For the most part, it's been a bevy of fake leaks regarding Grand Theft Auto 6 angling for clicks, exploiting the seemingly boundless hype for the unannounced — but officially confirmed — game. Now, an all new attempt to take advantage of gullible fans has been reported, as fake GTA 6 advertisement spam and trailers are popping up on YouTube.
Appearing before or during videos that the algorithm might deem GTA-adjacent or related — or simply if you tend to look at a lot of GTA content — these ads splice together footage from GTA 5 and other games. Fans have identified footage from The Crew, Forza, Need for Speed and Saints Row. These ads were first reported on r/GTA6 by u/LegalWallhacks.
The ads include a modified version of the Rockstar Games logo, edited just enough not to be a copyright liability but kept similar enough to seem like the real deal at a glance. Clearly the target audience of this latest scam are younger, more gullible viewers who can't pick up on the red flags and may not be familiar with the other games the ads crib footage from.
The purpose of these ads isn't clear, but they likely are collecting data at the very least, and using clickthroughs to rack up views and possibly even subscribers. The scam is fairly easy to spot, and any fan will know just how tight lipped Rockstar is about GTA 6 at this point, so a trailer appearing in this manner is hardly believable.
Fake GTA 6 trailers popping up as paid advertising just goes to show how severely unchecked hyped for the game has snowballed. Large groups of fans sharing their passion for huge AAA titles are expected to get loud and hyped, but the levels reached with GTA 6 even before Rockstar ever acknowledged its existence were already unprecedented.
It is to be expected that when the company stay silent, third parties will step in to fill the void at their own gain. Chances are that legal action will be taken soon enough and these fake ads will be removed, but hopefully in the meantime they don't rope in enough folk who don't know better. You can find a truthful summary of what we know about Grand Theft Auto 6 so far right here.
