WEBVTT

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It's a classic hustle as old as time itself. The scammer stakes out a parking

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lot, often at an electronics retailer, and then waits for their victim. In this

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case, an LTT viewer from Florida. Next

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comes the story. The details vary, but the structure is usually pretty similar.

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Hey, we kind of overspe for this super rich client guy, and we bought too many

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speakers, and now our boss is saying uh to just get rid of them cuz it'd be too

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expensive to keep them around. But I was thinking uh I could give them to you for a pretty good price.

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They're legit. >> The victim is suspicious, but I mean,

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they look all right. And who doesn't want a great deal? There's just one

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small problem. They sound like ass. But

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our victim did all of his basic due diligence. So, how did this happen? To

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find out, we offered to help a brother out by buying the speakers off of him at

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the price that we paid so we can blow the freaking lid off of this thing.

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Because as it turns out, this classic scam has learned a lot of new tricks

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that could bamboozle even a fairly savvy shopper. We're going to show you exactly

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how it works, show you how to avoid it, and we're going to dive into the

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surprisingly organized network of shady retailers and manufacturers who enable

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these fraudsters. That is, assuming that I haven't been scammed myself by Dr.

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A-Rod here. I don't know for sure that there are even speakers in here. I mean,

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it could be packed with anything. could be packed with something nobody wants,

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like this segue to our sponsor. >> Modern science bestowed upon humanity

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great gifts they do not fully understand. A sofa that bends space and

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time, can separate and recombine in virtually infinite physical forms. A

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sofa that makes us question everything

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we thought we knew.

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from 5 six feet away. Not going to lie, this is pretty darn convincing looking.

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I mean, even the branding. If you told me that Elleian Audio was a thing, I'd

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be like, "Okay." With that said, it's not that hard to make up a fancy

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sounding brand. For example, Kalis

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Cibir, Est, those sound like luxury brands, but as it turns out, they're

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just French Canadian curse words. The real trick that these guys pull though

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is repurposing real names from reputable

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brands that are in a similar product category. Elian is a particularly tricky

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one because it is the name of a well- reggarded line of speakers from real

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manufacturer Warfdale. It just isn't

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these. What this allows our scam speakers to do is sit alongside

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reputable speakers in Google searches without our scammers having to create a

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super convincing knockoff of an exact product. We'll talk more about the

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online strategy later, though. For now, let's take a closer look at what we

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bought and see if we can catch any hints on the packaging itself. Well, here's

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one that stands out to me. You can't have Adam a single speaker system that

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can do 9.1, 7.2, 2 and 5.1 sound.

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>> Yeah, it's crazy. 7.2 is kind of a crazy one. You can down mix, but also it's six

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pieces. So, that's one, two, three. That's five. That's 5.1.

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>> But the but that has 10 pieces on the box.

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>> I think these are like these are single speakers and they turn. But I still

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don't think that that makes it 7.1. >> But that also definitely doesn't make it

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5.1. >> Yeah. I I don't really know. Oh, I'm thinking that maybe how they market

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sound bars these days or letting them get away with it cuz you buy a sound bar

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and it says like 11.1.1 or whatever. >> Personally, I prefer audio return

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channel to giant wooden boat full of animals. And you know what else seems

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legit is it's industrial grade certified for outdoor use.

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>> Yeah, you can even wireless connect. >> And there's more stuff like that. Active

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voice amp singles out dialogue. That sounds legit. High-res audio signal.

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Wait, via internet. Okay, sorry. That

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was a what? Whether the details are on purpose or not, I feel like the giant

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blocks of text are a huge part of the strategy because who's going to read all

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of that? >> Yeah. >> Right. And even, and this is such a

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shallow thing, even something as simple as having foil on the packaging makes it

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look more premium. >> It is interesting what details they do

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get correct. Like, I was not going to expect that they'd have their own custom

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straps. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> That makes it seem more legit.

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>> And tape. The tape even says Alleian on it. >> It's reassuring.

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>> These make it think it makes it look heavy. >> Oh yeah. Is it heavy? Uh I mean it's got

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a bit of weight to it. >> I I guess >> for six or nine or 11 drivers though.

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>> And like look at how they've scaled the subwoofer in this picture on the front.

