I'm going to send out a message to the supporters on Indiegogo and explain the whole situation in more detail to them." can't wait to read that explanation

he spends more time talking about the videos he'd like to make in the future

"I actually liked doing research. I loved doing research, reading the books and articles and stuff like that. The part of me that was lazy was the copy and paste part. I wasn't trying to be malicious that was just laziness." james. that's not as great of an explanation as you might think. it just shows how blatantly you dont respect or care for other creators. you only did it because you believed you could get away with it, not just because you were lazy

he says the reason he's reactivating his patreon is because there were several people online theorizing that his plan was to relaunch in january to pull surprise billing and run with the money. so he said he's relaunching now to give people time to leave ("which i imagine will be the vast majority" can't pass up the opportunity to be self-deprecating)

he ends the video restating what he said earlier in the video

notably he's crying the whole time

one thing i'll say is that i didn't see anything that indicated he communicated with harris or kat or anyone. it sounded like he was coming up with that plan on the fly. i'm not surprised if he claimed it elsewhere or has failed to follow up on that promise, but it has only been 5 hours since release (at the time i'm typing this). so at least he's not making claims quite as bold as "i've been in communication with hbomberguy"

#james somerton #hbomberguy

[hyped-up-on-girl-pills]

So I’m rewatching Harris bomberboi’s new video and…can we just appreciate the absolute hilarious irony of this movie poster from James Somerton’s likely scam company Telos Pictures

#Artemis posting #hbomberguy #james somerton #telos pictures

[wiseabsol]

One last thought on Hbomberguy and James Somerton: Hbomberguy didn't end Somerton's career, because Somerton didn't have a career. He had a scam that preyed on members of his own community. And that's why I don't feel bad for Somerton in the slightest.

#hbomberguy #james somerton

[spock-smokes-weed]

re the new hbomberguy video:

my jaw was on the floor for the whole second half of the video. The gaul of James Somerton and a lot of things getting put into perspective really shocked me.

I was never a subscriber of James, but with the spaces I moved through on the internet, youtube was always recommending his videos to be. I watched a handful of them and liked them well enough, but there was always this sour attitude from him I didn't like. He came across as an elitist so I just never stuck around with his channel. The thing that really made me stop watching entirely is the disdain he had for younger queer ppl. Like old man yells at cloud "these ungrateful fags don't know where they came from" type stuff.

But since his videos (for the most part) seemed well-researched and well-thought-out, I understood why he had the following he did and respected his place on the platform. Now knowing all of the parts I liked were stolen from other people and the only original thoughts he could bring to the table were all the snide remarks about other queer people really makes me fucking angry. I didn't watch him enough to know about the lesbophobia and misogyny, but fucking YIKES.

It really makes my blood boil to see a cis gay man make himself the main character by stepping on the backs of other people in the community.

Not only that, but it's fucking sick how many people he implicated in his plagiarism. He had people funding his scam, thinking they were supporting a small queer researcher. Literally taking money out of the pockets of the people he was stealing from. It's not 100% confirmed yet, but it looks like his co-writer also had no idea about the theft, and if that's true then James really is the biggest piece of shit on planet earth.

Does he get how serious plagiarism is? Does he understand what it means to be fucking implicated in something like that? He says Nick comes from academia and is a published author; does he realize this could fucking ruin Nick's career and any future potential in the publishing industry? It's also sick he would use an unsuspecting party as a shield for his own wrongdoing.

I'm currently in school for a career in academia and the situation Nick is in is the kind of nightmare that leaves you in a cold sweat.

#hbomberguy #james somerton

[chlora-boii]

Did you know you can help kick beloathed plagiarist, James Somerton, off Patreon?

Go to:

https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

and fill out a form!

Here's how I filled mine out:

For "Please choose a request type below:", you can click "I want to report suspicious activity".

Add your email. You may need to have an email linked to a Patreon account to fill out "Your Patreon Email Address", but I'm not sure if they actually check that.

For "Please select the issue that best describes your situation", click "General" -> "I want to report a fake/suspicious account".

Enter his Patreon Page URL: "https://www.patreon.com/Jamessomertonx"

For "Subject", I put: "James Somerton is a plagiarist and scammer".

And for "Description", I wrote: "James Somerton is on record as having plagiarized heavily in all of the content he has created. He previously had a Patreon account where he made lots of money scamming people by pretending to be a writer and video essayist. He has also stolen $80,000 USD from supporters in Indiegogo through his "production company", Telos Pictures. This studio has produced nothing and never will, it is a scam. Patreon should not be allowing a known scammer to make money on their website with whatever his latest scam will be."

