u/fuss7fuzz

Hey guys, let me start with my story

I worked for five years as an import-export coordinator at a small-to-medium trading company in Gangnam Seoul, last February our entire overseas team got merged into the Vietnam branch and a few of us old-timers were handed termination notices on the same day

I spent three months sending out résumés—either no replies or interviews that ended with “we’ll call you back” while my rent kept piling up

One sleepless night I scrolled YouTube and saw a guy with a luxury watch saying “Use ChatGPT to take overseas gigs make $50 a day lying down I just bought a new car”

In his bio there was a KakaoTalk open chat link I joined out of desperation

The group had over 600 members and the pinned message read “Follow instructions and you’ll hit $50 a day—it’s not a dream”

I even paid 20,000 KRW (about $15) for their so-called practical playbook

At the first day I was pumped I signed up on Fiverr Upwork and two Korean freelance platforms Kmong and Soma

I pumped out 20 product descriptions 5 short video scripts and 10 simple Instagram-style banners using AI

Lying in bed I did the math if all of them got accepted I’d make over $100 a day enough to cover half my monthly rent and maintenance fees

Reality hit hard everything was rejected

Fiverr flagged “content appears machine-generated and lacks authenticity” An Upwork client wrote back “This looks like a template” The domestic platforms were even harsher—Kmong’s reviewer commented “작성자가 직접 쓴 것 같지 않아요” (doesn’t seem like the writer wrote it themselves) and returned my work

I didn't gave up I spent nights digging through Reddit for prompt tricks learning to add “casual tone” and “local nuances” so the AI could mimic the way young Koreans actually write

By the second week I finally landed my first order—three product descriptions for pet collars from a small U.S. seller The fee? $1 After platform fees I got $0.80

I calculated my hourly rate—roughly $0.15 not even enough to buy a triangle kimbap at the convenience store

But people in the group kept posting screenshots of $60 days

I DM’d one “guru” and he replied “Your account is too new low trust Open three more accounts with family phone numbers—one account does two orders a day four accounts make eight orders that’s $40 easy”

So I used my mom’s and brother’s numbers to register three more accounts mass-produced content with AI and went after the lowest-barrier gigs like crazy

Within a week all five accounts were banned The reason “bulk registration highly duplicated content violation of terms”

The “guru” shrugged on KakaoTalk “Normal I've been banned dozens of times just start fresh”

When I asked if he wasn’t afraid of a permanent ban he shot back “Why worry? AI writes ten pieces a minute—if ten get banned I still have a hundred”

That moment staring at my phone I felt a chill down my spine

I took two days off and read that “playbook” from cover to cover Eighty percent of it was about buying aged accounts using fingerprint browsers to spoof devices and exploiting newbie traffic subsidies—not a single page on how to actually write decent copy

The so-called “secrets” were all about gaming the system churning out digital garbage that nobody even reads

What woke me up even more was checking that “$60-a-day” guy’s Upwork profile—zero positive reviews two negative ones a copy-pasted bio and a default avatar

His real income didn’t come from gigs it came from recruiting people into the group and selling his “anti-ban handbook”

I finally admitted AI does boost efficiency but only if you already have the basic skills

People who can write get faster with AI people who can design get more efficient people who can translate get more accurate

But me? I knew nothing about copywriting couldn’t even tell the politeness levels in Korean marketing lingo and had zero design sense

Why did I think a language model could magically give me a living?

Now I’ve deleted all those “playbooks” I signed up for a free writing class run by the Seoul city government—every Tuesday night in Jongno offline

I still keep AI around but only for looking up words organising notes and fixing basic typos

I still take orders but now it’s maybe $20-30 a month—and every piece starts with me handwriting a draft in a notebook then using AI to polish it then editing it three more times before I submit

Yesterday I saw another ad “AI ghostwrites study-abroad essays $200 a day”

Below it the same old comments—“already made $500” “thanks master”

I didn’t like or reply

I just remembered that group notice “Follow instructions and you’ll hit $50 a day”

I followed for 37 days Total earnings $6.40 Five accounts banned

If I’d spent that time delivering food on Baemin even just late-night shifts I’d have made at least $500

AI isn’t the problem? The problem was me—thinking I could skip all the hard work and just pick the fruit

I’m not writing this to scare anyone off

I just want to tell those who are as anxious broke and endlessly scrolling through “AI side hustle” posts as I was if you have zero basic knowledge about a field AI won’t save you

It can amplify what you already have but it can’t create ability out of thin air

That’s a hard truth? but I really wish someone had grabbed my shoulders looked me in the eyes and told me that 37 days earlier

