Lock your channel: passwords, scams and fake shortcuts

Why this lesson comes early

In lesson 3 you verified your phone number to unlock custom thumbnails. That makes your channel more useful to you. It also makes it more worth stealing.

Do not wait until your channel is big. Locking it now takes one sitting, and it protects every video you make from here on.

Lock the door: 2-Step Verification and a passkey

YouTube says stolen passwords are one of the most common ways accounts get taken over. 2-Step Verification adds a second check after your password, as an extra layer of safety ^[1].

Phishing is a fake email, message or page that tries to trick you into giving away your login. For the strongest protection against it, YouTube recommends a passkey as your second step. A passkey uses your phone's fingerprint, face scan or screen lock. Codes sent by text message are a less secure choice ^[1].

YouTube also recommends adding a recovery phone number and email address to your Google Account, so you can get back in if you are ever locked out ^[1].

2-Step Verification is also one of the requirements to join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), the programme that lets channels earn money on YouTube ^[2]. Lesson 13 covers YPP in full.

Make your passkey on a phone that only you unlock. If the whole family knows the PIN of a shared phone, that phone is not a good key.

Share access without sharing your password

Never give your password to an editor, a friend or a family member who helps with your channel. YouTube says to use channel permissions instead ^[3].

Channel permissions let someone work on your channel without getting into your Google Account. YouTube says this is safer than sharing your password ^[4].

You pick a role for each person: Manager, Editor, Editor (limited), Viewer or Viewer (limited). The limited roles cannot see revenue information ^[3].

In YouTube Studio, people with access are listed under Settings, then Permissions ^[4]. If someone leaves your team, or you do not recognise a person with access, remove them ^[3].

Give the smallest role that does the job. A brother who only wants to see your numbers can be a Viewer, not a Manager. When the work ends, remove the access.

Scams aimed at creators

YouTube will never ask for your password, email address or other account information. Real YouTube emails come only from @youtube.com or @google.com addresses ^[3].

Before you reply to a brand deal or sponsorship email, YouTube suggests checking that it is real by phoning the company or contacting the person you usually work with ^[3].

Malware is harmful software that can spy on you, delete your files and change your account. YouTube says it often arrives as password-protected zip files that contain .scr or .exe files. It can also come through links in fake sponsorship or brand deal emails. It also warns that antivirus software may not scan some encrypted files ^[1].

YouTube also says not to reply to messages that offer passwords to open locked files, or marketing help that needs access to your channel. Do not open untrusted links or files that offer free thumbnail templates or premium editing programs ^[3].

Some scammers send creators private YouTube videos from channels with official-looking names, saying monetisation is changing. The links lead to malware or to pages that steal your login. Google says YouTube will never contact creators this way ^[5].

Google's advice for any scam: slow down, because scams try to rush you. Check the details. Never send money or personal information on the spot ^[5].

A scam deal often looks like a dream offer for a small channel, such as a large fee from a brand you have never heard of. Find the brand's phone number on its own website, not in the email. A real brand will wait while you check.

If your channel is hacked

Signs include changes you did not make, such as a new profile picture or description, and videos on your channel that you did not upload ^[6].

YouTube's steps, in order: first recover and secure the Google Account linked to your channel. Then undo the hacker's changes straight away, so they do not lead to strikes, and delete any videos you did not upload. Then make sure everyone with access to your channel secures their own account too ^[6].

YouTube's support for hacked channels only covers incidents from the past 9 months ^[6]. Lesson 12 explains strikes.

Act the same day. Write down what changed and when. If your regular viewers follow you on Instagram or WhatsApp, warn them not to click links posted from your channel until you have it back.

Fake growth is a trap

YouTube does not allow anything that artificially increases views, likes, comments or other numbers, or content that promotes services selling them. Offering to subscribe to someone only if they subscribe back, called sub4sub, is banned too ^[7].

If you hire someone to promote your channel and they use banned methods, your videos can be removed or your channel taken down, whether you did it or someone you hired did it ^[7].

Fake traffic is not counted, and subscribers found to be spam are removed from your total. Asking your viewers to like, share, comment or subscribe is fine ^[7].

Posting the same "check out my channel" comment on hundreds of other videos is comment spam, which YouTube's Spam Policy bans ^[8].

WhatsApp or Telegram groups that swap subscribers or "support" views are sub4sub under another name. Bought and swapped subscribers do not come back to watch, so they only make your real numbers harder to read.

Do not borrow someone else's name

Impersonation means pretending to be another person, creator or channel. YouTube bans copying another channel's name, profile picture or banner to pass as them ^[9].

Adding words like "Real" or "Official" to a creator's name counts as impersonation. So does posing as a backup channel by adding "Backup", "Shorts" or "Live" ^[9].

A fan channel must say it is a fan channel in its channel name or handle. An AI label is not a free pass to impersonate anyone ^[9].

A fan channel for your favourite cricketer or Marathi actor is fine. Put "Fans" or "Fan Channel" in the name or handle, and make your own picture and banner.