A phishing email impersonating YouTube is currently circulating. Warning: this is not an official message.
At first glance, this is an email that could seem quite normal, from the video platform. Warning of a “change in the rules and policy of YouTube”, he encourages you to click on a link to consult them, accessible ‘only’ by entering your password. “You have 7 days to read them and send us a return letter, otherwise you will be prevented from accessing our service”, adds the text.
But beware, warn YouTube this Wednesday, it is not an email from them, but a phishing attempt, that is to say the usurpation of the identity of a site to attempt to recover your data or infect your devices.
“Warning: We receive reports of phishing attempts showing the address “[email protected]” as the sender. Be careful and do not download/click on any file if you receive this email”, recommends the website in a tweet.
Abuse of a video sharing option
The “[email protected]” email address is well used by YouTube. But if you’re paying attention, you might have noticed that the subject of the message starts with “The YouTube team sent you a video”. The hackers haven’t actually created a fake address similar to that of the site they want to impersonate, as is often the case in phishing scams: they are using a nice and well-existing option that allows you to share a video by email, adding a malicious link.
Another clue: to avoid this type of anarques, the sites almost never ask you to enter your identifiers, even less to view the conditions of use normally in free access. The wordings used also seem a little strange and unprofessional, and the format does not correspond to the usual emails of the platform.
Finally, if you pass the link through a URL scanner to detect virusesas URLVoidit will not pass the test.
An option for you not to receive this email is to disable the video sharing option.
