It seems that YouTube has plenty of imitators… It’s not the first time we see websites that try to pass themselves off as this successful site with malicious intentions.
In this case, we’ve come across a website called Just a Tube, which has a very similar appearance with the legitimate website:
However, unlike the real YouTube in order to watch the video an update of a codec is going to be required:
If you download the code, you’ll be really installing a Trojan in the computer, which has been detected as Zlob.OB.
Normally, cybercrooks use Blackhat SEO techniques in order to get good positions in search engines. A good positioning combined with a more or less believable imitation of a legitimate website can make some users access them by mistake or without being aware, thinking that they are accessing the legitimate website.
However, for this and other cases, there are several best practices that can help you to avoid these situations:
- Pay attention to the URL displayed in the address bar. If it’s different from the usual one, you are likely to be accessing a false website. In the case of YouTube, the URL should be www.youtube.com and not other.
- Additionally, in this case, we see that besides having a different URL, the name of the page is not YouTube but Just a Tube.
- YouTube will NEVER require you to install a code to watch a video. However, it could require you to update the browser.
- When browsing through the Internet, be sure that you have an antivirus solution installed and updated.