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With all the different social media platforms, it makes it easy to fall prey to online scams. Courtesy ot Wikicommons
Free giveaways, cloned accounts and sham retailers are just a few schemes in a long list of scams that have infiltrated social media. With online networking platforms like Facebook and Instagram’s global popularity, it has grown into a conman’s playground. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s datareports,morethan 95,000 people reported about $770 million in losses to fraud that was initiated on social media platforms in 2021.
Socialmediahasdeveloped into more than just staying in touch with friends and family. It is a news source, advertisement for employment opportunities and has even integrated into some business models. It gives its users the opportunity to network with other users across the globe leaving it up to anyone with internet access to create an online profile.
The widely popular social media giant Facebook is a networking platform that allows users to interact with each other in different ways such as sharing photos, written posts and joining and creating groups. Users can create online profiles in seconds and share and gain access to information quickly and easily.
DatareportsfromtheFTC show that social media scams in 2021 were far more profitable than any other method of reaching people. Creating phony accounts within these platforms let scammers go relatively unnoticed.
By posting bogus listings such as fake rental properties, free giveaways and missing pet posts, scammers gain access to online groups to reach other online users to extract personal information. A very common con happens once a scammer has gained access to online groups then the account name may change to a fake business with a bogus link to get credit card or other personal information. Social media users then begin to sharethepostsofthosephony accounts inadvertently doing most of the scammers work for them.
Instagram is another popular social media contender whose platform is more focused on the visual experience ofeditingandpublishing single images, videos, reels or multiplevideosandphotoson a carousel post. With all the beautiful images to browse, in floods fake products and sham retailers with ads that impersonate real online retailers which drive people to the look alike websites. The aesthetically pleasing photos seem legitimate to entice purchasing what is unknowing to the shopper as fake productsoraboguswebsiteto gain your personal information or outright steal money without ever intending on selling a product at all. The FTC noted that while investment and romance scams top the list on dollars lost, the largest number of reports came from people who said they were scammed trying to buy something they saw marketed on social media.
The best way to detect a phony social media account is to check the profile of the business page or user to verify that it is a real person or business. Scammers often donottakethetimetoremove false information from the phony accounts, so information like name changes and multiple profile pictures can be seen just by directing attention to the main profile the information is originating. To help protect online users from theft, it is imperative to seek the privacy settings of online accounts to protect private information.
Somedefaultsettingsmay have personal information publicly available online. Personal information such as phone numbers and address are easy to find and coupled withotherextractedinformation it can lead to theft. For any users who spots a scam, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud. ftc.gov.