I Spoke to Established Titles & Got *Receipts.* Not a YouTube Scam?! Response @ScottShaferBusiness

[@Bostwiki]

*Update* I noticed there's now a 2nd video on Established Titles by Scott Shafer. I have not watched it yet. This response is specific to the first video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmO6Y4eAj757qdk&t If there's some revelatory change in the 2nd we can discuss in a future video ... (Takes me 12 hrs to export and upload 4k on my ol' computer.) The main ethos of this video is to take ALL information, from KZbin,with a grain of salt. (Ask questions, verify ...) That includes this video. Nothing is gospel. Information is dynamic not static. But hopefully the conversation evolves. Thanks for watching. PS. I have always declined sponsorships -nobody lining my pockets. I speak of my own volition.

[@JosephABernal]

It’s a scam, don’t defend scams

[@DSP_2.0]

🤣 you are trying to defend a scam while looking like an ambulance chaser 🤣 Their business model is a middle man collecting donations for tree planting and skiming some off the top for themselves. The scam is their hook which is the land title portion.

[@stevenedwards9794]

Great video, I enjoyed the shit out of it. Your take on et is informative and refreshing. The youtube algorith seems to be favoring the mob however, this video was buried about 30 - 40 results down after I searched 'established titles.' I was just looking for a somewhat neutral and inquisitive video title, found this, subbed and liked. Thanks for doing what you do

[@Antenociti]

"The worst you could accuse ET of is deceptive marketing - they are not a scam" -- Scam - definition - 'to deceive or defraud'. You absolute biscuit tin.

[@flametheshark1633]

@@Antenociti you just contradicted yourself. The marketing was deceptiving. Which would make them a scam. That is why ET is being investigated for being a scam. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHiXiKZtabeJZpY

[@NoNonsenseKnowHow]

The scam part is the fact that they have KZbinrs mislead their trusting viewers. It's immoral.

[@bradlyfan]

I watched this dudes whole video and he doesn’t really disprove anything and him saying Scott is going on a which hunt is really low

[@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181]

They ALSO DID NOT say it anywhere on their site. They only changed it recently after Scott called them out... They are shady, which screams SCAM.

[@bradlyfan]

@@k-aw-teksleepysageuni8181 literally

[@Taco_Thief]

The thing that annoys me is that KZbinrs admitted in their apologies that they knew it wasn't real. They advertised it as being real and that you actually owned the land.

[@TheDigitalThreat]

@@Taco_Thief Most probably didnt know and or care if it was real or not, and to say they didnt know would be to admit either are an idiot or that they only saw $ signs - hence "We assumed you all knew it was a gag gift! because they will never admit they did it for the money, and didnt care enough about their viewers to actually look into it first. All they cared about was the size of those checks. At this point any youtuber who made these ads who is not simply outright apologizing and admitting they made a mistake and didn't vet their sponsor good enough cant even be taken seriously. Not that youtubers should be taken seriously to begin with... All these fools opting for these nonpology videos "I thought you knew it was a gag gift" are just further showing their colors.

[@cobracommander8133]

Just donate money directly to the tree non-profit and print yourself out a “lord” certificate using a word template. Established Titles provides no real service.

[@ItsjustTNT123]

Honestly less worth than a nft 50$ for a piece of paper

[@hefoxed]

Yep, at 25 cents a tree with trees for future (corporate rate of the charity that the 2mil trees planted figure... Which hasn't changed since December 2021 per waybackmachine)... That's one tree planted could be 200

[@TheDigitalThreat]

Funny how the terms "gag gift" and or novelty were not ONCE used in the dozens of youtube avertisements i personally stumbled upon. I was never baited to buy one as I dont make purchases based off asshats online, but only since being pointed out as deceptive AKA a scam has these term appeared anywhere, and now all the sudden "How could some of you take it serious!" Come on now.

[@TheDigitalThreat]

By your own words: Deceptive ------------- scam /skam/ nouninformal noun: scam; plural noun: scams a dishonest scheme --------------- Most people would agree deceptive business practices to be considered scams. You are defending a house of cards, build on a jello mold that is sitting out in the 100 degree sun, above a burning fire pit.

