A Farewell to Influence
On a quiet afternoon, I watched BBC's "Like, Follow, Trafficked” documentary once again and recognized the shadows I'd seen before. Another story of a false prophet building influence to destroy lives. Kat Torres, the wellness guru turned trafficking suspect. Belle Gibson, the cancer fraudster turned wellness empire builder. Different stories, same playbook: Build trust. Create content. Trap people. Break lives.
The pattern keeps repeating, each time more sophisticated, each time claiming more victims. In crypto, we watched the pseudo-regal "Cryptoqueen" Ruja Ignatova build OneCoin through carefully manufactured authority, disappearing with billions while her victims lost everything. We saw SBF craft his genius-in-shorts persona, playing the role of the authentic crypto wunderkind while FTX was burning. Trust transformed into trap.
Masters of Scale
Currently, over 50 million people are modern-day slaves. A population larger than most world capitals, hidden in plain sight. Two-thirds of them trapped in private labor. More than half are women and girls. And increasingly, their journey into exploitation begins with a social media connection.
Trust at scale is the perfect deception.
One carefully crafted persona can reach millions. One well-told lie can trap thousands. Celsius Network's Alex Mashinsky built his authority through YouTube AMAs and Twitter threads, playing the role of the trustworthy crypto dad while customer funds vanished. BitConnect's Carlos Matos became a viral sensation, his enthusiasm masking one of crypto's biggest Ponzi schemes.
The Trust Paradox
Google tells us to optimize for E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. But what happens when experience is manufactured, expertise is faked, authority is bought, and trustworthiness is just a well-executed performance?
The same techniques we use to build legitimate businesses - content marketing, engagement strategies, social proof - are being repurposed to groom victims.
In Southeast Asia, traffickers use WhatsApp and Telegram to coordinate forced labor movements. In the Middle East, Facebook groups facilitate bride trafficking. Each interaction is measured, optimized, A/B tested for maximum impact.
The cruel irony? These trust signals - these algorithmic attempts to surface "quality" content - often amplify the most dangerous voices. A trafficker with high engagement appears more trustworthy than a real expert warning about exploitation. A fake guru with polished content ranks higher than legitimate support resources.
The Human Cost
Behind every metric is always a human story. The 13-year-old girl dreaming of TikTok fame, groomed through carefully crafted comments and DMs, now missing. The young woman who thought she found her dream job through Instagram, now trapped in domestic servitude in the Gulf, her passport confiscated, her phone taken away. The retired teacher who lost his life savings to a crypto influencer he trusted, now unable to afford his wife's medical treatment.
On any given day, someone's daughter is being lured through promises of modeling contracts. Someone's son is being recruited for "high-paying overseas work." Someone's parent is being convinced to invest their retirement in a "sure thing" by a trusted online personality. Ironically, their stories don't make headlines like the ones of Kat Torres or Belle Gibson. They disappear into statistics, into footnotes of reports about modern slavery and digital fraud.
The Marketing Maze
Behind each trap, a playbook we helped write. Marketing gurus preach authenticity while teaching manipulation. Platform algorithms reward engagement regardless of its human cost. We've created a system where "finding your audience" can mean finding your victims, where "converting users" can mean converting hope into despair.
We talk about authenticity in marketing while optimizing deception. We celebrate growth while ignoring its human cost. We preach trust-building while providing the blueprint for its abuse. Is this what we've become? Growth hackers of human tragedy? A/B testers of exploitation?
Time to Choose
We are the architects of these systems. We created the metrics that measure influence. We built the platforms that amplify reach. That means we must also be the architects of change.
But change isn't about better algorithms or stricter regulations alone. It's about fundamentally rethinking what we value, what we measure, what we trust in digital spaces. About choosing between metrics and humanity. Between growth and conscience. Between influence and truth.
Because right now, someone is building the next perfect scam. Someone is crafting the next false story. Someone is setting the next trap using the tools we created. And we must decide: Will we continue to be the invisible hand guiding trust into trap? Or will we finally say farewell to the influence that destroys lives?
This is The Reluctant Marketer. A spiralings series on how we fight to keep story alive in a world that speaks money. About how sometimes the best way to stay true is to master what we once despised and use it for our long game. How to never forget why.
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