From the early hours of March 30, multiple YouTube accounts belonging to Microsoft were hijacked by a hacker who is using them to carry out a ponzi scam with cryptocurrencies.
Ancient scams in modern times
While internet scams are relatively common and YouTubers get their accounts taken over all the time, it is hard to believe that official accounts of companies like Microsoft could be breached for these criminal purposes.
However, even a tech giant the size of Microsoft is not safe from security problems on YouTube, since a hacker managed to seize their channels and is using them to carry out a big scam among the channels’ followers.
Through a simultaneous live broadcast on all affected channels, the hacker is trying to convince people to invest a small amount of cryptocurrency in a program that will allow them to recover twice as much as invested.
YouTube security issues
Recognizing that the live broadcasts are fake is not very difficult and the hacker is using an old Bill Gates conference as a hook to attract people.
According to the wallets that can be seen in the link that the hacker leaves in the video description, none of the broadcasts have made a profit, so it is safe to deduce that none of the viewers have fallen into the trap.
Many YouTubers have had their accounts taken over in recent months – and sometimes YouTube takes months to get them their accounts back. Sometimes, the YouTuber whose channel has been stolen never gets their account back – something that has frustrated many in the YouTube community who are upset over YouTube’s lack of attention to the issue.
Although, with Microsoft being a big name, they have a better chance than the individual creators at getting their accounts back as YouTube is more likely to care.
