YouTube Channel hacking is a vice not new to the world of creators, your channel can be hacked whether you have 1000 subscribers or a million subscribers, so don’t think that just because you’re not huge, you’re immune to hacking.
In this article, I’ll give you detailed info and how YouTube Channels are hacked and how to recover yours if you’ve fallen prey.
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How Can YouTube Channel be Hacked
You have to read in-between the lines in this section to ensure that you never fall prey to YouTube Channel Hackers.
So, what these hackers usually do is to get YouTube Channels that have at least 500 subscribers and then customize all their content before selling the account.
Basically, they’ll send you an E-mail stating that they would love to place a video ad on your next YouTube video, most times they’ll add a really great price.
This is where naïve creators fall prey, since they’ve not made any cash from YouTube or they’ve not made up to that amount, they decide to follow up.
In the Email which was I received, they required that I should download the their contract and read it.
Please, I will only continue for Educational purposes and because I already know the trick, once you get the type of Email I mentioned, don’t even think of replying.
I was busy thinking it would be in form of text or Word Document but little did I know, the document was actually an app in ZIP format.
Deciding to explore further, I used WinRAR to extract the contents of the file to a folder and I saw different categories of apps in it.
There was the one for creators with 0-100 subscribers, 100-1000 subscribers and more..
One thing was for sure, all those apps contained malware and my 3 antivirus software didn’t notice it’s presence because it couldn’t scan the file.
Reason being that the file was too big, around 800mb – Why the h3ll would a contract document be more than 200kb.
What the Hacker did was to fill the Application with Empty Spaces, hereby increasing it’s size, so that all antivirus software would attempt to scan it.
I got my friend to remove the empty spaces for me and the app’s size shrunk to 200kb.
I proceeded to use my anti-virus to scan the file and after a few minutes, reports stated that the app contained a lot of malware.
The most significant one was the Redline Stealer, this is the malware that can copy your passwords and login ids across websites and apps.
What this does is to copy your Email address and your Password (associated your YouTube Channel), then login to your YouTube Channel – They go the extra mile by changing your Email’s password, locking you out!.
If you’re already logged into YouTube before installing the app, there’s a malware present in it that’ll clear your browser’s cookies, prompting you to login again. and then stealing your ID.
How do you know if your YouTube Channel has been Hacked?
It’s quite simple to detect whether your YouTube Channel has been hacked or not, below are common stuff you should check.
- Can you still login to YouTube?
- Are you performing actions like Subscribing, Commenting etc, which isn’t actually you?
- Do you get alerts on your Gmail, that you just logged in via certain location on certain device that wasn’t you?
If your answers to the three questions I asked are no, then your YouTube account is 99.9% likely not hacked.
How to Recover Hacked YouTube Channel in 2022
So, if your YouTube Channel has unfortunately been hacked, there are a couple of ways you can get your account back but in this article I’ll give the best way.
Tweet to @teamYouTube – This is the very first process you need to follow especially if your channel was freshly hacked, just open your Twitter account and compose a tweet stating what happened briefly and then tagging TeamYouTube.
TeamYouTube will get back to you with an hour or two, then they’ll request for a Gmail account which you have access to, so that they can grant you access to their creator support hijacking form.
The YouTube Team requires that you fill the form in less than 72 hours, then a member of the support team will be in touch with you within 1 business day.
Once you’ve filled the form via the link that they will send to you, you’ll get an email that looks like this..
They’ll get back to you after two business days and if they actually confirm that the information which you filled out in the form is true,
You’ll get an Email with instructions on how you can recover your hacked YouTube account.
There are two methods of recovery stated in the Email The Automatic and Instant Method and then The Manual and slow Method.
See Example of the Email which you’ll receive in the image below.
Make sure you read through the content of the Email and then implement the steps as instructed.
YouTube will then help you regain access to your hacked YouTube Channel.
FAQs
What Happens if a YouTube Channel gets Hacked?
The Original owner of the YouTube Channel will be logged out and loose access to their account. The Hacker may delete the creator’s content, upload random videos and sell the account.
What to do if YouTube Channel get’s hacked
Once you notice that your YouTube Channel has been hacked, the best thing to do is to send a tweet stating that and tag @teamYouTube, they’ll help you further.
Conclusion
I really hope this article dissolved everything you need to know on YouTube Channel Hacking, How YouTube Channel can be hacked and How to recover hacked YouTube Channel.
Share this article on Social Media if it was helpful and if you have any questions, make sure to ask me in the comments and I’ll get back to you.
