Around 9:00 AM on November 26, fans of the famous MC noticed that the YouTube channel “TRẤN THÀNH TOWN” was livestreaming a video in a foreign language offering free Bitcoin giveaways.
The video included a link to a website encouraging viewers to send cryptocurrency to an address shown on screen in exchange for double the amount back. The Bitcoin giveaway livestream ran for about 30 minutes before being removed. On his official fanpage, MC Trấn Thành confirmed that his YouTube channel had been hacked and assured fans that his team was working to recover it.
This isn’t the first time a popular Vietnamese YouTube channel has been hacked to stream scam videos. Before Trấn Thành, singers Hồ Quang Hiếu and Lý Hải also had their channels compromised to livestream cryptocurrency giveaways. Even channels with hundreds of thousands or millions of subscribers like Vietnam Esports TV and VETV7 Esports have been targeted by hackers with malicious intent.
Tech experts explain this is a case of stolen stream keys, which act like passwords and addresses for live streams on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. The stream key identifies your broadcast coming from streaming software.
When livestreaming, users enter their stream key into software like OBS. If this key leaks, hackers can hijack the channel to broadcast scams without fully taking over the YouTube account. Experts recommend resetting the stream key after every livestream to prevent this kind of attack.
