The platform rules and laws that come up most often when making scam-awareness content, in one place, quoted from the source with links. This is general information to help plan a video, not legal advice, and laws differ by country and state.
YouTube: the rules that apply to scam content
- Educational context goes in the video itself. YouTube's policy on educational, documentary, scientific and artistic context says to include the information in the video, not only the title or description, and that context in comments, tags or pinned comments may not count. Policy
- Showing how a scam works is allowed with context; teaching people to steal is not. The harmful or dangerous content policy prohibits "demonstrating how to use computers or information technology with the intent to steal credentials" and instructions for getting someone's private information. Saying "don't try this at home" is not enough context. Policy
- A link on screen counts as a link. The external links policy treats web addresses shown on screen or spoken as links, and bans links to phishing or malware sites. Show scam links disabled (hxxps://example[.]com) or blurred. Policy
- Fake support numbers. The spam, deceptive practices and scams policy bans sharing fake customer support contact details, so blur a scammer's number rather than display it. Policy
- Personal information. The harassment policy bans sharing someone's private details, such as a phone number or home address, and encouraging viewers to target someone; its public-interest exceptions "are not a pass to harass someone". Policy
- Advertising. Educational references to dishonest behaviour and crime documentaries can earn ads; content teaching unauthorised access to systems cannot. Guidelines
- Labelling. YouTube asks creators to label realistic altered or synthetic content, which includes scam re-enactments made with AI voices.
Recording calls
- United States. Federal law needs one party's consent. California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada (for phone calls), New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington need everyone's consent, and Michigan and Connecticut depend on the circumstances. For calls between states, follow the strictest law that could apply.
- United Kingdom. Recording a call you are part of, for your own use, is often lawful. Publishing it brings data protection, privacy, defamation and harassment rules into play, and a scammer's voice and face are personal data.
Numbers, names and logos
- Caller numbers and sender names are often spoofed, so a number in a scam may belong to an innocent person or business. Blur numbers, names, account details and any victim's information in screenshots.
- Logos. Naming a brand to say it is being impersonated is lower risk than showing its logo; the test is whether viewers might think the brand endorses the video. Government seals have their own restrictions.
- Safe on-screen material. The Specimen Vault has 400 messages with brands masked, fictional numbers and disabled links, built for on-camera use.
News clips
- United States. Fair use is decided case by case on four factors, and the Copyright Office says there is no formula for a safe length. copyright.gov
- United Kingdom. Fair dealing allows criticism, review and quotation with acknowledgement, and reporting current events, but the current-events exception excludes photographs. Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 30
Free official material and its licences
- Public domain (United States Government work): Federal Trade Commission consumer education and data, Federal Bureau of Investigation public service announcements, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's Secure Our World materials. Seals and third-party images are excluded.
- Open Government Licence (free with credit): the National Cyber Security Centre, the Home Office's Stop! Think Fraud materials and Office for National Statistics tables. Logos are excluded.
- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: the National Cybersecurity Alliance's Cybersecurity Awareness Month toolkit. Commercial use needs written permission from the Alliance.
- No licence stated: Take Five to Stop Fraud, AARP, Scamwatch and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. Link and cite them, or ask before reusing their files.
- Everything UtilForge publishes is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: free to reuse in any format and on any channel, including monetised channels, with a link to UtilForge.org.
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