YouTube ‘Likes’ Fraud Revealed: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Do you receive offers from strangers on WhatsApp or Telegram to make easy money by liking videos on YouTube? You may recognize this scam at first glance, but the technology Many users who are not users still get fooled. “Make money by liking YouTube videos” scams have been around for a while. Many people, including senior government officials working in central agencies and police officers from Bengaluru, have claimed to have lost hundreds of rupees.

 How does the Youtube Likes Fraud?

 According to researchers at BitDefender Labs, the YouTube Like and Earn scam is a scam in which cybercriminals send text messages from unknown numbers to random users on WhatsApp or Telegram. It starts by asking if they would like to earn some extra money by liking videos on YouTube. 4,444 scammers tell unsuspecting users, “Hello, I’m Lopez Digital Marketing from [REDACTED].  Want some extra money? ” This is a part-time job and they don’t want to earn anything.

  Researchers say cybercriminals pay for their work once it is completed.Once you tap on Greed, you will be asked to join a Telegram group where you will be given even more tasks that will help you earn money. These Telegram groups are also filled with screenshots of payments made to users to earn their trust.
After completing a few more tasks, you will be invited to the “VIP” group.
In this group, users must pay upfront to unlock “high-ticket” tasks. If you pay the to access her VIP group, the scammer will either block you or stop replying to your messages. This is a sign for Youtube Likes Fraud.

Recent Youtube Likes Fraud Cases

Rs. 27 Lakh Scammed

A woman from Lucknow was scammed by a scammer who was involved in Youtube likes fraudulent activities. The scammer hired the woman to like videos on Youtubes addressing the Youtube channels as his client. Later on, the person provoked the woman to invest money to create her own digital marketing domain promising her to give massive return. The woman transferred Rs 27 Lakh to the scammer hoping to get a healthy profit but she did not receive a single money.

Rs 1.33 Crore Duped

Another similar incident happened with a 47 years old man. A cyber scammer contacted the man offering him a job to watch and like Youtube videos and earn 5000 to 7000 per day. The fraudster asked him to join their Telegram channel to earn more money by making deposit. The man deposited total of Rs 1.33 crore in 25 bank accounts. The bank accounts did not have any authentic owner. The scammer denied to release any profit to the man claiming that he did not complete his work properly and instead they asked him to deposit more money.

Rs 77 Lakh Extracted from Bank Account

A 56 years old man from Nagpur stepped into the trap of a cyber-fraudster. The pattern of these crimes is quite similar. The fraudster manipulated the person to join their telegram channel. The scam group provided few small payments to the man for some small work. The person was convinced to receive more money and provided the details of her bank account. Soon the fraudsters extracted Rs 77 Lakh from the bank account of that person. Cyber crime department found that some bookies were behind this well arranged cyber-crime.

 How can I spot these scams?

Some scams are easy to spot, but many take advantage of people looking to make money from the comfort of their home. There are no jobs where you can get paid just for liking and watching videos on YouTube. Therefore, if you are contacted by someone you do not know, they may be trying to scam you. If they refuse to talk to you on the phone or don’t give you their company details, it’s a scam. Another tactic used by cybercriminals is to ask users to pay upfront to unlock expensive tasks. Therefore, if you receive such an offer, it is best to ignore it.

To protect yourself from such scams, report and block contact numbers and accounts, and don’t share information such as bank account numbers.

The YouTube Like and Earn scam came to light after a Mumbai-based architect lost over Rs 700,000 in May this year. A few months later, a Bangalore police officer also fell for the scheme and transferred between Rs 1,000 and Rs 3,000 to the scammers in exchange for an attractive return on investment of 30%. Despite filing a complaint and knowing about the cybercrime, the police officer fell for the scam again and lost over Rs 330,000 in just one week.

How to Remain Safe from these frauds?

• Avoid clicking any kind of suspicious links. Scammers uses this trap more than anything. These phishing links are very dangerous as they can collect your valuable data and access your private accounts.
• Do not disclose your personal information to any untrusted party. Know about the given terms and conditions of Youtube so that you can decide where to give our personal information and where not to.
• Do not fall for unusual or irrational offers. Nobody can give you easy money just by liking Youtube videos. Rather they try to make you fool and take money from you.
• Understand that there is no shortcut to get reaches. Stick to the normal process
• If you get any such kind of offers, do not delay to inform it to the Youtube help centre.

And finally, trust your intuition. In fact, Youtube Likes Fraud teach people the importance of verifying their sources. And also how to develop skill, how not to be scammed by the fraudsters which will help you in actually gain money online. Keep in mind these points in this text and always check what other people talk about a certain manner of earning money from Youtube. If they are users on some chats or boards – contact them for more info.

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