A Lead-gen Hustle Disguised as AI Enlightenment

I've noticed a ton of posts in my LinkedIn feed over the last year that all follow the same suspiciously polished formula:

• They start with a claim that sounds like it came from a late-night infomercial ad: "We made $62,000 from one ChatGPT-generated ad in its first day running by using an amazing ChatGPT prompt format”.
• They layer on fake exclusivity: "Only 1% of people know how to do this correctly…"
• They shame the reader: "Most marketers are wasting ChatGPT’s potential."
• They flash vague results with zero proof: "We shared it with another one of our clients who used this prompt and got 11,321 orders in 48 hours."
• They end with a call to comment something like “write “PROMPTS” in the comments” to get access to a so-called freebie. That’s low effort bait.
  

I remember growing up the late-night infomercials that used to run late at night. They consist of music clubs like Time Life music collections, miracle skin creams that supposedly turned a tired 50-year-old face into that of a fresh 20-year-old, the copper infused socks or back therapy patches or my personal favorites: Vince the ShamWow guy and Billy Mays yelling about new gel insoles that were so supportive, he’d stick his hand between two of them and let a pickup truck run over his hand. That was infotainment gold!

But here's the difference: Billy Mays let me see the damn product work. He put that gel in a shoe and said it worked, and then ran it over his hand with a truck to prove it worked. These LinkedIn posts? They’re building a product - it consists of those who type “PROMPTS” in the posts comment section. They don’t even give you a grainy before-and-after photo of the campaign that worked. Just a lot of digital smoke and motivational fog and so many people fall for it. The last one I saw had 1,000's of responses - including a couple people in my own network - which is why I see them.

Let’s call this what it is: a lead-gen hustle disguised as AI enlightenment.

Earlier in my career, I conceived of a landing page process for a direct response product in a super and hyper-competitive market. Lots of players, all copying one another. This was a fresh idea. It didn’t just convert a boatload of new leads to customers, it helped transform a 1-in-7 call-to-order ratio into 1-in-3. And nearly half of those who called ended up adding an upsell to their first order.

The success of the ask-one- free question campaign wasn’t the work of one person, me. It was a team effort. Data analysts who figured out which SEM channels to push it through, the creatives who build the display ads, and the SEM copy for the networks we advertised on, the data analysts who helped us optimize our ROI, the call center managers who helped guide new leads, and the product and technology teams who built it for us - we all worked together to test, learn, and iterate. I may have had the idea, and led the charge, but I would have failed without all those who supported the effort.

Yes, it worked so well that competitors copied it. And you know what? This ChatGPT bait-post template is being copied for the same reason: it generates leads.

But here’s the catch with these posts: You’re the product.

These are direct response campaigns designed to:

1. Capture your contact info and add you to a drip funnel.
2. Train engagement metrics to game LinkedIn’s algorithm.
3. Build up fake authority, so they can sell you a course later (I validated this with one).
4. Boost their Linkedin Social Selling Index Score to improve their organic visibility and future campaign success (the ones that are valuable to them).
5. Use your comment as social proof to rope in others (from your network).
6. In some cases, compile data to sell to third parties.

And once they have your info? Don’t be surprised if you’re suddenly getting unsolicited connection requests, pitches, webinar invites, or worse, your identity being reshaped into some persona in their next "$82K in 3 days" success story.

Let’s also stop pretending that AI prompts alone are what win the game. They’re not. A great prompt is useful, and they can accelerate delivery, but it’s not magic. It doesn’t replace market strategy, product insight, or years of hard-won creative intuition, unless you're ok with hallucinations..

To be blunt: If ChatGPT made someone $27K overnight, it probably wasn’t the prompt - it was some combination of the product, timing, platform, campaign, audience and likely the available budget too.

So, my advice?

Don’t comment. Don’t download. Don’t engage.

These posts will die off eventually, like every other grift that wears out its welcome. They survive on attention.

If you really want high-performing AI prompts, here’s what to do instead: build them yourself. Understand your customers, test relentlessly, and keep your data in your own hands.

Because your chances of getting anything genuinely valuable from these prompt-peddlers? About the same as winning Mega Millions.

And at least with Mega Millions, you get a shiny ticket and a dream.

Stay sharp. Stay skeptical. Stay inquisitive. And if Billy Mays comes back from the dead to sell me something, I’ll at least ask for a demo.

Now how about you? What's the most outlandish AI marketing claim you've seen on LinkedIn recently? Share it in the comments (without tagging the creator).

This is from my Pandora’s Bot Newsletter where I cover AI and it's impacts and unintended concequences in various industries, and society. Subscribe for more sharp takes, overlooked truths, and the kind of marketing and AI insights that lay the groundwork for exceptional growth.If a friend or colleague needs less hype, more signal, and a nudge toward understanding how AI is reshaping everything, send them to thepandorasbot.com.