Recently a scam spam has surfaced that claims that your YouTube inbox is full, and that you have to go clear it out (another version of the same scam says that “You have 2 unread personal message”). The email, claiming to be from “service@youtube.com”, has a subject of “Warning: Your inbox is full, message not accepted” (or, again, the “You have X unread personal message”), and advises you that “You can reply to this message by visiting your inbox.” The link to your “inbox” of course, which looks like “http://www.youtube.com/inbox?feature=mhsn”, actually goes to one of several malicious sites.

Here’s the general format of the scam email:

From: service@youtube.com
Subject: Warning: Your inbox is full, message not accepted
Date: June 1, 2011 5:36:21 PM MDT

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Warning: Your inbox is full, message not accepted

No Paywall Here! The Internet Patrol is and always has been free. We don't hide our articles behind a paywall, or restrict the number of articles you can read in a month if you don't give us money. That said, it does cost us money to run the site, so if something you read here was helpful or useful, won't you consider donating something to help keep the Internet Patrol free? Click for amount options I ❤️ TIP! $5I appreciate TIP! $2Get yourself a coffee on me! $3I ❤️ TIP! $5 Other Amount: What info did you find here today?:

 

youtube[dot]com/inbox?feature=mhsn

You can reply to this message by visiting your inbox.

© 2011 YouTube, LLC
901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066

But if you hover over the link, you will see something like this:

 

 

Remember, as always, if you get a notice from an online service or website that you frequent, never click on the link in the email. Instead, always go directly to the website, and log in there, and if they really sent you that email, there will also be a notice in your account once you log in.