YouTube Bot Comments: How to Spot, Remove and Prevent Them

YouTube bot comments are comments posted by automated or fake accounts to push scams, adult links, fake investment testimonials or self-promotion. You can spot them by copied text, accounts imitating the creator, suggestive profile pictures and invitations to continue on Telegram or WhatsApp. Creators remove them with YouTube Studio’s Strict moderation, blocked words, blocked links and hidden users, then report them.

What do bot comments on YouTube look like?

Most bot comments fall into a handful of patterns. Knowing them makes the rest of the work easier.

How to spot a bot comment in seconds

One clue rarely proves anything. Two or three together almost always do.

• It sends you elsewhere. Telegram, WhatsApp, “check my profile”, “text me on”, a phone number. Legitimate commenters rarely ask strangers to move to a messaging app.

• The name is almost right. The display name and photo copy the creator, but the handle is different and the channel has no videos.

• The text is copied. Search a few words of the comment on the page: bots often repost the top comment verbatim.

• Links are disguised. Spaces inside URLs, “dot com” written out, emojis between letters, or look-alike characters from other alphabets.

• The thread agrees with itself. Several replies within minutes, all praising the same “expert” or confirming the same giveaway.

• The profile is empty or suggestive. No uploads, a recent join date, a stolen or explicit avatar.

Why YouTube does not catch all of them

YouTube removes comments at a very large scale. Google’s YouTube transparency report publishes the number of comments removed each quarter, and spam, misleading content and scams is consistently the largest category. Some bot comments still get through because bot operators adapt: they post replies inside popular threads instead of top-level comments, change wording constantly, and insert invisible characters or look-alike letters so keyword filters miss them.

That is why channel-level settings matter. YouTube’s filters are tuned for the whole platform, while you know which scams target your audience.

How to remove bot comments from your YouTube channel

1. Switch moderation to Strict. In YouTube Studio, open Settings, then Community. According to YouTube’s comment settings help page, Strict holds a broader range of potentially inappropriate comments than Basic. Anything held stays hidden from viewers until you approve it.

2. Add blocked words. Include the names of messaging apps scammers push, phrases such as “claim your prize” or “text me on”, and scam terms common in your niche. YouTube also holds comments that closely match a blocked word.

3. Block links. Unless your community needs to share URLs, hold every comment that contains one.

4. Clean the held queue. In the Comments page, open the Held tab. Remove bot comments, report them as spam or abuse, and hide the user so their future comments do not appear on your channel.

5. Check reply threads. Open the replies under your most liked comments: impersonators hide there.

6. Add moderators. Trusted viewers with a moderator role can hold suspicious comments and hide accounts straight from the watch page, which helps when a scam wave lands at night.

7. Pin a warning. A pinned comment such as “We will never ask you to message us on Telegram or WhatsApp” protects viewers who reach the replies before your moderation does.

For the full list of settings and roles, see our guide on how to moderate YouTube comments.

A starter list of blocked words

Adapt this list to your language and niche, and remove any term your real viewers use often.

Keyword lists catch the recurring phrases. They miss new wording and disguised spellings, which is where filters that read the whole comment help.

What viewers should do when they see a bot comment

• Do not click links or contact the account.

• Report the comment with the three-dot menu, choosing spam or scams.

• Check the handle: a real creator’s replies come from the channel you are watching, with the same @handle.

• Remember that giveaways are announced by the creator, not in reply threads, and never require paying a “fee”.

• Turn on two-step verification on your Google account.

Common mistakes creators make

• Replying to warn viewers. A reply adds activity to the scam thread. Remove it and pin a general warning instead.

• Removing without hiding the user. The same account comes back on the next video.

• Over-blocking. A blocked word list full of common words holds real comments. Check the Held tab every few days and approve the real ones.

• Checking only top-level comments. Much of the scam activity sits in replies.

YouTube’s spam, deceptive practices and scams policy describes what the platform itself removes. The same patterns appear on other networks: our article on bot comments on TikTok covers the TikTok version, and our comparison of social media moderation tools helps when you manage several platforms.

Automate it with Blabla

When scam waves hit every upload, manual cleanup falls behind. Blabla connects through the official YouTube Data API and reads new comments and replies as they sync, including the reply threads under your top comments where impersonators hide. You write the rule the way you would brief a moderator, for example “comments that use our channel name or photo, or ask viewers to contact someone on Telegram or WhatsApp”, add keyword lists for recurring phrases and disguised spellings, and matching comments are rejected automatically, day and night. Genuine questions stay visible and can get an AI reply in your tone. The same rules can protect your Instagram, Facebook and TikTok comments. See Blabla moderation and Blabla for YouTube (7-day free trial, no credit card). For a small channel, Strict moderation and a good blocked word list are often enough.

Conclusion

Bot comments on YouTube follow recognizable patterns: impersonation, fake testimonials, suggestive avatars, copied text and invitations to leave YouTube. Turn on Strict moderation, block links and scam phrases, hide the accounts, pin a warning, and automate the cleanup once the volume outgrows a daily check. It protects your viewers as much as your channel, and it helps keep your brand reputation intact.