If you wanna find screenshots of evidence of him being a scammer, feel free to attach them to the report.

Then hit submit!

I don't know if the support team will actually listen, but it's worth taking a couple of minutes to show this guy we won't let him keep stealing from queer creators.

#james somerton #hbomberguy #youtube #plagiarism #patreon

[razzek]

One thing that's starting to really get to me with the James Somerton stuff is a real strong undercurrent of disdain toward his fans. And yeah, I was one of them. A good scam artist isn't as easy to spot as y'all seem to think. You forget that you have all the information right now. Two days ago most of you had never heard of him and it would have kept going. Anyone can fall for a scam, nobody is immune. I would love to have had whatever resources you guys think we all should magically know about so I could have kept my sad $5 a month I really needed but thought was going to something worthwhile. Some of us can only devote so much energy into things and when you have no idea whatsoever that something is amiss of course you're not going to go digging for sources, why would you when everything is fine as far as you know? I really wish I could have seen the dissenting opinions on him but for many, many reasons that aren't just that the dissenting voices weren't widely circulating at the time all I had was the thought every now and again that "huh that doesn't seem right" and then go on with my day. And I think that happened to a lot of us. So yeah. Say what you gotta say about Somerton, he has more than earned it with the damage he's caused, but maybe don't shit so hard on his former fans because that is going to be you someday with something, it happens to everyone sooner or later.

#james somerton #hbomberguy #todd in the shadows #I really am greatful for Harris and Todd's hard work in exposing all of this #and I am glad I get to see the real voices I did like that james was stealing #I'm just tired of all these people jumping on the drama train taking a dump on folks who are also victims of these crimes #razz rambles #this whole situation is upsetting me in the weirdest ways #I'm distraught but I'm not at the same time #and yet it's 6am and I can't stop reading through the tags and seeing the takes I missed #vaspider's essay and remarks from an AIDS pandemic survivor are especially good #I lived through that shit too but had no idea I was living through it #cuz that's what being blind and impoverished in rural community was like #queer wasn't even something I knew I could be until like 2010 #so it's nice to see my own history #it's not just the young queers who have little to no knowledge of our history

[stardustmade009]

James Somerton is back on the bs

This is the SECOND time this man has said he's unaliving himself over being told he's not allowed to steal from people and honestly I don't care and I'm tired of his shit. Look I may be wrong and he may have actually did the damn thing, and if that's the case where it's unfortunate, may I ask why I must feel bad for a guy who was told a rational thing such as "No, James, you're not allowed to steal from people and profit from it. No." and decided to do the most abusive over the top thing he could think of to envoke empathy? Ya know who I'll feel bad for if James Somerton actually killed himself over be told he can't be a theft for a living? H.Bomberguy. Jessie Gender. The people who he did harm to who will 100% be like "wow if I didn't call him out maybe he would still be alive." because they are decent humans and honestly James Summerton, alive or dead at this point, is a massive piece of shit. Sincerely, Someone he scammed and am tired of his shit.

#james somerton

[itsbansheebitch]

My Hot Take for the Day

After the James Somerton situation, the SWOOP exposes Johnny Silvestri in the Colleen Ballinger situation, and other videos where youtubers do serious investigative work, I feel like some of these youtubers should be recognized for their efforts.

SWOOP has already been on multiple news outlits for her youtube videos, why don't we give these people more recognition?

I can already name some people that should, I don't know, get an award for investigative journalism or something

Coffeezilla (Specifically regarding his SBF & Save The Kids Crypto scam series)

SWOOP (The Colleen Ballinger series, specifically)

Hbomberguy (For the Plagiarism, Roblox, vaccines, and climate change videos specifically)

Philosophy Tube (specifically for the vaccine video, that was an awesome study)

FriendlyJordies (Got his house fire bombed when he investigated Australia's government & many more people & organizations)

This is a starting list, but please, feel free to add to the list, we need to give these people more recognition!

I don't know the best way to formally recognize youtubers for investigative journalism, but I do know these are some people you should take seriously. Their work is unmatched.

#journalism #investigative journalism #crypto scam #SBF #sam bankman fried #Coffeezilla #SWOOP #colleen ballinger #philosophy tube #abigail thorn #hbomberguy #todd in the shadows #friendlyjordies #australian politics #us politics #politics #youtube #lgbt #lgbtqia #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #queer #trans rights #art #writing #script writing

[noahdmnc]

tbh i believe james somerton when he says telos isn't a scam. i am utterly convinced he's just so bad at managing a business and handling a creative endeavour that it looks like a scam. though, i'd also agree that this is a distinction without a difference.

#james somerton #plagiarism #hbomberguy