[@douglaspintor]

scam or not, the advertisment is clearly misleading.

[@CalvinKalisto]

The best summary I've heard yet.

[@lohto3]

You're coming at it from what I'd consider a wrong direction. You've settled on whether or not they donate as the primary issue of concern, while arguably, people would consider that secondary. Why pay Established Titles to donate, when you can just do it yourself? The service they were selling and advertising wasn't a middleman to charity. It was that you get to buy a piece of land, and get a legal title. Whether it's stupid or pointless aside, they deliver on neither. In some ads, they even advertised that you can go and visit your own plot of land that you bought, never disclosing that you don't actually own any of it. Even if they donate a tiny amount of their profits to charity, it doesn't change that they still provide none of the services they promise in ads.

[@justmeeagainn]

It’s very easy to read the webpage, which clearly shows that it’s all a goof and just for fun. If you can’t be bothered to do this, that’s your problem.

[@danielmacdougall2697]

@@justmeeagainn except they changed their website after the original video, check the wayback machine, so you bought (snigger) a title ??

[@drethom087]

@@justmeeagainn you need more research it’s been proven to have been changed, and it has been seen by tons in their own as well as sponsor ads they say that you “legally” and “officially” become a lord.

[@Nobody18718]

60 for a frame... 8 dollars a month for the tree? Bruh

[@marius.1337]

I think you are way too charitable in the first couple of minutes. Literally saying they did "nothing wrong" when the marketing is super deceptive is just weird. They say you get a piece of land and you can call yourself a lord, both of which are false. Planting trees seems somewhat like an afterthought

[@marius.1337]

Also validity of the receipts is not given IMO. Numbers could be off, we wouldn't know without verifying with charities (probably not possible). What would be important about the receipt would be revenue vs money given to charity. If they pay a single creator 20k for a promo, a couple thousands (except the one big donation) seems like peanuts to me. % of revenue donation would be the of more interest

[@jessicarenderos8527]

I think so too, I do feel that in a way he seems a bit biased and I do not like him the way he portraits Scott

[@lawcane]

The way they got around the 'call yourself a lord' thing was that you can change your name at the clerk of courts from John Smith to Lord John Smith. And I guess some of the dopes in the reaction videos actually did that.

[@Taco_Thief]

Legitimate companies have the ability to scam too so that isn't much of anything to say.

[@TheDigitalThreat]

He doesnt apparently understand that most literal scammers (Call center types = the modern day epitome of the term scammers) use official legal company's to do so, and they too provide receipts!

[@trailblazingfive]

Great video, loved the fact that u purposefully cosplayed as Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop in his iconic outfit - that's some true KZbinr effort

[@DualPlayerInc]

Hey I feel like I should point out because as you said in the video you should fact check claims made without evidence. the claims that Established Titles make in their letter to creators are only technically true they claim: they have, to the best of their knowledge, had the most tangible effect on conservation of Scottish forest and tree planting over the last two years. Well a very quick google of Scottish national forest trust (most countries have one) and Scottish Parliament tree planting data and in this claim is completely off. The Scottish Forestry Trust (equivalent to a national trust or close to) invests £250 000 per year in forestry in Scotland or £500,000 over the two year period Established Titles claimed they had the greatest tangible impact. The data you showed was at a generous estimate a total of $300,000 USD established titles contributed to planting trees. Also in 2021 alone according to Scottish government data 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of trees were planted in Scotland so Established Titles hundreds of acres of preserved land isn't all that impressive. Since ET makes such a big deal out of their tree planting they fact they are a drop in an ocean compared to many other endeavours in Scotland really makes their claims ring hollow. Other than that it was a really good video I think your promotion of basic journalistic verification is incredibly important.

[@pj4433]

My mother bought me one of these years ago. She got a kick out of it I thought it was a load of crap but pretended for her sake. Job done. to me who cares if it’s genuine or not. Not all gifts are useful.

