New Phishing Scam Hit Users of YouTube

Some partners of YouTube are attacked by phishing mails coming from Google/YouTube teams to deceive them into divulging their login information and other private details, especially, passwords, as reported by TECHCrunch on June 4, 2009.

It was found that the phishing mails were sent on June 3, 2009 by YouTube Broadcast Yourself Team and told their recipients that they contained a warning message.

The message in the phishing mail informs that as per the data of YouTube, the user's mail account has been scrutinized for hatred speech, bullying, spam/flooding of YouTube channels, enormous advertising and unequivocal copyright breach.

The e-mail also claims that the user's account is either phished or flagged by other IP addresses belong to other users. Moreover, IP addresses are also enclosed in the phishing mail.

Nevertheless, the e-mail concludes by informing the user that his account seems to be in better standing. Thus, a link has been given in the mail. If the user clicks on the link, he is taken to a fake YouTube page where he is asked to disclose his password.

Citing the incident, some security experts state that naive and innocent users are contrived by the new phishing scam.

In the meantime, YouTube states that while the earlier e-mail that attacked users in the end of May 2009 appeared to be amateuristic and carried many things which were easy to spot like Youtube in place of YouTube, typos, inept phrasing etc, the phishing scam released on June 3, 2009 seemed to be more authentic and had content outlined and edited by experts.

Further, after the new phishing e-mails, YouTube released a warning message to its users. In it, the users were told that the phishers behind this scam would be punished. It also added that they were taking necessary actions to thwart such kind of incidents in future.

YouTube also claims it doesn't send an unsolicited e-mails asking for the password of the users, as was being asked by the phishing mail sent on June 3, 2009. Therefore, YouTube told users to be careful of such mails in future.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 6/10/2009