Social Media Scams and Hoaxes

Social Media scams and hoaxes come around every year and unfortunately, unsuspecting Social Media users are perpetuating and helping spread these erroneous tales.

Who Are Creating These Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?

Unfortunately, with tremendous popularity, also comes a dark side. Virus writers and other cybercriminals go where the numbers are and the most popular Social Media sites are Twitter, LinkedIn, and the biggest, Facebook.

Why Are Social Media Scams and Hoaxes Created?

By empowering users to share and connect, social media platforms open the door for a variety of different security and privacy concerns.

Make no mistakes about it, Social Media scams and hoaxes can do damage. If not direct damage to your pocketbook, it can do damage to your reputation — both personally or professionally. In fact, one of the fastest ways to get singled out by your employer is falling for these tricksters.

“As any security professional will tell you, allowing your employees to use social media sites on corporate networks could make your system increasingly vulnerable.” ~ SecurityIntelligence.com

So, How You Can Protect Yourself Against Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?

According to several consumer protection agencies, most scams start with an approach through contact you weren’t expecting. If someone contacts you out of the blue – whether over the phone, through the post, by email, on a website, in person or on social media – always consider the possibility that it may be a scam.

Beyond the basics above, I suggest keeping your personal information “locked-down” and not exposed to public view. In fact, because some sites, e.g. Facebook, like to prompt you to secure your account with your contact information (usually your cell phone), I would go one step further and make your settings so that only you (and not even your friends) can see your details. If your friends need to contact you, they will have all the info needed, and as such, there is no need to share it on Social Media.

What To Do If You Suspect Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?

The #1 thing to do if you suspect you are the target of Social Media cams and hoaxes is to change your password(s) and sign out of all devices!

The Seven Biggest Social Media Scams And Hoaxes Of 2018!

According to SecurityIntelegence.com, the seven biggest hoaxes and scams of 2018 have been as follows:

1. Catfishing
Catfishing is an internet scam in which a cybercriminal creates a fake online profile to seduce a victim into a fictitious online relationship — usually to get money or other benefits from the victim.

2. Profile Hijacking
The Facebook profile hijack is another take on using a fake profile for nefarious means. In this case, cybercriminals often use the attributes and details of real people — like their photos, hometown and occupation — to set up profiles pretending to be that person. 

3. Lottery Schemes
A ruse emerged earlier this year involving fake profiles that appeared to belong to top Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg. The cybercriminals sent messages to other users informing them that they’d just won lottery prize money.

4. Quizzes That Mine Your Information
Which “Stars Wars” character are you? What city were you meant to live in? Which celebrity is your soulmate? Sound familiar? These are all popular quizzes that have been widely shared on Facebook, imploring users to take a few minutes for what seems like harmless fun.

5. URL-Shortening Cons
While URL shorteners are very useful for sharing a website link within a tight character limit, such as Twitter, they can also be used to mask a malicious page

6. Chain Message Hoaxes
Social media app Snapchat has run into a problem with chain message hoaxes, according to Tech Advisor. The ruse here involves trying to alarm users about something terrible that is going to happen to their data within the app.

7. Money-Flipping
Money-flipping is a growing financial scam on Instagram and other social media channels. Criminals seek to extort money from users by convincing them to make a bum investment.

This is a summary; read the entire blog from SecurityIntelligence.com here

Lastly, on this subject, reach out to me directly. Nothing beats “peace of mind” like a good phone call. Go to my contact page and send an email or, if you are within North America, call me direct at 1-888-502-3523.

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