[@ItsjustTNT123]

Yeh but at established titles you pay 50$ for that piece of paper

[@MyFriendlyPup]

They changed their website a day after Scott's video. Clear scam. Exposed.

[@MIKAEL212345]

Established Titles always seemed like a gag gift to me, definitely not my thing but I know people who love this sort of thing even if they knew it was fake. You get a piece of paper as a conversation starter plus you don't feel too bad wasting money since some of it was donated to charity. People bought pet rocks in the 70's so this isn't that out of the ordinary as a silly little gift.

[@bradlyfan]

It wasn’t advertised as a gas gift tho? Buying a rock is pretty clear Edit: gag gift *

[@MIKAEL212345]

​@@bradlyfan Buying a tiny plot of land to make you a lord is pretty clear too. Obviously not pet rock clear, but definitely in the same ball park

[@bradlyfan]

@@MIKAEL212345 you legally can’t buy a tiny plot of land in accordance to Scottish law tho … Scottie talked about that in his video

[@CoadyShay]

I bought my father a "World's Greatest Dad" award as a kid. Are you telling me he's not officially the world's greatest dad?

[@dragoneater2596]

this is just a response from an emotional standpoint and that was your own prerogative. This here however is misleading marketing.

[@lawcane]

A couple years ago a friend of mine sent me an ad he saw on a title site and it took a few minutes to see it was bogus and that the Lord and Lady name change was literally going to the local county clerk of courts and filing paperwork to change your name from Michael Jones to Lord Michael Jones. Which then you can get on your passport and stuff. People name their kid Prince. Doesn't make it mean anything. I thought, who could be dumb enough to fall for this. But looking at those cringe reaction videos, people are really dumb.

[@More_Row]

I feel like it's fair to call it a scam if they actually don't own the land in Scotland they are selling. Derivatives of land doesn't count. And most charities are scams as well. It can be a gag but they can't completely skip over the part that would connect it to Lordship. The knife company where they pretend to be expertly crafting Japanese knives is less of a scam , but still shitty as well.

[@dave5857]

They, the company, do own the land. You, the customer of the company, don't. They just assign a square ft of said land to you. Laphroaig has been doing this for years and if you want a tiny piece of land in Scotland which you won't own, but which the owner will assign to you, I'd recommend just buying their whisky. They don't donate anything to charity, but you do get whisky and whisky is delicious. I don't think they're a scam because: A. They own the land and assign you a negligible piece of it, B. They grant you an honorary title. It's worthless, but you do get a little certificate. So yay. C. They donate money to charity. Their ads are misleading however. They are only misleading to the irredeemably stupid but that is not the point. They should and have taken steps to make it more obvious that this is a gag gift. They should and have offered refunds. That really should be the end of things.

[@jellywillreturn]

They said in their ads that you can “legally” and “officially” become a lord with the purchase of their product. That’s deceptive advertising, and you’re being willfully obtuse by suggesting otherwise.

[@parttime_me]

18:36 to 18:55 He thinks it might be shady, but thats how they makes money and donate some(!?) for planting trees so it's not a scam but a legitimate business.. (point of the whole video)

[@justmeeagainn]

Lots of people here who thought they found a way to get a seat in the House of Lords (Lairds?) are shocked and appalled to find out this isn’t going to be happening. Of course if they had any doubts, they could have easily gone to the website and just read what’s there, and then decided if they want to spend money on this or not. I mean, do you REALLY think you’ll be getting a title for $30.00, or whatever they charge? REALLY? If so, please contact me because I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you, along with a gen-u-wine Rolexx wrist watch. I look forward to hearing from you.

[@TheDigitalThreat]

Many of your posts here point this out, its just too bad you didnt look at their websites archive from the day before they were exposed, as you would see all the "novalty/gag gift" references were added POST exposure videos as they crafted a defense narrative.

[@VinylRundown]

Since my house is my castle, I can give out titles to anyone I want. I will dub thee Lord of New Calabasas for $49.99. And you will be invited to my funeral. Jolly good video, mate.

[@urakovaliaskar4731]

Gag novelty thing appeared after the video was published, before that they never said that its gag or whatever, they approved youbers to say that anybody can buy the land legally or officially, which isn’t true.

[@IndexInvestingWithCole]

This is a lie, you can use the wayback machine and see that it's said that last year, much less a week ago.

[@elav1]

@@IndexInvestingWithCole lies lol

[@cutandgo]

Supporting a crappy scam. Nonsense!

[@TimeMasterOG]

The advertisement is extremely misleading... All the advertisement doesnt show it as what is it. A NOVELTY GIFT, they make it seem real, when it aint - thus its a scam

[@anomiinielsen]

thats right :) its a a dishonest scheme the way they did it, thats why you call it a scam :D

[@uzbekistanimale]

I don't know anything about you but just know there's people in the world who do appreciate people like you who look at things in a neutral light and not in the cringey internet social justice bandwagon type of way. Not saying they are not deceptive marketers, but people like Scott are not to be trusted either, these kinds of people often end up being grifters themselves

[@Jee123123]

The marketing could definitely be done better. Even though its obvious a gag gift most youtubers do their vids as a serious pitch which if it was on UK TV would likely be in trouble for misleading information due to standards of the UK's advertising standards authority> also for the price the certificate could be a bit better quality

[@elav1]

Lol wayback machine proved that they lied but hey off to you for not catching it.

[@rockhydra9768]

Another one duped by this scammer.

[@BrookerTJustice]

You are not legally a "Lord" Established Titles had ads they ran saying "legally a Lord." Seems like they are scamming people.

[@vincentlee7359]

Lmao you deleted my comment? Fb adverts stated that you can legally get the title. Pretty much a scam dude.

[@mirkzemus9519]

At around 8:45 you admit you haven't even watched many of these ads... how can you spin this without even absorbing the content that caused the issue?

[@Mullac23]

yeah they may not have done anything legally wrong, morally wrong? yes . . .

[@mohnjayer]

Good vid. The guys that make a living off of exposing are always reaching all over the place for stuff. I got my wife one of these Established Titles things last year for Christmas and used our cat as the “lord”. At no point did I think I purchased actual land in Scotland or that my cat became a Scottish lord lol

[@bradlyfan]

This is a horrible video lol

[@dave5857]

I've seen a lot of pearl clutching about the misleading marketing and, to be fair, some of the ads do suggest that it's more than a gag gift. What I haven't seen is many people, or anyone in fact, say "I was misled". It is so self-evidently stupid that I don't think they needed to say "GAG GIFT" front and centre in their marketing. Similarly, the Onion doesn't need to label its articles as parody. Red Bull doesn't need to explain that it does not, in fact, allow you to sprout wings. I'm sure there's some tiny percentage of utter morons out there who actually thought they were going to become a bona fide lord or lady, but I'd suggest that the number of those people is so low, and their stupidity so high, that it isn't worth getting worked up about. To be clear, the marketing was potentially misleading even if only to idiots, and they deserve to be called out for that. They've updated their site to make it more obvious and offered a refund to anyone who feels misled. What more do people want from them? The rest of the scandal about them is manufactured BS. They do give money to charity. The charities appear transparent and legitimate. They do own the land and have committed to preserve it. The fact that they're based in HK seems irrelevant. A company is selling a stupid, overpriced gag gift and they had some misleading marketing. They've taken steps to address this and offered refunds to anyone who wants one. That's it. That's the entirety of the BIGGEST CON EVER IN THE HISTORY OF YOUTUNE AND POSSIBLY THE MULTIVERSE. If you were misled, go get your refund. Maybe try to find a non-cretin to manage your financial affairs, and remind you to breathe at regular intervals. Or not. Hastening evolutionary progress might not be so bad.

[@TheDigitalThreat]

First youtuber who just admits they fucked up and didnt vet their sponsor enough and would do better in the future would earn a lot of trust back with a lot of people, but all these fools are dedicated to proving just how out of touch they really are and are en mass showing their audiences their true colors. I love it.

[@Padraic54]

Did they hire you? You're a media consultant, right?