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To me, it doesn't look like there would be enough space for five other speakers

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and the subwoofer in here. >> Right. That subwoofer is not very big,

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is it? >> No, I don't think any of this is very big at all. They even have disclaimers

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on the box. Like, why would a scammer who's trying to convince you that it's

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the best thing ever have to have a disclaimer about, you know, the images and model number being subject to

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change? Oh, this is a really important part of the scam, though. MSRP $3,000.

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While printed pricing on the box is common for some products, for speakers,

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it's highly unusual. Even more so for high-end audio where the speakers are

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typically sold through approved dealer networks with a if you have to ask you

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can't afford it approach to pricing. >> Sorry, did you see this

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wall mountable stethoscope symbol?

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>> Okay, we could probably do this all day. So then what do these guys say when you

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go, "Well, I've never heard of a lease in audio." Or you point out some of the

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weirdness on the box. >> Well, they have an answer for all of that. They might say something like,

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"Oh, yeah. They're a boutique brand from overseas, huge in Italy. And you know,

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these are sold by high-end audio installers, so the packaging isn't

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really meant for retail, so they don't they don't pay too much attention to it."

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>> And when you ask, well, how can you be selling it so cheap? If it's so boutique

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and so high-end, you'll usually get some kind of variant of,

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>> well, you got to understand, they mark these things up like crazy because all the rich people are buying them. We buy

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them wholesale. These aren't even close to $3,000. Is that more like maybe a

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grand? >> So, you're not even losing that much selling it to me then? >> No, I'm practically talking myself into

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it. And that really is the most devious

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kind of lie. The kind that is built on a kernel of truth. High-end audio does

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have obscene markups. And it does rely on a network of approved dealers and

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installers who do deal in brands that the typical consumer has never heard of.

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And the scammers will go to sometimes great lengths to match the image of a

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legitimate installer. They'll rent a nicel looking van. And they'll wear polo

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shirts with matching company logos. And they'll even obtain real business

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licenses and phone numbers, >> which they'll be happy to show you since

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they aren't going to exist in a week. >> So, okay, you're still a little

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suspicious. So, you decide to scan the QR code on the box and check out the

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manufacturer because some guy in a parking lot could lie to you, but the

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manufacturer couldn't. They've never done that. And that is where this

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classic ruse glows up for the 21st century. That looks pretty legit,

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honestly. Here's the one that they're offering me, the Smart Series Model 2.

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The satellite speakers have a 12-in subwoofer.

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>> Yeah, that's wrong. They also are QLED.

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>> Yeah, >> for those of you who don't know, is uh display technology, not anything to do

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with your sound. >> But here's some reviews. The best

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product I've bought since buying my first CD player as a teen. I mean, that

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sounds reasonably credible. >> The problem I have with this product is my husband not wanting to leave the

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house. That's a very good hook. >> Quotes that sound too good are a classic

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tell for fake reviews. That's why on LTT Store, we leave people's unedited

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reviews up on the site. Like for the RGB t-shirt that I'm wearing that's rated

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4.62 out of five. I don't like the RGB shirts because of the rough itchy feel

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against my skin. See, not everyone loves them. Oh, this is smart. Where to

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buy/store locator? Shut up. It's just a link to Best Buy.

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And the Allesian Model 2s that we covered today are just one example of

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this. These same units can be found under other names like MRX, Valencia

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VX300 home theater, or Synchrony B600.

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All of which were stolen from legitimate home theater companies. MRX is a line

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from Anthem. Synchrony is a line by PSB

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and Valencia is the brand of seating that I use in my theater room at home.

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And making this whole web of lies more confusing is the entire network of fake

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review websites that you will often find linked from these manufacturers. And

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while Alleian doesn't specifically link to those, when you Google search Alleian

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audio home theater review, the featured snippet is from one of those scam review

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sites. >> We review electronics.com 10 out of 10.

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And to make things worse, the Gemini summary underneath gives information

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that is correct if you are looking for Warfdale allegian speakers, but just

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serves to add to the legitimacy of the snippet. >> Unfortunately, thanks to the power of

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AI, >> I'm a CEO in a porcelain spa. Yes,

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that's me. >> Building sites and writing convincing enough reviews has become both cheap and

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super easy. In just the couple of weeks that we've been working on this video,

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we've seen several of these networks of sites pop up and disappear or switch

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over to new product categories. And you're not going to have the kind of time that we have to go through all of

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this before you get a chance to ask too many questions. They're going to start

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putting FOMO pressure on you. Hey, look, uh, security, they're going to kick us

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out here, you know, and I got to get back to work. My next client, he's a dog

