Some YouTube creators targeted with 'Copyright warning' phishing scam emails, here's what support says

Spammers are constantly looking for new ways to get access to personal accounts. The goal is to redirect a person to a malicious website, which may download a virus onto their computer or steal personal information.

YouTubers are continuously in danger of such attacks as scammers attempt to seize control of the channels they’ve worked on so hard, and it appears that this is happening as of this writing.

Some YouTube content creators are a target of a phishing email scam where content creators are receiving an email titled ‘Copyright warning’ containing a Google Drive link (1,2,3,4,5,6).

The hackers use ‘YouTube Support’ as their first and last names, but the sender’s email address is obscured.

The email comprises a warning that one of the channel’s videos breached YouTube’s policies hence the strike. It ends with a note that states ‘In order to read the full report click on the link’.

When users click on the link, they are led to Google Drive where malicious files are downloaded and thus compromising their account.

Interesting new phishing attempt I’ve never seen. I get an email about a copyright strike (on an actual video I made). The email came FROM GOOGLE b/c it was shared with me on drive, from “youtube support” and it was surprisingly hidden to figure out who actually sent it.
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As if it was a warning from youtube, I received an e-mail with a strange PDF file attached, but I’m so scared that I can’t open it, right? So I searched for “Copyright Warning.pdf” and it seems that spam is a hot topic overseas. Yes, delete, delete.
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This problem initially surfaced a few months ago, affecting multiple content creators at the time (1,2,3,4).

According to YouTube support, concerned YouTubers can report such emails by following the procedures below and avoiding accessing any such links:

1. On a PC, go to drive.google.com.
2. Right-click the file you want to report and then click Report abuse.
3. Choose the type of abuse found in the file. Each abuse type has a description to help you determine if the file has violated our policies.
4. Click Submit Abuse Report.
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If you receive such an email, instead of clicking the link within the email, go directly to your YouTube channel and investigate the issue yourself.

Because, as convincing as these emails appear to be, no one knows what the link does. If in doubt, ignore the email and check analytics or contact YouTube support.

That said, we’ll keep an eye on the YouTube Copyright warning scam emails issue and update this article as and when something noteworthy comes up.

Note: We have a dedicated YouTube bugs,issues and new features tracker, so be sure to follow it as well.

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