[@Jake__Boll]

I started to feel like that Scott guy couldn't be trusted when he started mentioning he saw Established Titles ads in The Qaurtering videos in a sort of way that implied he was just watching The Qaurtering for his own enjoyment, not as some sort of investigative reason lmao

[@dragoneater2596]

oh yeah not the shady company that's peddling misleading advertising.

[@names_are.uselessyt7908]

your "proof" that this isn't a scam is scrolling down to the bottom of a website. i'll presume you are aware that by law, you can not deceptively adverstise with zero disclaimers in the ad and then claim that a different source (website) has applicable disclaimers if you hunt through it.

[@SensationalShulk]

Sorry on KZbin all you're gonna get is "hurr BUT THE WEBSITE BRO" Your accurate and useful comment is sadly worth nothing here.

[@rars0n]

The root of the issue here is that Scott is a guy who has reinvented himself fairly recently and gained a lot of exposure and views by "calling out scams" which seems to be one of the latest rising trends in the commentary community on KZbin. Scott hopped on board the FTX train and got people's attention by calling out "financial" KZbinrs whose content was always rather questionable in the first place for taking FTX sponsorships. And while that's certainly a valid thing to do, Scott is guilty of a bit of hypocrisy considering that one of the things he criticized them for was associating with BlockFi, which Scott himself has done in the past (he has attempted to erase this from his past, but various people have called him out on this before with screenshots to prove it). The Established Titles thing is just Scott's latest attempt to generate controversy clicks, and a pretty lame one if you ask me. Anyone that doesn't realize this is a novelty gift is a certified idiot, especially because it specifically says so right on their website. Scott is not the only one doing this, either. Edit: Part of Scott's argument, which he has repeatedly stated including in the pinned comment on his video, is that Established Titles *themselves* do not actually plant any trees. He seems to be stuck on this as some sort of "gotcha" that exposes them as frauds because they donate money to the charity rather than actually planting trees themselves. It seems like he's just using semantics to try to support his foregone conclusion that they are a "scam."

[@ItsjustTNT123]

You kinda right but not really. The issue is that they advertised it as becoming a LEGAL or official lord/ lady. Every add or sponsorship that they have run was clearly deception into making people believe that it was legit. If you want a piece of paper that says lord on it then go and print it They're business is probably run of people who think it is legit because no one is going to pay 50$ for a piece of paper less worth than a nft If you want a tree to be planted then you can get 20X the trees for the same price I recommend you look at they're official adds and you'll see they are Basically lying to you They also had a shady knive product which was called out by shadiversity You have to much confidence in people "it's obviously a novelty item" doesn't work in the real world where people lose all they're money on a monkey jpg. Most people don't look at the FAQ, after they have seen 20 KZbinrs sponsoring it as officially becoming a lord/lady They straight up lie when saying "owning land in Scotland makes you a lord/lady" Sorry for the long message lol

[@stevenedwards9794]

Yeah Adam, I tend to greatly agree with your analysis. When I see Scott Shafer, I see someone with poor investigative skills looking for low hanging fruit. He's like the pot trying to call the kettle black. He's accusing Established Titles of being a business and just doing it for the money (!!), meanwhile he's grasping at straws, stoking a controversy over a non-issue for clicks. Then Scott just goes down a rabbit hole that leads to nowhere and bears no fruit whatsoever, diving into parent companies etc etc.

[@grant9214]

That's not the scam part. But honestly, I put this together in excel in under 20 minutes. An excel spreadsheet is not evidence. Also, one tree planted is the only company that has verified them as donators.

[@charlesk22]

Second comment to possibly help for the algorithm. I really hope this video blows up. A lie races across the world while the truth is still tying its shoelaces. And great comment about hongkong. Scott's probably mentioning it to get people's xenophobia going. And reading her message to you that established titles gave the creators that message, yet they jumped on board to cancel the company. Wow, I have alot of unsubbing to do with the creators who cancelled them.

[@JosephABernal]

It’s a scam

[@scottrc85]

It's a total scam. Use waybackmachine and will see just now changed their text on their website to basically say it was a gag gift. This youtuber is scammer trying to still promote it as real..

