YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site

Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by colpabar on Friday January 04, 2019 @11:00AM (#18824927)

H3H3 is just as guilty of this. They were one of MANY channels advertising a scam "therapy" service called Better Help to viewers with mental health issues. While he did acknowledge it, it was only after being called out in a Pewdiepie video, and he seemed much more upset about getting caught than promoting such a scam of a service.

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by xvedejas on Friday January 04, 2019 @11:19AM (#18825120)

If you watch H3H3's original videos, it's clear that the edit that PewDiePie watched was misleading to make it seem like Ethan was claiming BetterHelp personally helped him. It took a clip out-of-context from an advertisement-free video. To Ethan's credit, it was clear in his videos that it was paid advertisement and he didn't personally use the service, and he did stop advertising for them.

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by sb8244 on Friday January 04, 2019 @01:23PM (#18826340)

I'm not sure that's entirely the same as this. If you didn't know exactly how Better Help was setup, it could be difficult to understand that. Also, Better Help may actually provide some value, but just a value that is in a gray area.

Gambling sites masquerading as merchandise seems like it is not in any grey area, it's purely negative. This type of service may even be strictly illegal, so it's a pretty strange situation to see it being advertised so heavily in a major way.

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by fokinsean on Friday January 04, 2019 @11:02AM (#18824942)

What's scammy about Better Help?

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by dijit on Friday January 04, 2019 @11:13AM (#18825049)

A few months ago Pewdiepie posted a video[0] that roughly took the piss out of Better Help and their practices and pointed out the irony of an online counseling service that claims to be a cheaper alternative to actual therapy, but still lists in their terms of service that you need actual therapy and that what they offer is only supplemental in nature.

So basically they're engaging in borderline false advertising targeted at people who are by definition emotionally and psychologically vulnerable and compromised.

And the youtube side of it is that a whole host of youtubers promoted this service on their platforms.

Not to mention that their terms dictate they can sell your data. Which obviously is unexpected from a“medical” company.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PLgOaVXmGU

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by larkeith on Friday January 04, 2019 @02:23PM (#18826894)

> Not to mention that their terms dictate they can sell your data. Which obviously is unexpected from a“medical” company.

That seems like it must be skirting the HIPAA line very closely.

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by colpabar on Friday January 04, 2019 @11:12AM (#18825043)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXUEnagP69c

This happened a while ago so I don't remember everything, but I believe the company was like an Uber for therapy, rather than providing therapy directly.

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Re:YouTube Stars Are Pushing a Shady Gambling Site by tzakrajs on Friday January 04, 2019 @02:17PM (#18826836)

I have used their services once and it seems like the biggest issue is that remote therapy probably isn't as beneficial as being in-person. The prices are high for what you get and good luck trying to figure out how to make a claim to your insurance with them.

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