Social media scams were reported as a quarter of the frauds in the 2021 fraud losses report in the United States. Ages 18-39 are the ones who are the majority which makes up this group of individuals scammed larger on Facebook and Instagram. [2] This is the highest reported amount of cases for fraud up to date. [1]
Shopping Scams
The majority of social media scams were categorized as “shopping scams”. [2]A bogus ad is put up with other fake accounts commenting about the product, designed to make you trust the ad at first glance, and then the item you buy never shows up, and there are no ways of communication. When prompted to fill out the shipping information, your credit card information is made available to them, and personal information such as address and phone number. The reveal of your phone numbers can lead to phone call scams, having a domino effect on other scams.
Investment Scams
Another category of these scams is investments scams. [1] Scammers take ahold of one account get the individual to record a video in a promise to cash out the investment they have made at the end. When individuals try to log into the link that will supposedly give them their money, their Instagram accounts are taken over. The scammers use phishing to figure out the passwords and then post then made on their behalf to their friends, and the cycle continues. In some cases, the individuals whose accounts have gotten taken over lose all the information they had on the account, such as pictures or messages. These pictures can be of their children and family members only intended for friends to see now in the hands of strangers. Not only does the individual lose their money, but their privacy is violated.
An example of an individuals Instagram account was taken over due to this:
https://abc7.com/video/embed/?pid=11509271
“She’s telling me all the steps and the details and I’m thinking it’s her, but it wasn’t her, it was the scammers.” [4]
“OMG you guys! I cannot believe I just made an investment of $1,300,” [4]
Statement made by Anderson in an article where she explains what happened to her Instagram account [4]
Romance Scams
Romance scams can often be a continuation of the shopping or investment scams. After the personal information is acquired, the scammer either uses the profile of the individuals after gaining access or uses the information to create a new fake account. Scammers will also create completely random profiles and establish a relationship with you. They then ask for money by reaching out to you and giving immense detail into why or what they need.
Steps You Can Take To Stay Safe
We recently learned in class about identifying and authenticating; these skills can be put to great use in this context.
The first step would be to identify characteristics about the website. Try to look assess the following aspects:
- Do the graphic look well done? Do the pictures look photoshopped and fake or are they real?
- Are there spelling or grammar mistakes?
- Look for watermarks or copyright signs and try to identify the return policy and contact information ahead of time.
The next step would be to authenticate, especially for websites not well known. Try to look assess the following aspects:
- Try to google the website rather than following the direct link to read up on other experiences.
- Use this link provided by Google to see if the website has been vetted. https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search
- Try to reach out to them ahead of time to ensure they are reliable as an attempt to have them prove their identity.
General Rules of Thumb to Use:
- It’s safer to avoid clicking links from those you don’t know or don’t recognize
- Do not give money or credit card information to anyone unless you have tripled checked their identity.
- Do not invest in anything other than credited and vetted websites or apps.
Overall, always do research! If it looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.
To end on not such a scary note and provide more reassurance, below is a link to an additional website that provides a comprehensive walk-through about identifying if a website is safe and credible.
https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/5-ways-to-determine-if-a-website-is-fake-fraudulent-or-a-scam/
Sources
- https://www.itworldcanada.com/post/95000-americans-lost-770-million-to-social-media-scams
- https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2022/social-media-scams-soared-last-year.html
- https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2022/01/social-media-gold-mine-scammers-2021
- https://abc7.com/instagram-investment-scam-online-hackers-long-beach-woman/11509192/
- https://www.complex.com/life/ftc-social-media-scams-cost-people-770-million-2021
- https://www.popsci.com/technology/ftc-social-media-scams/
A very well-structured blog! I must say it is very tempting when you see an ad which promise high rewards. Something like “Sign up and earn $10k” . Nowadays a mobile phone is an ordinary thing, almost anyone can own it. An ad post is just a single click away. Anyone can pretend to be someone else behind a screen and get lots of details out of you. The example you mentioned about investment scams sounds so extreme. Not only the person lost their money but they also got their private info breached. Now the hacker can use that information and hold it for ransom. Clearly the internet as a whole is no longer safe so it is up to us in order to stay aware of such incidents and techniques. I will definitely use the steps you mentioned in order to surf the web safely.
Thank you so much! I absolutely agree it is super tempting especially if you are in a vulnerable or difficult position, you’ll be more inclined to try and take the risk. You make a great point that the internet no longer is a safe place, everyday we make a positive discovery there is also someone figuring out how to use the internet and their skills for something opposite. I’m glad to hear the steps are helpful!
Your post is very informative Harmeen. Ads are omnipresent in our daily Internet consumption, especially in social media corporations like Facebook, Youtube, Google, etc. For average consumers, it is rather difficult to distinguish between a legitimate ad and a bogus ad to avoid scam, particularly when the shopping scams play to one of our greatest weaknesses: greed. Within a click of the bogus ad, the media user will allow the hacker access to their personal data and bank account. Not only could they lose all their money but also their own identity and connections. Shopping scam has become one of the major problems on the internet and social media corporate should try to prevent them instead of giving them the platform to seek target.
