My First 12 Hours...

As you guys may have realised, I have been made one of the admins of our wonderful Facebook group. Now, I'm not going to say too much because of the fact I know there are certain people who subscribe to my account who, let's just say if there was a button to block them, would no longer be subscribers. However, here's a review of what I have found over the last 12 hours in the most comprehensive way I can find through connecting the dots. I will try not to make this too long winded or purposefully obtuse.

1. Malicious Deception / Branding

People who are using unattributed AI are looking to maliciously build a personal brand (basically stating that they are a writer when they actually are no such thing).

You can also find more of an explanation about what this is by looking at 'problem 3' on my article "Weighing in on the AI Slop Problem" . You might be wondering why these people bother to join the Facebook group in the first place since it would be so easy to find them out. Well, there's a lot of answers to this:

• They honestly don't believe other people can tell that they're using AI
• They rely on dodgy systems like GPTZero (which has even said I'm an AI, which I am very clearly not *pokes self*, no definitely not a robot) to dissuade people from checking
• They also rely on a base of people where the age range is a bit higher because they think they won't get caught. The higher the age average, the less 'tech-savvy' they think the people there are. They honestly believe that everyone is blind to what they are doing. On top of this, they are usually those who have been warped into the 'AI mindset' and definitely feel they are more intelligent than the general population.

How do I know?

As much as I am born and raised in the wonderful land of Great Britain, my background is Indian and I think it goes without saying that I know. And you would be surprised how many of them thought I was one of them. I'll just leave that hanging in the air.

2. Marketing Scams, Pyramid Schemes and Phone Numbers

On to the phone numbers...

These phone numbers happen to be mobile numbers for very specific places. Starting with +91, +92 and one or two starting with +880, these are India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Obviously, there are countries like Malaysia involved but not as much as the first two. These are not company numbers. So what did I do?

As someone who understands the Hindi language, I phoned a few of them on WhatsApp and disguised my number so they couldn't get back to me. Unfortunately due to my strange accent when speaking the language, they quickly identified me as a potential sting operation. But let's have a look at who was on the phone...

• A mix of men and women - most however were young men (all you have to do is ask)
• They were either selling a service (which definitely seemed dodgy) or they were trying to convince me to become one of their sales people (the pay is very, very low)
• In becoming one of the sales people, you would have to put the phone number in your socials, which means that these scam companies are monitoring the social media accounts of those involved in the pyramid schemes

The English they spoke was very broken and once they identified the fact that I very clearly speak Hindi with a tinged British accent, they told me they couldn't help me and put the phone down.

Don't be fooled by stories though - these people use AI to generate the stories they write so they can come off as native English speakers as if to legitimise themselves. But instead of one person sitting there and posting multiple times, it seems like (for example: the Expedia accounts) are linked to maybe fifty or so people who all write and post from the same account.

3. Infiltration

Obviously, there's been scary-talk of AI on Vocal where now, it's kind of a given that the smaller 'personal branders' are getting quite frightened that they will be found out for using it (and many have been thanks to efforts of the VSS) and not attributing it.

This is where it gets odd. These people who are clearly scared of Vocal's efforts against them will try to join the Facebook group under another name (which is still somewhat similar to their Vocal name, perhaps missing some letters, or shortened) in order to see what everyone is talking about.

As confirmed by Dharrsheena Raja Segarran (check her out, she's a great writer!), these people are now turning to TikTok videos about how to use AI without being caught. Unfortunately enough for them though, you can pay a small price for services that don't only tell you whether something was written by AI (by scanning the word pattern of the stories) but can also tell you which AI wrote it (ChatGPT, Claude etc). So, if you have got access to these services, using the grifter TikTok isn't much help but does quell a worry they may have about being caught.

These people are:

• Removing the 'em-dash' from their stories as they go through, or simply asking AI to write it without that punctuation (as they too now know it is a marker for AI)
• Asking ChatGPT to reword something thinking that it won't sound like an AI wrote it
• Coming into the group without putting a short description of their story above what they have written (as I am sure Mike has asked of people TONS of times to do so it doesn't get flagged as spam) because they simply don't know what the story itself is about. They didn't write it and nor did they read it.
• Monitoring our posts, especially those by admins, on the VSS to see how they can adapt to fly beneath the radar.

How do I know?

*cracks knuckles*

Remember me saying they have similar, but not the same, names on Facebook as they have on Vocal? Well, here we go...

This is because they actually don't want people to find them. Posting in the VSS means they want someone to read their work and, believing that they can engagement farm is important. However, they were not smart enough to think that someone would check their profile as well.

I found this out when someone under a weird Facebook name posted something to the VSS some days ago (as many of you have seen how quickly I pounced on this person). I clicked on the profile and boy, oh boy did I see something else...

I was mad as hell

Now, let's unpack this.

I understand that it is very similar to my own profile and I have had to issue statements for the removal of it (which eventually happened since I did threaten legal action). But initially this person was trying to fight me (comments can still be seen on some of my stories).

But there was something else very wrong here apart from simply copying my profile...

There are options to tip, to subscribe, and obviously Vocal pays you for things you write and however many people read your work. So, stating that you have a degree so clearly when you very clearly do not have one is illegal in many countries. These Middle Eastern and South Asian countries can be served from Great Britain and the United States but not the other way around. According to the British Fraud Act of 2006 and all its amendments, this is still true.

I can feel you saying it: "Hey Annie, why did he post his story in the VSS then if he didn't want to get caught?"

Simple. He didn't know I was there. He didn't think anyone would find out because he himself has stated he is a 'small account'. But, alas the lack of intelligence filters through into the social stratosphere and once again, another idiot is taken down. He has since deleted my details from his profile but still refuses to accept any responsibility - of course he is an infiltrator - he wants people to believe he can write so he can engagement farm, but scratch beneath the surface a little and there's something very wrong.

Deleting the details is an admission of guilt and therefore, I am hoping Vocal sees it the way I do. I've taken some action with the policing organisation 'Action Fraud UK' and they are monitoring it as we speak to make sure he doesn't put the statements back up.

Engagment Farming is another reason why infiltrators come: they want to see what people are reading of each other's and ChatGPT their way towards that. That's why you're coming across unattributed AI content titled "Why It's Important to Have Human Creators" and "The Downsides of AI" and other pathetic excuses for slop if I have ever seen it. They will apply to the group as a way of legitimising, monitoring and farming.

Ipso facto.

Conclusion

I did say it was going to be short, but hey what do I know? I thank everyone for understanding me and I hope this clears up a lot of things. I think I've covered just about everything and it's only 7:40am at the time of writing this but it's quite important to push it out into the open. I'm glad to help any way I can.