Back in December, I got an email from someone claiming to be Team Cherry, the developers of Hollow Knight. This "marketing liason" was offering me early access to the sequel/expansion, Silksong, to review.
A friend with connections to the game press quickly pointed out that the real Team Cherry wasn't sending out early access review codes and that they were actually warning users about impersonators on their "Contact Us" form. The email I received was a scam from someone looking to infect me with malware and/or steal my identity. (I wrote a twitter thread about it here)
About a month later, as I was wrapping up work on my "Definitive way to Play Sonic Adventure 2" video, I received another email, this one claiming to be someone from Frontier Foundry asking to sponsor an upcoming video for the release of "Deliver Us Mars." I told them I already had a sponsor for the Sonic Adventure 2 video, and after I was done, I was planning on taking a holiday. They got weirdly pushy with me, saying I could "make a short video" and put the brand deal there. I was too busy finishing the SA2 video, so I ignored them and moved on.
Now another month later, I find myself finishing a quick little video and thinking about that Frontier Foundry offer again, but upon looking at it with fresh eyes, it also was a clear and obvious scam. Just like with the fake Team Cherry offer, the person isn't listed as an employee at Frontier Foundry, the email they sent the offer from seems to be a personal email address that doesn't match who they said they were, and the "Contract" they tried to force on me was a huge Google Drive zip file that was password protected to prevent me from seeing what was inside before I downloaded it. The fact that they were so pushy with me suddenly started making a lot more sense.
As icing on the cake, I tried to ask the person for proof of identity, and in the month+ since we last talked to each other, their email address has been forcibly closed by Gmail.
If you're an up-and-coming content creator, please be careful and be aware of tactics like this. It's easy to get starstruck by the idea that you're special enough to get picked for a sponsorship deal or an exclusive beta, but always research WHO is sending you that email and NEVER be afraid to ask for proof of identity. Go over their heads and check with the employer they claim to be from if you need to.
Be smart, protect yourself, and stay safe out there.