[@kitno6415]

bro you only talk about trees and shit ET clearly said in its website and all other youtubers that promoted this scam all of them said you BUY the land and have a TITLE such as LORD LADY ETC. can you disprove that? no you cant because its fake. even ET themselves didnt argue against that claim

[@charlesk22]

Established titles is a harmless not serious gift. I lost respect for people who jumped on board the defenestration of it. Another KZbinr, I have forgotten the name, made a defense video about it and was attacked by his fans. This mass psychosis is insane, especially when the claim is made by someone with a shady past as Scott. Great video man, never follow the crowd when you feel like they are wrong. We are entering the point where the "calling out grifters" crowd is beginning to manufacture controversy to generate clicks. In Scott's case, it was meant to hide his past that he's trying to erase for his new base.

[@selahr.]

You’re completely wrong. The product they are selling is the use of a title, which is why the name of the company and product is Established TITLES. The second and lesser part of the product is the land you own but can’t use (but supposedly can visit… as sponsors were told to tell customers their plots of land would be walkable within minutes from the sponsor’s land), thus the word ESTABLISHED. The protecting the woodlands in Scotland and planting trees (with the insinuation that it’s also in Scotland but who knows since that’s all handled by someone else who also hasn’t been fully vetted… for all we know they are connected to the same people as well) are perks that help explain/soften the exorbitant price. They didn’t update their website to claim it’s a novelty item with zero legal use until the video was posted and TheQuartering covered the issue and pulled his contract (which meant every other conservative leaning commentator was going to do the same and the company had gotten many of them on board because as a group they have a harder time finding sponsors). I’ve seen at least a dozen sponsors using the exact same script in sponsorship spots, so it’s from the company, and they all state this product has real legal standing to change your name/title. No one ever mentions gag or novelty or this being only a certificate for fun (like a coat of arms certificate is). This is a scam. No one would pay that much for something they could print for free on their computer. Anyone who cared that much about planting trees would donate directly to charities that do just that. The company has no legal right to sell tiny pieces of their land under their own local laws. With no legal deed there is no land purchase. So you’re left with they donated some of their money to fund someone else to plant some amount of trees somewhere at some time we can’t verify. Brilliant.

[@tonygray9174]

Why are you purposely misleading viewers and trying to cover up for these scammers🤔

[@scottrc85]

You sir are a scam for still trying promote this scam offer as real!

[@RedOtter100]

Hahah people gotta eat I guess!

[@lancerichards6509]

Did you think you really were gonna be a lord ....just got buy a star you will be a God if there ever life there

[@scatchef]

One of the BEST JOURNALISTS EVER!

[@bradlyfan]

I completely disagree with this video and even if you’re right why did several KZbinrs drop this company as advertisers lol ……..

[@bradlyfan]

Scott says he has no evidence …. You literally got receipts but that doesn’t disprove what he said basically he said he has no evidence lol

[@bradlyfan]

And you literally reached out to them for this stuff … why isn’t it clearly out in the open. And the marketing is insanely deceptive, not one youtuber as far as I know says it’s gag … I am watching this entire video and you don’t really disprove anything lol… the marketing was really not clear, you had to reach out to people in the company and you defend et which makes you seem bias. Scott’s video isn’t perfect but to me and based on the advertising… it seems really scammy. And making a deal dash comparison makes sense.. I don’t see how you don’t see that. And just because he mentions Hong Kong doesn’t mean anything and you implying he is going for a which hunt is kinda gross. And you harp on the donations to a tree charity. You can donate to them directly and not through et which Scott says in his video

[@bradlyfan]

Also since his video they changed their (allegedly) website lol, why would they have to??? This video got worse the more I watched.

[@bradlyfan]

Why would Scott have to reach out to them?

[@carlosg8108]

@@bradlyfan He should've reached them because he's the one accusing them of being a scam, so the burden of proof falls upon him. And speculation without concrete proof is just that... Baseless speculation at best, malicious misinformation at worst. Btw, I'm too lazy to answer to the rest of your comments.

[@IndexInvestingWithCole]

Good video. Messaged you on instagram.