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podiatrist, and if he can't clip the nails without the background music, and

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you don't want the dogs to suffer, do you? >> No. So, uh, do you want them or not? So,

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you go to the nearest ATM, which they conveniently have perfect directions

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for, and you buy them. I mean, hey, even if they're not actually topof the line,

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they're brand new. They can't be that bad, right? Right. They even got like a

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piece Oh, I thought that was printing on the styrofoam. >> Even the documentation, it comes in a

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little bag. Are you not supposed to figure out it's a scam until you

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actually plug them in? Like even the packaging itself is pretty convincing,

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Adam. >> Yeah. I mean, the longer they have before you realize that you screwed them

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over, the further away they can get, right? >> Oh, boy.

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>> They're so small. >> Also, didn't they say wireless satellite

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speakers? >> Yes. >> Oh, no. That was wireless satellite speaker subwoofer, right?

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>> Can I open this or do you want to leave it mint for resale? >> Shut up.

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>> I'm impressed they have removable grills, though. >> I'm surprised they didn't keep them on.

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Look at all the glue. >> Wow. That's how they seal in the

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goodness. This is the single cheapest feeling HDMI

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cable that I have ever encountered. Does that even seem like it has enough girth

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for all the conductors? >> HDMI 0.5.

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Okay. Well, let's get the center channel. What happened in here? Look, it's all

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scratched up. Oh, wow. You can just see straight into it. Look, you can you can

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see wires in the back. Also, this is the worst wall mounting mechanism I think

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I've ever seen. You have to fix the location of the speaker from the back,

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then screw it into the wall. No more adjustment for you. I wonder if everyone

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is in on it. Like, do you think the manufacturer of these knows that they're

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a scam? >> They must be. There's no reason to make

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this junk unless you're trying to rip people off, right? Well, I mean, if they

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sold it at the actual price of it, then it's not really a ripoff. I mean,

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>> wo, the subwoofer is actually a pretty decent size.

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>> Is that actually all of the speakers? All of the speakers fit into like the

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top third. >> That answers the mystery of whether it's 5.1 or 7.2 or 9.1.

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>> At this point, I'm thinking it's stereo. Like, like,

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>> it really does raise the question, though. If they know it's a scam, why

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bother making them work at all? Like, do you think they're just not going to

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work? Like, they clearly have drivers in them. They clearly have wiring in them.

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>> I mean, I guess maybe it's like you can keep scamming down the chain. Also, some

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people just don't know better. Some people might have their crap TV and

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that's all the audio that they knew and then they decided to splurge or get a Christmas gift and this works, right? It

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starts playing and maybe it is just louder. Are we 100% sure it's not a

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computer?

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>> Dude, you got a Dell. There's peels on the stickers, but the stickers

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themselves are just paper stickers. What a weird attention to detail.

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>> Yeah, right. >> I guess the sticker approach to branding

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makes it pretty easy for them to have all those different names for it. Oh,

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wow.

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Buddy, this is going to suck. >> That's um That's not 12 in.

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>> I told my wife that's 12 in. >> Yeah, she didn't believe you either.

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>> I mean, this is 12 in. It's Yeah, I was going to say this is like something, but

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what a scam to put the speaker cover, make it way bigger than the driver.

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Let's plug it in. Wait, where's the amp?

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It isn't a home theater in a box.

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There's no amp. We got a AV receiver. >> Well, how can it be Bluetooth? Anything?

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>> Is there any cables? There's no cables, dude. It's way more than even

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we thought. >> I should have opened this. How can you have 2600 watts when you

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don't have an amp at all? >> There's no 5.8G wireless.

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>> I knew I was getting scammed and I still

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feel ripped off. >> Well, I guess we need an AV receiver and

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a bunch of speaker wire. >> BRB.

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>> What are the odds that you think that this one won't even turn on? That it's

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only going to power the top. >> I think it'll power both of them.

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>> Want a bit? No,

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>> we might be the first people who have bought these and actually bothered to set them all the way up. You know,

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>> is this big fat speaker wire even going to fit in the back of these?

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>> No. We got too high of a gauge. Got a feeling when you don't buy cheap enough

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stuff. >> Okay. Theoretically, we have arc. So,

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okay, that's progress. Sub didn't make any noise. We'll get to

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that later. >> Andrew, what are you doing? You know, you're struggling with the whole how to

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clamp it in place thing. So, >> this is how we're mounting the speaker.

