was like a Trojan virus that took over
our account and all our credentials.
They were able to log in, get rid of all
the account managers, and transfer
partial ownership over to whatever
company that they had.”
The company in question, pos-
ing as CoinBase Pro, changed
the channel’s name and banner.
Then they started live-streaming a
Bitcoin scam video on both Neebs
Gaming and the original Hank and
Jed channels. Fans on social media
were quick to notice and brought it
to Schnur’s attention, “Our com-
munity jumped right on it and was
like, ‘Hey, what’s going on? I think
you guys were hacked. All your
videos are gone.’
“They didn’t delete the videos
that were there thank God, but
we do have a backup of all those,
which...You should. If you’re a cre-
ator, have a backup of everything.”
From there it was a matter of get-
ting into direct contact with You-
Tube/Google to take back control
of their channel. Neebs Gaming
had signed on with the Creative
Artist Agency (CAA) in 2019 which
gave them a much-needed leg up
on sorting through the mess:
“[Our] agent has a contact over
at Google, so he was able to get
me some sort of communication
within 24 hours, which is rare. In
the past when we’ve tried to con-
tact YouTube it’s been hard to get
a hold of them. From the time we
spoke with somebody at Google, it
took about four days to gain com-
plete control back.”
They had to deal with a number
of copyright strikes and reports
(due to the scammers) which prevented them from
uploading. It took another two days after regaining
control of the channel before they could start posting
new content.
Despite everything, Schnur praises the overall re-
sponse from Google. A response boosted by the pressure
and support of their community, “It’s easy to complain
about [stuff[ when something goes wrong, but you have
to take into consideration the other guys. Google is a
huge company; they have a lot going on. We tried to be
patient with them and work with them as best as we
could. And they were pretty good considering how many
people they have to deal with, you know?”
Even though it was a scary experience, the team has
tried to turn it into something beneficial. “It seemed
like a catastrophe at the time,” Schnur says, “but I
figured we could probably turn a negative into a posi-
tive by informing others of what not to do. Don’t open
certain software, make sure you have a lot of...you
know, dual authentication.
“You have to maintain some sort of composure.
Rally your community, yet don’t go in there with
pitchforks and torches demanding that YouTube do
whatever you want. Just like, ‘Hey, bear with us, don’t
click on any links, don’t watch these videos...we’re
gonna be back.’”CREATING MORE THAN VIEWERS
Beyond helping in the fight to regain control of their
channel, Schnur credits the Neebs Gaming commu-NEEBS GAMING
COMEDY, COMMUNITY AND SURVIVAL