Fake brand deals steer creators into Google account theft
ESET found a brand-deal scam targeting YouTube creators that starts with personalized sponsorship emails and ends at a fake collaboration site asking them to sign in with Google. One campaign impersonated Hollyland, and ESET traced it from the first contact through the login request.
The trick is staging trust before the credential grab. The fake site first looks like a normal partnership workflow, with channel stats, contracts, payment details, and other cues that make the Google sign-in request feel like part of the deal rather than a phishing step. Because the target is the creator’s Google account, the payoff can reach the YouTube channel itself, not just one inbox.
For media and entertainment teams that negotiate sponsorships through Google-linked identities, the exposure sits in the business process as much as the mailbox. Variants using different brands and domains suggest the lure can be repackaged for other creator-facing partnerships without changing the basic theft path.