Friday, February 17, 2023

A new YouTube TV scam?

One of the pitfalls of doing something new is needing help, and getting bad search results when you seek that help.

This seems to have happened recently to people looking for help with YouTube TV. It seems some scammers were gaming the Google search results and getting their fake Website, voutube.com, listed high in the results.

It's kind of funny, in a shake your head way, in that Google owns YouTube TV and YouTube, yet were listing fake results at or near the top of the search results.

According to Cord Cutters News, this has been happening recently:

Recently some of our readers noticed sponsored Google search results when you look for help with YouTube TV that doesn’t point you to TV.YouTube.com but instead point to voutube.com. A simple switch of the Y with a V can easily be missed if you are not looking closely for it. (Also, we highly recommend you do not go to that other website.)

Increasingly scammers are trying to trick YouTube TV customers into thinking they are contacting customer service. Instead, they reach a 3rd party group that offers to help them for a fee or some other plan.

Tricks like this are not new, as Roku, for years, faced a vast number of groups that would try and trick you into paying to activate your Roku. Sometimes $100 or more they would want in order to activate your Roku for you. These groups bought up search terms about activating or setting up your Roku player and would try to charge you to do what should have been free.

I did a search for "help with YouTube TV" and did not get the fake results that were reported. Apparently, Google stepped in and did something about it. But this does show that scammers are able to succeed for at least a while, and are brazen enough to try to do it to Google services, and Google searches.

Stay vigilant when it comes to seeking help on the Internet. Don't treat Google searches as Gospel. Like everything else, be careful with your Streaming Life.

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