Fake YouTube notifications doing rounds

YouTube users are targeted with notifications supposedly sent by YouTube administrators and containing links to Canadian pharmacy sites, warns BitDefender.

With “YouTube Administration sent you a message: Illegal video warning” as the subject line, the fake pharma peddlers are trying to create a sense of urgency that will make the recipients less careful and make them click on the offered link instead of signing in to the service as they normally would.

Luckily for them, positioning the mouse on the link reveals an unexpected destination URL. Unexpected for YouTube, that is, since it is hosted on a Spanish domain. Just to make sure, the researcher logged in into his YouTube account and – as predicted – there was no warning from the real YouTube.

As relatively harmless as the destination site is, the researcher points out that the link could have lead to malware instead.

“If you receive an e-mail from a Web service that you use (e-mail, photo and video sharing, social networks etc.) whereby you are required to do anything by following a link within the body of the message, please first do check the legitimacy of that message with your provider,” he advises.