Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, Con Artists and Influencers Are Taking Over the Internet and Why We're Following

(Paperback)

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From Vice journalist and executive producer of hit Netflix documentaryFyrecomes an eye-opening look at the con artists, grifters and snake oil salesmen of the digital ageand why we cant stop falling for them.

"Scams are hot right now, and Bluestone covers the hottest here." Booklist
We live in an age where scams are the new normal. A charismatic entrepreneur sells thousands of tickets to a festival that never happened. Respected investors pour millions into a start-up centered around fake blood tests. Reviewers and celebrities flock to Londons top-rated restaurant thats little more than a backyard shed. These unsettling stories of todays viral grifters have risen to fame and hit the front-page headlines, yet the curious conundrum remains:Why do these scams happen

Drawing from scientific research, marketing campaigns, and exclusive documents and interviews, Vice reporter Gabrielle Bluestone delves into the irresistible hype that fuels our social media ecosystem, whether its from the trusted influencers that peddled Fyre or the consumer reviews that sold Juicero. A cultural examination that is as revelatory as it is relevant,Hypepulls back the curtain on the manipulation game behind the never-ending scam seasonand how we as consumers can stop getting played.

Juicy, sharp, savage and wildly entertaining Cat Marnell, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Murder Your Life

Reviews

A deep dive into the depressing world of grifters, bullsh*t artists, plagiarists and long con experts turbocharged by the Internetand what, if anything, separates those scammers from some of our most respected captains of industry. Fyre Festival, Bluestone makes clear, may have been a low-water mark so far in the history of empty hypebut the tide, as ever, just keeps rolling out. Anna Merlan, author ofRepublic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power

"Hypeis the best kind of nonfiction: juicy, sharp, savage and wildly entertaining, with a celebrity behaving badly on every page. What more could you want Cat Marnell,New York Times-bestselling author ofHow to Murder Your Life

Gabrielle Bluestone is one of the most gifted chroniclers of American culture working today because she is one of the coolest people alive. InHype,shedelivers the story of what the f*ck is wrong with us as only she can: with detailed reporting that skewers the subjects who deserve it and without an ounce of sanctimony while taking us for a ride so fun that, by the end, it takes you a second to realize thatHypemay have indicted you, too (she is a lawyer, after all). We may not deserve this book, but we do need it.Hypeis the most fun, most outrageous, and most of all most true book of the year. Olivia Nuzzi, author and Washington correspondent,New Yorkmagazine

"Scams are hot right now, and Bluestone covers the hottest here."Booklist

Author Bio

Gabrielle Bluestone is a journalist and licensed attorney from New York whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Observer, Sunday Times Magazine, Esquire, InStyle and Gawker. She is the Emmy-nominated producer of Netflix's Fyre and the associate producer of Different Flowers, winner of the 2017 Kansas City FilmFest Festival Prize.