YouTube is a huge businesses with around 5 billion videos watched each day.
You see lots of people on trains, at bus stops, in cafes etc. all watching endless videos on YouTube.
Scammers know this and target these videos.
Popular videos on YouTube come with advertising in some form and scammers can get their scam ads included quite easily.
These scam ads are usually quite blatant e.g. a scammer will copy a YouTube video from someone with millions of followers and add in their own scam adverts then put it on YouTube and email a link to their spam email list.
The scammers often impersonate YouTube celebrities as they have the biggest following.
“I have randomly chosen you to receive a free gift from me personally. Just click the link to verify yourself” is a typical message. The link can be to any scam site or to a phishing site asking for proof of identity or a survey which the scammer will be paid for.
Be very careful on YouTube in clicking anything.
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