What Is the YouTube Rewards Scam? (And How to Protect Your Account)

Would you like to earn money just from watching videos? Wouldn’t we all? That’s what some scammers depend on: the allure of a part-time side hustle that requires minimum effort.

YouTube rewards scams hook victims in by promising cash for liking videos or subscribing to channels. They make it appear like a legit marketing scheme, then convince users to sign up for a premium option that offers even bigger rewards.

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Discover more about YouTube reward scams below, and how to avoid becoming a victim.

How YouTube Rewards Scams Work

It might seem to make sense that someone, somewhere, would be paying people to like and subscribe. After all, people pay for advertising and marketing all the time. But there isn’t any legitimate get-rich-quick scheme that pays people significant amounts for liking or subscribing to YouTube videos. Claims like these are a common feature of task scams.

The scam often starts with an unexpected message, either from an unknown number or via a social platform. The message offers cash for liking YouTube videos. The videos may be themed or from the same user to make the offer seem legitimate.

You fill out a form with your personal details and banking details, and send screenshots to show that you’ve liked the relevant videos.

Then, surprisingly, you get paid. The amount is small, but reassuring.

From here, suddenly you’re eligible for a VIP scheme. Pay a fee or deposit (anything from tens to thousands of dollars), and you gain access to bigger, better rewards. Sometimes the scammers will ask you to move to Telegram to discuss making these payments.

If you decide to pay, you may eventually be blocked, and the account/number you’ve been interacting with will disappear. The small payment was bait to hook you into the main scam.

Spotting YouTube Rewards Scams

Any app or website that promises significant amounts of money simply for watching YouTube videos should be treated with extreme caution. There are some legitimate apps and sites that offer cash rewards for a variety of online tasks, including watching vids. Eureka and Survey Pop are examples. But these tend to be focused on ads built into the app (not YouTube videos), and only pay a few cents for several views, and never overpromise. Earnings vary by platform, location, available tasks, and the amount of time you spend completing them, so there is no reliable monthly figure you can count on. The most you can expect to make on these is $5-$10 per month. Promises beyond this are unrealistic.

YouTube scams of this nature always hook people in with the promise of easy money, some of which they may actually deliver to you, although in small amounts. But even interacting at this early stage leaves you vulnerable, as you’ve provided a significant amount of your personal data to a criminal.

Protect Yourself From YouTube Scams

Thankfully, YouTube scams are fairly simple to avoid:

Block messages from unknown numbers promising get-rich-quick schemes.
Never provide your personal details to an unknown party.
Don’t pay a fee for any cash rewards schemes – legitimate rewards schemes (such as Eureka, Survey Pop, etc.) will never ask for a registration fee.

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