{"id":6742,"date":"2019-01-26T02:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/youtube-stars-warn-of-impersonation-scam\/"},"modified":"2019-01-26T02:00:11","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T02:00:11","slug":"youtube-stars-warn-of-impersonation-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/youtube-stars-warn-of-impersonation-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube stars warn of impersonation scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Screen grab of video warning\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/E4D7\/production\/_105338585_8a12bd06-7e08-432f-9a1f-5b7bdae75069.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Philip DeFranco<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Subscribers to Mr DeFranco&#8217;s channel and many others received the scam messages<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">High-profile YouTubers have been impersonated by scammers sending fake messages to subscribers crafted to look like they were sent by the video stars.<\/p>\n<p>The scam messages sent via YouTube&#8217;s message system asked recipients to click a link to receive a prize. <\/p>\n<p>The names, icons and imagery used by the YouTubers were prominent in the messages to make them look authentic.<\/p>\n<p>YouTube said it was looking into ways to spot and stop the impersonation scams.<\/p>\n<p>Many subscribers to popular YouTubers including Philip DeFranco, James Charles, Jeffree Star, Lewis Hilsenteger from Unbox Therapy,  Bhad Bhabie and many others are believed to have received the messages. <\/p>\n<p>Between them the YouTubers have more than 50 million subscribers. <\/p>\n<p>The text in every message is the same, and suggests that a subscriber was picked at random to get a gift. <\/p>\n<p>Philip DeFranco <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=78m80acYumM\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">mentioned the scam at the start of one video<\/a> warning people not to click the link.<\/p>\n<p>He said most people would recognise that it was an &#8220;obvious scam&#8221; and added that neither he nor other creators it claimed to come from had sent the messages.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TeamYouTube\/status\/1088217960555016192\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">YouTube responded via tweet<\/a> thanking Mr DeFranco for alerting it to the spam problem. <\/p>\n<p>It added: &#8220;We&#8217;re in the process of implementing additional measures to prevent impersonation like this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It also said that anyone who got the spam YouTube message could block accounts sending them similar messages.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-47001268\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Philip DeFranco Image caption Subscribers to Mr DeFranco&#8217;s channel and many others received the scam messages High-profile YouTubers have been impersonated by scammers sending fake messages to subscribers crafted to look like they were sent by the video stars. The scam messages sent via YouTube&#8217;s message system asked recipients to click a link &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}