FRAUDLIFESTYLE & TRAVEL

Social Media Scams to Look Out For

In the age of technology, the potential for scams is on the rise. With the help of social media, scammers have access to large amounts of people for free or at a low cost. They can easily appear legitimate while staying anonymous. So, to lower your chances of getting caught up in a scam it’s best to do your research. Especially when you encounter something that sounds too good to be true.

Clickbait scams

Clickbait is online content using sensational headlines in order to persuade users to click on linked content to gain revenue. However, there is potential harm when it comes to clicking those links. If you click, then there’s a chance it contains malware viruses or installs malicious software. Clickbait posts usually contain just enough information to draw curiosity but not enough to satisfy the curious mind, leading people to click the links provided. Most times, if a post promotes something that sounds too good to be true, or asks you to install some type of software to view the content, chances are that it’s a clickbait scam.

Impersonation scams

Have you ever gotten a direct message from one of your friends (or from people you follow) containing a random, suspicious link? Chances are their account has been hacked. What usually happens is scammers will hack someone’s social media account and use it to hack more accounts. If you get a direct message with a suspicious link, contact the person and inform them that they might have gotten their account hacked. As long as you don’t click on any links, your account is safe.

Phishing scams

A phishing scam is when you receive an email that creates a scenario where you will need to provide sensitive information. For example, you might receive an email that looks like it’s from your social media account, stating that you have successfully changed your password when you didn’t. It will then ask you to “login.” In actuality, you never got an email from that particular company and instead you were tricked by scammers into providing them with your login information. With it, they’ll be able to use that information to hack into your account. It can be even worse if you have a certain credit card linked to it, like for streaming accounts. In many cases, these emails are very similar to emails that the company sends out, making it difficult to know if it’s a scam. The best way to deal with these situations to attempt to contact the company directly.

Sources:

• https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/Publications/SocialMediaScams.asp
• https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-online-scams-top-5-social-media-scams.html