How My YOUTUBE Channel Got HACKED … Don’t Let This Happen to You, With Any Online Accounts

[dr_dave]

FYI, I just posted a new video that shares my experience involving my YouTube Channel being hacked and hijacked recently. I also offer advice for how you can prevent this; not just with YouTube, but with other important online accounts you might have. Check it out:

Content:
0:00 - Intro
0:19 - Day 1: The Hack Occurs
2:38 - Day 2: It Ain’t Over Yet
3:47 - Day 2: The Hack Figured Out
5:42 - Day 3: Return to Normalcy
6:22 - Advice

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments, questions, complaints, and requests.

Enjoy!

 

[Hits 'em Hard]

You were not hacked. The proper term is phished. To get hacked in today’s world is near impossible. Phishing on the other hand is simple.

 

[dr_dave]

You were not hacked. The proper term is phished. To get hacked in today’s world is near impossible. Phishing on the other hand is simple.

My Google Account and YouTube Channel were hacked as a result of the phishing. I am a "big fish."

 

[wakuljr]

Mmmmm.......fishing

 

[jeffreylucky1]

Glad you got it sorted!

 

[Ģüśţāṿ]

The company that I work for regularly sends out benign phishing emails to all employees to help them recognize what these could looks like.

Needless to say, I delete everything that is not immediately apparent in legitimacy. My thinking is, if it real and important enough, they will follow up shortly after.

 

[telinoz]

All sorted now, excellent.

 

[dr_dave]

Glad you got it sorted!

Good thing I was at my computer so I noticed it right away, I was happy to be able to put an end to the hijacking after only two hours, If the hacker had control a lot longer, he could have done much more damage, and I might have lost many more subscribers.

 

[bb9ball]

Looking at the "from" address and hovering over the link are the best things to start with on any emails asking you to click a link or open an attachment when they lead to obvious conclusions that you can ignore and delete the email.

But, I don't think hovering over the link is enough to know if it is legitimate or not. I think it is better to use a saved bookmark to login to the legitimate site and use their management interface to look into whatever the email claims to be about. I don't know about Youtube, but every bank and credit card site I've seen has a way to look at "alerts" about the account.

It is common for the miscreants to get domains that are a typo of the legitimate one or append or prepend something to the name to appear legitimate, like fraud-visa.com. How easy is it to miss a typo?

Also, looking at the "from" email address isn't enough. There can be a "display name" along with the sending address. This is essentially free text. Another common practice is for them to put a legitimate (to you) sender's email in this free text field.

 

[Tin Man]

Very sorry you had to go through this Dave. Losing your YouTube channel and content would've been a loss to the pool world beyond anything imaginable. I am so grateful that you were able to keep calm and find a way to get this reinstated.

 

[7stud]

I'm surprised Google doesn't have a single click backup button that will store a backup of an entire channel on a separate server somewhere. After all, we are taught to backup anything that is important.

Well, I searched around, and apparently you can backup a channel:

 

[WoodyJ]

My Google Account and YouTube Channel were hacked as a result of the phishing. I am a "big fish."

I also got fooled by a very clever phishing e-mail I got a while back.

Very little harm done but taught me to renew my resolve to never give out info to incoming e-mails or phone calls. If you think it might be worth your time to respond, always call or e-mail back directly to the organization they are claiming to represent (with a phone number or e-mail address you already have and know is good).

 

[dr_dave]

Very sorry you had to go through this Dave. Losing your YouTube channel and content would've been a loss to the pool world beyond anything imaginable. I am so grateful that you were able to keep calm and find a way to get this reinstated.

Thanks Demetrius. I am grateful also!

 

[marini3105]

You can report phising:

Step 1. If you got a phishing email, forward it to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@apwg.org.

If you got a phishing text message, forward it to SPAM (7726).

Step 2. Report the phishing attack to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

From: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Dr. Dave have good advice about hackers.