Stolen content from TikTok and Internet scams are rampant on Shorts, the short-form video platform launched by YouTube.
Stolen TikTok content and Internet scams proliferate in Shorts, the short-form video platform launched by YouTube last year to compete with the Chinese portal, according to research by cybersecurity firm Tenable.
With more than 2,000 million monthly subscribers thanks to the strong momentum that being part of YouTube gives it, Shorts has been erected in less than a year -it was launched in March 2021- in a serious competitor of TikTok, but precisely its great reach together with the lack of content makes it fertile ground for illicit activities.
Shorts has become a haven for adult dating scammers, dubious product promotion and stolen TikTok videos. explained Satnam Narang, Tenable’s expert in online scams and who has led the investigation.
3.2 billion views
As an example, an analysis of 50 fraudulent channels (with stolen or illicit content) de YouTube Shorts determined that the scammers achieved at least 3.2 billion views on around 40,000 videos.
The victim in the case of stolen content are the creators of the videos, who stop charging for advertising every time their creations are viewed in Shorts, while a third party pockets that money without your permission.
Also, the popularity of these stolen contents from TikTok (short videos of viral challenges, for example, or of dances or tips) triggers the number of subscriptions to fraudulent accounts, which in turn increases their listing on the portal and makes them more attractive to advertisers.
Narang highlighted the specific case of a YouTube Shorts user who has received more than 78 million views on his channel, but if you look at a breakdown of their actual content, most of those views are coming from stolen creations on TikTok.
Videos without the watermark
“Many of the videos I found did not have the TikTok watermarks that are often seen on downloaded videos, meaning they were downloaded using specialized software”, pointed out the researcher.
Some of the stolen videos, especially those of a more suggestive or sexual nature, link to adult dating websites, and scammers pocket two to four dollars each time a user signs up, even with a fake email address.
Another use Shorts scammers make of stolen TikTok videos is to use them to promote the sale of products of dubious quality or effectiveness, that sometimes do not even correspond to what the buyer ends up receiving and that normally have prices higher than those of the market.
Gymnastics tights and shakes
Among others, Tenable’s investigation found the case of a stolen video of women exercising being used on YouTube Shorts to promote the sale of athletic tights, and another of a sports challenge being used by scammers to sell a purported weight-loss program with shakes.
Aware of the problem of the lack of content, in May of last year, YouTube (owned by Google) announced the creation of a fund endowed with 100 million dollars destined to pay creators of influential content in Shorts.
Shorts allows you to record and edit videos of up to 60 seconds with background music, and before its launch in the United States it was running for several months in test mode in India.
For the music background, YouTube has agreements for the use of music from major US record labels, such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music, Believe, Merlin, 300 Entertainment, Kobalt, Beggars, CD Baby, Empire, Peer, Reservoir and OneRPM. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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