Oh the irony.
A famous anti-scammer Youtube channel, Tech Support Scams, was in for a surprise when they got scammed themselves and accidentally deleted their entire channel. It’s the classic case of the hunter becoming the hunted.
Jim Browning, owner of the Youtube channel, became famous for unmasking scammers by setting up ‘scam baiting’ scenarios where he pretended to fall a victim to an online scam or fake tech support by letting them plant malware into his system, only to uncover the truth in the end. But seems like that trick came back to bite him when he fell prey to one of the scammers and accidentally deleted his own Youtube channel. “So to prove that anyone can be scammed, I was convinced to delete my YouTube channel because I was convinced I was talking [to YouTube] support,”, Browning wrote on Twitter.
This incident comes as a lesson for anyone and everyone who thinks they’re too smart to get scammed. There are many reported cases of scams these days with 3/5 consumers falling prey to these scammers. The most common one is getting a call or email from your bank which coerces you into revealing your personal account details to the scammers. In this case, the Federal Trade Commission recommends people immediately call their credit card company and report the scam so their accounts can be suspended and the money doesn’t reach the scammer. Always keep in mind that actual tech companies or bank customer support do not contact their customers through phone, email, or text message to ask for account details or any personal information.
Thankfully, it was just a video channel for Browning and not his bank details that were stolen but still, he learned his lesson the hard way.