YouTube Hijacked by Notorious Adware Company

YouTube has been hijacked.

After victimizing Facebook and The New York Times last year, a notorious ad fraud perpetrator, Sambreel, has returned. Like a back from the dead horror movie villain, Sambreel has come back using a bunch of alternate company names to dupe Web users into installing plug ins on their computers that deliver ads on YouTube—without YouTube’s knowledge or permission.

That’s according to the latest bombshell report from Spider.io, the British research firm that helped identify an infamous botnet earlier this year.

8 Examples of Sambreel Ads That Shouldn't Be on YouTube [GALLERY]

Here’s how it works: Users who want to download YouTube videos to their desktops conduct searches such as “Download YouTube videos."

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