YouTube has been the center of many scams and scandals over the years. Recently, many have made their way into mainstream media due to the growing impact that YouTube has on everyday life. Here are five of the most notable YouTube scams.
#5 – Free Fortnite V-Bucks
Fortnite, a high action, battle royale video game, has taken the world by storm. The artsy graphics, skillful combat, and competitive leaderboard enamored content creators and audiences alike. So it is no surprise that a scam centered around the game would pop up. Many channels on YouTube, both hacked and freshly created, have posted videos and hosted scam live streams. In these, they claim they can give out the premium Fortnite in-game currency, V-Bucks, for free. Most famous of these channels is DieAgain340, whose scam-centric videos got millions of views. There have also been cases of scammers buying ads on YouTube, promoting videos that illegally use the likeness of famous YouTubers like Ali-A.
#4 – CS:GO Gambling Sites
CS:GO is a game with many in-game cosmetic items. Their prices range from a few cents to thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars, depending on rarity and aesthetic appeal. Gambling websites took advantage of this, operating in a grey area of legality as they allow users to bet and trade skins with the possibility of big payouts. However, when the identity of the owners of some of these lucrative sites came to light, there was a massive uproar. One such owner was Twitch streamer and YouTuber PhantomLord. He would stream opening boxes and rolling the odds on a CS:GO gambling site, often coming up with huge wins. It turned out all was not as it seemed, though. People discovered he owned the site he played on, and that he rigged his results to give him big wins and entice more people to gamble on his site. This controversy also embroiled YouTubers Trevor Martin (TMARN2) and Tom Cassell (Tom Syndicate) when it was discovered they co-owned a site that they often promoted in their videos.
#3 – Ricegum #ClickbaitChallenge
This one is short and to-the-point. Ricegum, CloutGang founder, and famous vlogger, ran a challenge on his channel. He announced the “Clickbait Challenge.” The winner would be the video with the most views who tagged him and the challenge. Many people entered, and why wouldn’t they? The prize was $10,000. However, it has been over a year since the contest, with no winner announced and no prize money to be seen. It took another YouTuber, iDubbbz, calling Ricegum out in one of his famed Content Cop videos for Rice to say he didn’t give the winner the money because their video was about the Manchester Bombing. He did not announce any sort of runner-up or charity donation with the money and didn’t make an announcement on a public forum until forced to do so.
#2 – Johnny Dee
Johnny Dee may not be a well-known name on YouTube, but those who do know him, love him. He’s a senior YouTuber who covers rap and hip-hop songs simply because he has a passion for doing so. After being featured on PewDiePie’s channel he blew up in popularity. Unfortunately, a few weeks later he fell victim to the oldest scam in the book and lost his account due to it. He explained the situation on a secondary channel. There he clarified that he just loved to sing and worried about losing monetization if he couldn’t get his old channel and numbers back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvyzBMTQa40
#1 – Elsagate
The victims of the Elsagate scam aren’t gamers, vlogger fans, or a senior with little computer knowledge. They’re children. Dozens of channels put out the videos. On the surface, they appeared like child-friendly cartoons and animations. However, once watched properly, these videos contain gore, scat, sexual content, abuse, suicide, and more, all content that should never be seen by the young children they’re aimed towards. The channels behind this content gamed the YouTube recommended algorithm for views and money. There was such an uproar about Elsagate that YouTube is still adjusting their spam review and monetization methods.
