Established Titles is a scam

If you’ve been watching anyone on YouTube over the last year or so you’re likely to have encountered a new sponsor for many a YouTuber in the shape of Established Titles. What they offer is this:

Lordship & Ladyship Title Packs

Purchase a personal Lordship or Ladyship Title Pack with dedicated land in Scotland.*

Our Title Packs are based on a historic Scottish land ownership custom, where landowners have been long referred to as “Lairds”, the Scottish term for “Lord”, with the female equivalent being “Lady”.

*This is a purchase for a personal dedication for a souvenir plot of land. You may choose to title yourself with the title of Lord, Laird or Lady. 

Every Lordship or Ladyship title pack contributes to the preservation and protection of woodland areas in Scotland. As the intention is for the land to be kept in its natural state, we ask that all interested parties do bear this in mind.

As a Scot with a keen interest in the subject of land reform (see Andy Wrightman’s site for more information on this) this seemed firstly patronising as after all if it was as easy as buying land to become a ‘lord or lady’ then a large chunk of homeowners in Scotland would be that, and secondly, the idea of slicing off bits of Scotland to be sold around the world seemed like exploitation. If however, you’re a YouTuber seeing Youtube much around with how you make money from your channel then a sponsor coming on boards throwing thousands around in sponsor money then the temptation to grab it is entirely justifiable.

The problem is that Established Titles are a giant scam. You will not become a ‘lord or lady. You cannot legally call yourself a ‘laird’ (and if you knew anything of history you’d really not want to) and there’s not one ounce of evidence that a single tree has been planted. To go back to Andy Wrightman here’s his very informative post about Established Titles and some history of this scam as it isn’t the first company to try it, but it certainly seems the most successful. If you want a good video on the subject here’s Scott Shafer speaking informatively about the subject.

To be fair some of the YouTubers who have Established Titles as sponsors have quickly dropped them and have made that clear, but some haven’t and have dug in which isn’t a good idea as this company does nothing for the people thinking they’re buying land, and it does nothing for Scotland. Of course this hasn’t stopped Established Titles who are pushing a sale constantly on their website to get people to spend money quickly before the scam completely collapses under the pressure that’s been building up these last few weeks.

As said, I understand the need of YouTubers to earn a living but the entire world of online sponsorship is completely unregulated unlike cinema or TV advertising which in the UK is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority. There’s no official body doing the same in these situations and although you’d think YouTube would step in, the fact is they don’t care which means we rely upon the YouTuber to check which often isn’t going to happen.

If anyone is thinking of buying anything from Established Titles this Christmas, please don’t. You’ll be ripped off, Scotland won’t benefit and the people running this company will pocket your cash before they close this scam down and move onto whatever scam they’ve got planned next.