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>> Adam, you were right. The top is a

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speaker and the bottom is not.

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>> That's pathetic. I popped out the speaker,

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quote unquote speaker. It's just a metal plate and you can see the back of the

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driver in there. Again, why bother? Just glue in the speaker grill.

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>> Yeah, just put a cosmetic grill on it and don't even bother with the paper

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cone. I've encountered this kind of thing before where it's like, remember

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those fake GPUs? >> Yeah. >> Where they put a bunch of work into

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designing a cooler and a shroud and doing injection molding and why bother?

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Why not just ship a piece of paper? >> I mean, if somebody knows, please let us

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know in the comments. Or maybe we're just helping them do their scam better.

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They have mounting points for if you want to do a metal plate.

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>> They do, too. >> These ones are just stickers, though.

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>> They are. Credit where credit's due. They cheaped out there and that was pretty smart. Why would you angle the

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whole speaker? We can just do this >> because they're surrounds. They go on the side of Okay, here we go. Uh oh. Is

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this Is this right side up? No, it's upside down. >> Okay. I mean, who can tell anyway,

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right? >> They're so small. >> I know. They look like little lab tech

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desktop computer speakers from the '9s.

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>> You right there.

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See, now I unboxed these an hour ago, so I knew better than to have high

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expectations. But somehow all the work that I had put into getting it working

00:15:54.560 --> 00:15:58.639
made me feel like, yeah, it should be. >> We like earned a payoff.

00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:04.040
>> Yeah, >> this part sounds okay. >> Does it?

00:16:12.160 --> 00:16:17.920
Oh my god. Okay, hold on. Hold on. Hold

00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:23.199
on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay, here's the TV speakers for context.

00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:26.959
>> They're better. They're deeper. >> Yeah,

00:16:25.199 --> 00:16:31.360
>> by like a country mile. >> Admittedly, this is a pretty nice TV.

00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:37.680
Okay, it's a high sense canvas. >> High-end TV. >> Pretty decent TV, but still,

00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:40.079
>> there are like $99 sound bars on the market

00:16:38.560 --> 00:16:42.880
>> from legitimate brands that sound better >> that include an amplifier and actually

00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:47.040
have Bluetooth. >> Yeah, it's insulting. It's bad. I really

00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:50.880
want to hear this subwoofer. We got to get this operational.

00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:55.040
>> The subwoofer is a preo. It expects an amplified subwoofer, obviously. Yeah.

00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:58.480
>> Where the hell are we going to find an amp for that right now?

00:16:57.040 --> 00:17:02.320
>> Uh, we have an SVS. >> Well, no. No. I want to use this sub >> amp that we can sh No. Amp that we can

00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:07.280
shove in the middle. >> Oh my god. Oh, this is so stupid.

00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:08.640
>> Reese, you might have to go look for it. Might be. You're going to be on a

00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:14.880
hunt. >> You know what? I think it'd be faster to just plug one of these in. Let's find

00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:19.959
out if the subwoofer actually even works before we put a bunch more work into

00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.959
trying to amplify it.

00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:26.640
Okay, it works.

00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:31.760
It does sound bad. >> Yeah, but it's so much better than I

00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:34.160
expected. It's just a volume game, right? Like this is like what, a 5 in

00:17:33.280 --> 00:17:41.320
driver? Maybe >> four. Maybe five. This >> is a big four.

00:17:37.120 --> 00:17:41.320
>> That's what I tell my wife I have.

00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:47.440
We got all the speakers working and now I brought a couple of friends here to

00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:52.080
enjoy them. But first, we're going to set ourselves a baseline. We're going to

00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:54.160
listen to the the High Sense Canvas TV. >> Is this known for having a good TV

00:17:53.360 --> 00:17:58.559
speaker? >> No. >> Fantastic. >> I just But you know, but like you're thinking you're buying the home theater.

00:17:57.520 --> 00:18:02.400
You got to hear what you're upgrading from, right? >> You're right. You know what? For TV

00:18:01.280 --> 00:18:07.360
speakers, that's not bad. >> It's not bad. >> No bass.

