# Youtube spam? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 30, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753 "2011-05-30T14:06:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/1 "2011-05-30T14:06:11Z")
I just received an email on my earthlink account that claims in the subject line that my video has been approved. I have never submitted a video but I do have an account. Is there a spam pretending to be from youtube? I’m aware that there’s something going on with youtube and google. I’ll search. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/2 "2011-05-30T14:47:56Z")
There’s spam pretending to be from everywhere. If they think they can trick you into clicking the link, they’ll use it as bait. Just log manually into your YouTube account if you’re concerned, and check to see if anyone’s uploaded videos that way. Don’t click on the link in the email to get there, though. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/3 "2011-05-30T14:54:01Z")
I should have searched first. It is spam, and I found tons of remarks on message boards and at the youtube site itself. Anyway, if you get a similar email it’s almost surely spam. The subject reads; “YouTube Service sent you a message: Your video has been approved” and the address is; “service(at)[youtube.com](http://youtube.com)”. It looks pretty authentic. Naughty Canadians! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/4 "2011-05-30T14:55:16Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I just received an email on my earthlink account that claims in the subject line that my video has been approved. I have never submitted a video but I do have an account. Is there a spam pretending to be from youtube? > I’m aware that there’s something going on with youtube and google. > I’ll search. > Peace, > mangeorge You didn’t upload any videos so you recognized it as spam, but of the millions of people that they did send this to, some of them likely had just uploaded some videos and of those people some of them clicked on the link. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/5 "2011-05-30T15:10:42Z")
I am curious, but chicken. If anyone did click, I’d like to know where it did take you and whether there are any nasties attached. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/6 "2011-05-31T01:57:21Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You didn’t upload any videos so you recognized it as spam, but of the millions of people that they did send this to, some of them likely had just uploaded some videos and of those people some of them clicked on the link. This the kind of social engineering that is catching a lot of people that ordinarily would be wary of unsolicited emails. Another ploy is posing as UPS or FedEx, the subject is “Unsuccessful delivery”. People who receive a lot of Fedex and UPS deliveries fall for such scams every day, and end up infected with malware. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-spam/583753/7 "2011-05-31T04:03:50Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I am curious, but chicken. If anyone did click, I’d like to know where it did take you and whether there are any nasties attached. 🙂 If you hover over the link your browser should tell you the URL you would be sent to, it is in a different place for different browsers. I wouldn’t post the link on here, however, I think there is a rule about such things.