I've been Hacked

Oh my, oh my!
My You Tube account got unexpectedly and suddenly terminated on Monday after 3 “copyright takedown notices’ for videos I have never heard of!
Here’s what happened;
On Saturday 6th Dec I received an email that a video I’ve never heard of (much less uploaded) had been removed from my YouTube account due to a copyright takedown notice and that I now had 1 copyright strike.
The video title was – “Josh Hates His Dad And Gets Grounded” – What???
I immediately appealed explaining I had no idea where the video had come from and that my account must have been hacked and could they please assist me in resolving this issue.
On Sunday I received this from YouTube;

Thank you for submitting your video appeal to YouTube.
After further review of the content, we’ve determined that your video does violate our Community Guidelines and have upheld our original decision. We appreciate your understanding.
Yours sincerely,
– The YouTube Team

I didn’t want the video reinstated, I didn’t even know what it was!
Unfortunately we were then traveling on Sunday / Monday so I was horribly shocked to find that on Sunday I received Copyright Strike 2 & on Monday strike 3 plus account termination.
All for videos I have never laid eyes on!
The second video was called – “Custom Pinnacle Sample Video Compilation”
The third video was again – “Josh Hates His Dad And Gets Grounded”
If you search for those videos on YouTube, it is as clear as day they’re not mine and I wouldn’t load those onto my account!
So today I fired this email off to the YouTube copyright department;

Dear YouTube Team,
My youtube account has been suspended due to some videos which I did NOT upload myself. I have always had a very good standing with YouTube. It is clear my account was hacked or accessed somehow without my permission.
I have a good subscriber database, over 600 videos and a solid reputation with you and my community. Is there anyway someone can look into this for me please.
The videos that were removed and were the cause of the termination were not mine. I do not recognise them and have changed my password with immediate effect.
I do not want to submit a counter notification as I don’t want these videos re-instated. I have no idea where they came from.
It also seems on further investigation that someone is trying to access my google adwords account also. So I’ve been well and truly hacked.
Please could you assist?
Thank you so much for your help.
Jo Barnes

At the same time, I have emailed the person who flagged my videos as copyright. Thankfully YT include the names of the offending videos and their account name in the email so I was able to find him (on the advise of a good friend and YouTube expert) and contact him.
It seems he runs some kind of gaming channel, although the offending videos have nothing to do with gaming. All very strange!
So now it’s a case of waiting to see if I can get my channel back.
600 Vids
500,000 views
Nearly 4000 subscribers
Ok so I have a fab coach in my life right now and he always says to me whenever you come up against a challenging situation, ask yourself – What’s GREAT about this?
A tough question I have to say when things don’t feel particularly great, but let’s give it a go.

What’s GREAT about this;

1. I have been through all my main accounts and updated all my passwords. A job that was long overdue.
2. Quite a few of the older videos were out of date, causing some support tickets with questions and queries, so it will possibly cut down on support queries.
3. Whilst 4 years of hard work and videos may possibly have disappeared forever meaning I will need to update email funnels, some courses, optin funnels etc, I’m still alive and well! The sun is still shining, my family still love me and at the end of the day it’s not life or death!
4. It’s a great reminder for us all not to put all our eggs into one social account. Remember you’re not in charge, it’s their platform, so where possible diversify and own your content!
5. This is a great message which will help others as I’m hoping this blog post will inspire you to go right now and update all your important passwords, a task which so many of us neglect to our own detriment!
6. Lastly as a quick piece of advice, should anything like this ever happen to you, act FAST! Because we were traveling and I was doing most of my correspondence on my phone, I acted too slowly. I stupidly thought the first issue was simply a mistake and I would get it sorted as soon as I arrived at my destination. But by then it was too late. So ACT FAST!

So your main action point here is – Go and update your passwords!
In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for me and I’ll keep you updated!
Also if you get a moment and you know my work, I would really appreciate you leaving a positive comment below so that I may try sending this blog post to YouTube as part of my petition to get my account reopened.
Thank you so much!
Jo

HUGE UPDATE – 11th December 2014

My account has been reinstated! Yippeee!
Watch this video to get the latest as it isn’t over yet and a couple of tips to ensure this doesn’t happen to you!

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