Scammers use YouTube Copyright in an extortion scheme
YouTube is today the world’s largest video sharing site, where users download hundreds of hours of content every minute. People cannot check every video that goes up, so Google turned to automated systems that cannot be justified. Some particularly unscrupulous people have realized that Google’s copyright protection system on YouTube is a good tool to extort, so they use it to threaten YouTubers.
Stories about inaccurate copyright infringements are familiar on YouTube, but usually, they are not the result of something malicious. ObbyRaidz is a smaller creator who makes Minecraft videos for his channel. Everything was fine until this month, a company called ViperHCF announced the copyright on two ObbyRaidz videos. In the system with three hits on YouTube, another violation will cause Google to disable your account. Copyright strikes expire in a few months, but fraudsters threaten to deliver this crucial third blow if they don’t play the ball.
The alleged fraudster contacted ObbyRaidz on Twitter and offered to remove the blows, but not for free. Someone from VengefulFlame claimed that he represented ViperHCF, saying that he was making claims on his video in exchange for $ 150 in PayPal or $ 75 in bitcoin. Further, DM on Twitter reports that ObbyRaidz will receive a third blow if he refuses to pay. The scammer gave an ultimatum in a very factual way, inviting ObbyRaidz to think about it for a short time and reminding him that he can cancel the PayPal payment if they do not fulfill the agreement. The Twitter account that delivered the threats is still active but configured as private.
ObbyRaidz has contacted YouTube Support but has not yet touched the real person. He appealed the strikes, but they were automatically rejected. This is the unfortunate nature of YouTube – too many people use the platform for each problem to get a proper hearing.
Fortunately, ObbyRaidz posted on Twitter to report the criminal user and his money requirements in exchange for the fact that the third video from each channel was not deleted due to a copyright strike.
In response, YouTube restored the fraudulent videos and closed the copyright infringer accounts. At the time of the incident, ObbyRaidz had a total of about 5,000 subscribers. If someone tries to extort money from YouTuber with several million subscribers, most likely, a worker from YouTube will be involved. Unveiling an extortion attempt earlier this week, ObbyRaidz acquired about three-four thousand more subscribers. This is probably not enough for any special treatment, but disclosing the story may help. We can only hope that someone in the YouTube team understands that this is a problem on YouTube.
