Matthias Wandel's YT stolen by crypto scammers

Matthias Wandel's YT stolen by crypto scammers(youtube.com)

3 points by george_edwards 2 years ago | 3 comments

Matthias is the man behind the `panto-router`, a clever, pantograph-inspired woodworking router mount which went viral some years ago.

His YouTube credentials were stolen this morning and his videos are being replaced with crypto scam primer videos, as can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/user/matthiaswandel

For reference, Matthias has addressed this issue on his second channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzys4SSNqhU.

This situation is not only a loss to the DIY and engineering community but also poses an unfortunate risk to those who may fall prey to these scams, as his subscriber count now lends credence to their messaging.

I'm hoping someone from the Google's YouTube arm will come across this post.

Scoundreller 2 years ago | |

I don't quite understand it. Looks like all the videos now were uploaded a several months to a year ago. So it's like some other account got renamed into his? Maybe a deactivation and quick pickup of the "now free" name? Kinda surprised google would allow a pickup that quickly instead of quarantining newly available names for X days.

george_edwards 2 years ago | | |

I found the same thing. I think it's one of two possibilities. Either they were able to redirect his channel to their (completely separate) channel, in which case the upload date and view count would have been more organic, or they were able to replace his videos with theirs, leaving his video's view count and date-uploaded intact (although I find it hard to believe youtube's creator tools would allow for a complete change of video)

All we know is his credentials were stolen.

N.B: there's a larger thread over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39182122