A serial channel hijacker operating a group known as Support Orio took over a YouTube channel known as GamerThumbTV. The hijackers are asking for $450 worth of Bitcoin in exchange for the channel. The original owner of GamerThumbTV decided to reach out to YouTube for help, but they don’t seem to know how to help him.
It started on October 13th, 2019, when GamerThumbTV notified his followers that the account had been hijacked.
Any #YouTube creators out there have connections that can help with this? I can’t access my account. It looks like someone may have hacked it and changed ownership. How does this even happen? @YTCreators @TeamYouTube @TrustedFlagger Please RT and share to get some attention. pic.twitter.com/GqoB4PB2aq
— GamerThumbTV (@GamerThumbTV) October 13, 2019
He immediately contacted YouTube about restoring the account, but a day later they wanted him to prove that the account was actually hijacked.
Update on the hacking situation: I STILL don’t have access to my #YouTube channel. This morning I finally received this response from YouTube asking me for a bunch of information. So the stream tonight is likely canceled. I doubt they’ll get back to me in a timely manner. pic.twitter.com/FecZGYFNFZ
— GamerThumbTV (@GamerThumbTV) October 14, 2019
They continued to resend the same form for GamerThumbTV to fill out, several days in a row. He finally received additional communication from YouTube on October 16th, 2019.
More useless communication from #YouTube. All they have to do is give ownership back to the correct email, mine…the only that has EVER been used. I even provided screenshots showing the “new” business email matches the one holding my channel hostage for bitcoin. @TeamYouTube pic.twitter.com/dWhu6YcifB
— GamerThumbTV (@GamerThumbTV) October 16, 2019
The real eye-opener was two separate responses he received on October 17th, 2019, one of which notified him that getting the ownership of his account back to him wasn’t going to be an easy task.
Received more emails this morning from 2 different people at YouTube. Still waiting to hear back from the original person that took my information and passed it on to this mystery hijacking team. Also, I can’t imagine what’s so difficult about getting my channel back. The scammer pic.twitter.com/FPXK6RwoUs
— GamerThumbTV (@GamerThumbTV) October 17, 2019
The second message is the most important one from the YouTube support staff, which reads…
“I can’t give you any time frame on when you’ll get your channel back. I wish that it was simple as changing the email address back to your channel, and I know ho much you want to have access to it. Our internal team is doing their best to resolve your concern as soon as possible. I’m not sure how the process works with your hijacking case, but rest assured that you’ll get an update once we have news from them. Please wait.
“We appreciate your patience and understanding.”
GamerThumbTV noted that they didn’t take over his AdSense account and they haven’t deleted any content yet, but they have been trying to sell the account for a couple of hundred bucks.
One of the things that made absolutely no sense at all was that while GamerThumbTV has desperately been trying to get in contact with YouTube support, the Team YouTube account opted to reply to someone in the Twitter thread instead of directly replying to GamerThumbTV, who is the one that is actually having troubles with his account. Thankfully, someone noticed this and called YouTube out on it.
Received more emails this morning from 2 different people at YouTube. Still waiting to hear back from the original person that took my information and passed it on to this mystery hijacking team. Also, I can’t imagine what’s so difficult about getting my channel back. The scammer pic.twitter.com/FPXK6RwoUs
— GamerThumbTV (@GamerThumbTV) October 17, 2019
how the hell do you respond to this side tweet and can’t help the dude who originally posted
— Hays Mckay (mckaos) (@hmckaynova) October 17, 2019
At the moment if you attempt to access the channel from the YouTube URL, you get a 404 not found error.
It’s hard to tell if the hijackers disabled the custom URL name or if YouTube did it.
However, if you search up the channel on Google you’ll find the GamerThumbTV channel URL, and it’s still live… for now.
We’ll see if YouTube will finally restore the account or if they’ll continue to give GamerThumbTV the runaround.
(Thanks for the news tip Mekel Kasanova)