— A fool who paid $15 for a lesson sitting in Seoul and it’s raining again today

Hey guys, let me start with my story

I worked for five years as an import-export coordinator at a small-to-medium trading company in Gangnam Seoul, last February our entire overseas team got merged into the Vietnam branch and a few of us old-timers were handed termination notices on the same day

I spent three months sending out résumés—either no replies or interviews that ended with “we’ll call you back” while my rent kept piling up

One sleepless night I scrolled YouTube and saw a guy with a luxury watch saying “Use ChatGPT to take overseas gigs make $50 a day lying down I just bought a new car”

In his bio there was a KakaoTalk open chat link I joined out of desperation

The group had over 600 members and the pinned message read “Follow instructions and you’ll hit $50 a day—it’s not a dream”

I even paid 20,000 KRW (about $15) for their so-called practical playbook

At the first day I was pumped I signed up on Fiverr Upwork and two Korean freelance platforms Kmong and Soma

I pumped out 20 product descriptions 5 short video scripts and 10 simple Instagram-style banners using AI

Lying in bed I did the math if all of them got accepted I’d make over $100 a day enough to cover half my monthly rent and maintenance fees

Reality hit hard everything was rejected

Fiverr flagged “content appears machine-generated and lacks authenticity” An Upwork client wrote back “This looks like a template” The domestic platforms were even harsher—Kmong’s reviewer commented “작성자가 직접 쓴 것 같지 않아요” (doesn’t seem like the writer wrote it themselves) and returned my work

I didn't gave up I spent nights digging through Reddit for prompt tricks learning to add “casual tone” and “local nuances” so the AI could mimic the way young Koreans actually write

By the second week I finally landed my first order—three product descriptions for pet collars from a small U.S. seller The fee? $1 After platform fees I got $0.80

I calculated my hourly rate—roughly $0.15 not even enough to buy a triangle kimbap at the convenience store

But people in the group kept posting screenshots of $60 days

I DM’d one “guru” and he replied “Your account is too new low trust Open three more accounts with family phone numbers—one account does two orders a day four accounts make eight orders that’s $40 easy”

So I used my mom’s and brother’s numbers to register three more accounts mass-produced content with AI and went after the lowest-barrier gigs like crazy

Within a week all five accounts were banned The reason “bulk registration highly duplicated content violation of terms”

The “guru” shrugged on KakaoTalk “Normal I've been banned dozens of times just start fresh”

When I asked if he wasn’t afraid of a permanent ban he shot back “Why worry? AI writes ten pieces a minute—if ten get banned I still have a hundred”

That moment staring at my phone I felt a chill down my spine

I took two days off and read that “playbook” from cover to cover Eighty percent of it was about buying aged accounts using fingerprint browsers to spoof devices and exploiting newbie traffic subsidies—not a single page on how to actually write decent copy

The so-called “secrets” were all about gaming the system churning out digital garbage that nobody even reads

What woke me up even more was checking that “$60-a-day” guy’s Upwork profile—zero positive reviews two negative ones a copy-pasted bio and a default avatar

His real income didn’t come from gigs it came from recruiting people into the group and selling his “anti-ban handbook”

I finally admitted AI does boost efficiency but only if you already have the basic skills

People who can write get faster with AI people who can design get more efficient people who can translate get more accurate

But me? I knew nothing about copywriting couldn’t even tell the politeness levels in Korean marketing lingo and had zero design sense

Why did I think a language model could magically give me a living?

Now I’ve deleted all those “playbooks” I signed up for a free writing class run by the Seoul city government—every Tuesday night in Jongno offline

I still keep AI around but only for looking up words organising notes and fixing basic typos

I still take orders but now it’s maybe $20-30 a month—and every piece starts with me handwriting a draft in a notebook then using AI to polish it then editing it three more times before I submit

Yesterday I saw another ad “AI ghostwrites study-abroad essays $200 a day”

Below it the same old comments—“already made $500” “thanks master”

I didn’t like or reply

I just remembered that group notice “Follow instructions and you’ll hit $50 a day”

I followed for 37 days Total earnings $6.40 Five accounts banned

If I’d spent that time delivering food on Baemin even just late-night shifts I’d have made at least $500

AI isn’t the problem? The problem was me—thinking I could skip all the hard work and just pick the fruit

I’m not writing this to scare anyone off

I just want to tell those who are as anxious broke and endlessly scrolling through “AI side hustle” posts as I was if you have zero basic knowledge about a field AI won’t save you

It can amplify what you already have but it can’t create ability out of thin air

That’s a hard truth? but I really wish someone had grabbed my shoulders looked me in the eyes and told me that 37 days earlier

— A fool who paid $15 for a lesson sitting in Seoul and it’s raining again today