The renowned CS:GO professional S1mple raises his voice against scammers on YouTube who misuse his image for fake giveaway streams. Despite the player’s public appeal, the platform responds hesitantly, and fans express outrage over the lack of efficiency in dealing with the problem.
The respected professional Counter-Strike player Oleksandr S1mple
Kostyljev, who streams on Twitch, has called on YouTube via an X post (formerly Twitter) to take action against scammers who use his image in the thumbnails for fake giveaways, thus deceiving viewers.
The exploitation of celebrities for fraudulent purposes is nothing new and has posed a challenge for online platforms for years.
The Ukrainian CS:GO professional shared a screenshot of two YouTube channels that use his image and name for fraudulent purposes. He emphasized that he only publishes his content on Twitch.
Oleksandr expressed his displeasure over the continued use of his image for fake actions and urged YouTube to take effective steps.
This is S1mple: Oleksandr S1mple
Kostyljev, born on October 2, 1997, is a Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
player. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful CS:GO players of all time, with many achievements, including 21 HLTV MVP medals, one Major and one Intel Grand Slam trophy, as well as numerous S-tier titles.
S1mple was named the best player in 2018, 2021, and 2022, and took second place in 2019 and 2020.
Other platforms are affected as well: On platforms like Twitch, such fake channels are not uncommon. During the hype around GTA 6, before the release of the trailer in December, a fraudulent Rockstar account was banned on Twitch. The channel allegedly directed phishing links to viewers.
Viewers want more response from YouTube
This is how YouTube responds: The controversy surrounding the post has garnered considerable attention, prompting the official @TeamYouTube account to respond on X and encourage the pro player to also use the reporting feature on the site. Nonetheless, frustrated users expressed their discontent and called for a more decisive response from YouTube.
As of January 3, 2024, the fraudulent livestreams are still online. The YouTube channel named S1mple
reportedly has over 3,000 viewers at times and has already amassed more than 28,000 subscribers.
This is how the community responds: Many community members express their discontent with YouTube, as the platform seemingly does little more than point S1mple to utilize the reporting function. Despite numerous reports from viewers, previous actions have shown little success.
Some disappointed fans express themselves on X as follows:
- _annoynymous writes:
I have reported so many of these fake channels… they are still there. Ban them manually.
- aceofrare comments:
I have reported these videos a hundred times already.
- KledCS2 notes:
Same crap as with Ropz.
Incidents like this are not isolated cases. Furthermore, some scammers go a step further: they hack the YouTube channels of well-known streamers and stream fraudulent content. Even German YouTubers like Julien Bam have experienced this. You can read more about it here:
