by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
A massive campaign to game the YouTube search engines by or for the benefit of a company that purchases structured settlement payment rights has been uncovered and is being investigated.
The scheme which appears to be tied to a member of the structured settlement secondary market involves:
- A coordinated systematic uploading of content and unauthorized systematic publishing of content that is the work of others, including the unauthorized publishing of the work of members of the structured settlement primary market and multiple law firms throughout the United States.
- A coordinated creation of multiple YouTube accounts, possibly using fictitious names, to each of which was uploaded the same number of videos with virtually the same content
- Cross subscribing between the same group of YouTube accounts containing the same or substantially similar unauthorized content they copied or plagiarized, in an effort to game the Google search results.
The above is a typical example of the sleazy tactics employed by, or on behalf of a number of participants in the structured settlement secondary market, where solicitation practices are completely and inexplicably unregulated. Besides violating the legal rights of those whose work has been plagiarized, the illegal tactics used by structured settlement buyers are harmful to consumers and serve to stifle legitimate content on structured settlements.
If your work has been systematically copied and uploaded to another YouTube account, there is a fairly simple process to address this with YouTube or wherever the content is being hosted. Repeat violators will get their accounts banned.