I completely agree with you Danny. I feel social media platforms do take some measure in putting up banners that say “ad” on posts they have vetted but I don’t feel they are doing enough. It’s unfortunate but I think the same aspect of greed also applies here. These companies have such a huge number of participants that they focus more on making you believe everything is okay rather than actually making it so. It seems as we advance so do the type of problems we have, in the end it is up to us to stay safe until these platforms establish better system.
This was very informative and cool to read! I liked how you included some charts and a video to add more detail. It was interesting to see how the amount of these scams have significantly increased since 2020. My guess is that with the pandemic and more people spending time on the web because they’re bored, scammers have also increased their activities to take advantage of this situation. I liked how you added recommendations on how to prevent getting scammed.
This was a very informative blog Harmeen!
Looking at the graph from figure 2 is quite alarming as the dollar amount of theft seems to be growing exponentially year over year.
With the current trends do you think this is going to slow down? Or will the rate of growth remain solid and continue to reach all time highs? And how can large tech companies like facebook and google do their part in helping “flatten the curve”
Amazing points Deliar! I unfortunately don’t think that the trends will slow down. From what I have observed from my post and those of everyone else, the problem seems to be increasing faster then can be felt with. Companies such as Apple and Windows are falling victim to attacks, we are yet mere mortals. I think if these companies dedicated more time to security it would absolutely help. Vetting and scanning for bug or flaws within their own system first and then focus on these bogus ads would definitely help. However I am so unfortunately not seeing this. They seem to only care when fallen under a scandal or called out, it’s a little sad actually to see their priorities may lie in selling more.
That was a very insightful posts to read! It is frightening to see how doing things and just enterring few informations for few seconds/minutes can lead to devastating results. People can easily get scammed for these advertisements. I myself sometimes get attracted to prizes and advertisements that is shown everywhere. It is also so scary how accounts can be taken over and own personal pictures can be own by others and strangers! Overall a well-written post!
Thank you! I also agree with you, at times we are all intrigued by these amazing offers, I mean who wouldn’t want to be able to make so much money that fast. That’s also why I included the post from Mazda’s instagram page. Somehow scammers got a hold of the page and started posting all the information of money you could get.It’s a verified company page that is generally trusted so to see it there you are definitely more inclined to trust and click. I was hoping to highlight not to jump at the first impulsive thought, as mentioned we all, and take time to do more research to verify as unfortunately there are very cunning people out there.
This was a very informative post.
We all see ads everyday on the social media platforms we use. It is difficult to decide if an ad it a bogus or if it is a legitimate ad.It is scary to see how your account and personal data can be compromised by just one click on a bogus ad.
I like how you have mentioned steps to stay safe from these kind of scams.
It seems like all these scams rely on people to be reasonably gullible or have a desire for something else, for example romance or investment scams seems to appeal to a person desire to have love or make a lot of money. These scams target peoples desires and need them to be gullible to a certain extent. With investment scams in particular I’ve seen a lot of crypto rug pulls like Squid game coin and baby musk coin that scam people for millions. But in reading your post I didn’t realize that investment scams would also involve people logging on to link found on social media, which is unbelievable to me. With regards to shopping scams nowadays it seems like they’ll become more commonplace as people shop more on online stores like amazon or small online shops, there’s bound to be more of those types of scams. Overall very interesting post on the types of scams and how they achieve such scams.
You’re totally correct Kevin. It’s almost a combination of physiological tricks combined with these hacking skills that makes these types of scams so much worse. They know how to target these valuable individuals and trick them into doing things we normally don’t think is okay. If a stranger came up to us on the street and asked people for large amounts of money we aren’t inclined to give it. But put people behind a screen and establish bogus relationships with one motive and people are giving money to those they’ve never met. It’s very crazy the long haul these hackers and scammers are willing to play.
I believe these scams are more focused towards human nature rather than exploiting a device’s security measures and that makes this issue challenging to handle. One possible solution a person may think of would be that everything over the internet goes through a test but that’s not a realistic solution as the quantity of stuff posted online is stupendous and the variety of ads posted makes it even harder to make a generic test.
The optimal solution I could think of is that the websites and applications themselves are responsible for the safety for a visitor to their website but it still is an extremely challenging task and doesn’t guarantee safety from scams.
This blog post was a very informative read. These social media scams are much harder to remove because it relies on human nature rather than technological exploits. All of the types of scams mentioned in your post could be avoided if proper education was provided or every post on social media required to go through a screening process. As social media’s are becoming more commonly used it is incredibly important for users to be educated on these scams. I will be using the steps you mentioned in your blog post!