How to safeguard your YouTube channel from fraud

After Instagram and Twitter, it seems YouTube is next on the radar for cyber criminals. If you have a YouTube channel and have a decent following—thousand followers and above—you have a reason to worry.

Account review hoax

Cyber criminals are looking to defraud YouTubers with deceptive messages around monetizing the channel. The messages usually read: 'We are evaluating your request for monetizing your YouTube channel'.

As a YouTube channel owner, you may already know that to monetize your channel you must comply with the regulations that YouTube has specified. Apart from at least a thousand subscribers, you must have content worth 4000 hours of watch time for the last one year.

When you get an account review message, you tend to take it seriously. The only problem here is that the message may well be fraudulent and designed to phish out details about your YouTube channel. The message would tell you that upon review, your account was found violating the norms. And since, rectifications are now needed, you must fill in your correct details—including the URL of your channel, and the password—and reply to the email message.

Multiple ways to abuse

If you do reply to the email with the requested details—you can rest assured you've been scammed. Once the phishers get hold of the details, they takeover your YouTube channel and use it as a launchpad for numerous crimes. They can impersonate you to run phishing campaigns on your behalf, promise non-existent prizes to subscribers, and even use the channel to tarnish someone's public image.

Enable 2FA to protect your account

Awareness is the first step to prevent falling prey to such a scam. Remember, YouTube does not ask you to share your password on email. If you do get an account review message asking you to share details including password, be skeptical and check the source of the message. You will get the tell-tales signaling fraud.

The next step is to enable two factor authentication (2FA) on your account. This will help fortify security of your account by adding an extra layer of protection. In fact, Google provides 2FA protection for all its apps and services.

How to enable 2FA

To enable 2FA in your account, choose appropriate options under the Security tab and follow the on-screen instructions. Once you have enabled 2FA, set up backups, and add a recovery phone number.

Now, to log in to your account you will need two pieces of information—something you know (your password) and something that you have (phone or security key).

The article has been written by Neetu Katyal, Content and Marketing Consultant

She can be reached on LinkedIn.