00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:10.240
>> Yeah, but it's a TV speaker. Yeah, it's a little bit bright, but not bad. Yeah,

00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:13.520
it would be fine for dialogue. Like for people that are just watching TV shows and need to hear what people say, it's

00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:18.640
fine. >> Okay, >> totally fine. >> Now, we're going to pull up the uh

00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:21.520
Alleian Model 2s. Okay. >> Funny thing is that so we couldn't get

00:18:20.080 --> 00:18:26.400
the subwoofer running cuz it's supposed to be a pass it's a passive subwoofer,

00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:31.120
>> which doesn't really exist nowadays. Everything all your So, we had to um

00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:35.840
what we did is that we got uh we pulled out of another subwoofer,

00:18:34.080 --> 00:18:40.130
the amp. That was the only way we could get it powered cuz we couldn't find an

00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:41.520
AV receiver that had a passive.

00:18:41.520 --> 00:18:47.919
>> Okay. >> That is so unbalanced.

00:18:46.080 --> 00:18:50.559
>> Believe it or not, these speakers these speakers here aren't very big.

00:18:49.760 --> 00:18:54.960
>> You don't see. >> And so there's kind of a big dip in the mids.

00:18:53.280 --> 00:18:59.360
>> Yeah. It's weird that they look so much like the Bose Acoustamac speakers. I

00:18:57.120 --> 00:19:02.160
bought a pair a used pair in like 2008. That makes sense cuz a lot of what

00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:07.200
they're trying to do is associate themselves with as many ideas of like

00:19:05.760 --> 00:19:12.080
goodness as possible. >> How much did he pay for this? >> He paid $500.

00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:14.640
>> Even that price is ridiculously busted. So >> now hang on. Did we pay him that much to

00:19:14.080 --> 00:19:19.360
get them? >> We paid the guy back. >> So we got scammed is what you're saying.

00:19:17.679 --> 00:19:22.480
>> So please go buy merchandise. >> We took the scam and we said pass it. We

00:19:21.120 --> 00:19:26.720
said double it and pass it to the next guy. >> We're going to sell it for 1,000 bucks.

00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:30.320
For 500 bucks, you can get like a pretty okay home theater in a box from Best

00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:34.480
Buy. Yeah. Yeah. You can get like a a decent sound barent sound.

00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:38.880
>> It's not the best value in the whole world, but it's infinitely better than

00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:44.160
this. Don't buy speakers from a guy in a parking lot >> on Alibaba. When you search 5.1 home

00:19:42.080 --> 00:19:49.440
theater, a system much like the one that we purchased will show up in the first

00:19:45.679 --> 00:19:51.120
two rows of results. $128 a set. And

00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:55.679
here's the really crazy thing. If you order enough of them, the deal only gets

00:19:53.440 --> 00:20:00.960
better. For the shockingly low price of $56,500,

00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:05.039
you can get 500 home theater setups complete with a custom fake logo and box

00:20:03.679 --> 00:20:08.880
design. And that might be a lot for a single scammer, but if you're a shady

00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:12.559
supplier, you order in bulk and then sell them off a pallet at a time to your

00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:17.120
scummy friends for maybe a couple hundred bucks a pop to cover your storage and shipping costs. And then

00:20:15.600 --> 00:20:23.520
everyone else, well, they just have to sell them for more than $200, which when

00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:25.760
you're talking about a luxury 5.1 home

00:20:23.520 --> 00:20:30.799
theater system, that's probably not that hard to do. And by probably, I mean

00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:35.840
definitely, I mean it obviously works because when you dig into it, you find

00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:38.240
these scams everywhere, both in person

00:20:35.840 --> 00:20:42.400
and on online marketplaces like Facebook and eBay. And it's not just speakers.

00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:45.360
It's across a variety of product categories, notably projectors and sound

00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:52.640
bars. >> Bottom line is if you've been scammed, I know it can be really embarrassing. He

00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:55.919
knows it can be embarrassing, but please

00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:57.520
report it. 70% of victims never report

00:20:55.919 --> 00:21:00.000
the scams that they're victims of. And if you don't report it, well, that just

00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:06.480
lets them win. >> Honestly, even when you do report the scams, only 4% of victims are estimated

00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:10.559
to recover their losses. But by talking about it, we can at least help prevent

00:21:08.080 --> 00:21:14.400
future losses. So send this video to your family members. Have open, honest

00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:19.200
conversations about security. It's important. It's so important that I

00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:23.280
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If you guys enjoyed this video, why don't you check out the one where we

00:22:45.919 --> 00:22:52.480
looked at audio file snake oil with Dan and our friend Dankpods. I got ripped

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off that time, too. That was really funny because I got to choose all the

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pieces,