Social Media Platforms
With the spread of the use of social networking sites in the world and the fraud operations that users fall through through marketing and promoting various products and services that are impossible to control and monitor from a distance, it has become the responsibility of the individual or institutions to make every effort to take precaution and caution from the transactions that are promoted through the communication sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and to ensure the degree of credibility and not to deviate from low prices and the temptation to them. This poses a threat to the user.
Fraud via Social Media
It could be through fake sites for sale or purchase, text messages or via electronic messages whose purpose is to steal the user’s identity or personal or financial information, such as the user name, passwords, credit card numbers, and billing information, by marketing tricks through misleading and fake messages that imitate well-known brands.
Statistics on Fake Accounts and Online Attacks
According to a recently published study, 53% of social media logins are associated with fraudulent accounts, 25% of new accounts are fake, and among the 5 countries that are the largest sources of cyber attacks, the Philippines is the largest source of human and robotic attacks, followed by the United States of America.
The Most Fraudulent Operations on Social Media
Charitable Fraud
In this type of fraud that occurs frequently on social media, pages target people’s feelings to persuade them to donate money for charitable organizations or the poor and needy people.
Messages based on this type of fraud usually include an urgent matter that asks a person of good morals to pay a sum of money, and such messages may contain links to sites that appear legitimate and honest.
Home Work Fraud
Some people believe that working from home is one of the easiest jobs that may give you an income that is enough for you to live a luxurious life. Many people dream that they will be employed to work at their homes, and therefore these dreamers may be an easy catch for those swindlers who take advantage of their goal to hire some employees to work for free.
Usually, in such frauds, someone who lives in one country would be employed to work for another person who lives in another country for a salary that may seem excellent. But after the employee finishes the work, or when the salary is due, the employer ignores all messages , or may even block him.
Cancel Your Account on a Site
Some fraudsters spend a great deal of time designing social media messages of official appearance and imitate service providers who have a good reputation, and then these thieves tell people that their account for one of the important services they subscribe to is about to close for a specific reason and that they need to answer some questions to keep it open. The message may include a link to a site in which the person is asked to enter the login data for an account and through the registration of data, the account is closed via social networking sites.
Congratulations’ Card Scam and Trick’
A message is sent to the victim that includes a blessed congratulation to him on something that happened with him in addition to a malicious link. The message encourages the victim to click on the link, and when he does that his device will be hacked and the scammers will steal a lot of important information that can be used to steal his money.
Proof Fraud
This fraud uses something important to you, such as religion or philosophical beliefs, to get you to send money.
Guaranteed Bank Loan
The thief informs you that you have been approved for a bank loan, but you only need to pay some fees for the order to be processed and completed. The fee amount may be small, but scammers may attempt to obtain your credit card information through this process.
Service Providers Cheats
A message on social media that includes that you have to pay an invoice for a specific purpose or your case will be transferred to the judiciary.
Fraud Victim Compensation Fraud
A message here states that the sender is coordinating some compensation for fraud victims, that your name (i.e. the victim’s name) is on the victim list, and you only need to send some personal details to get compensation.
Tricks Associated with the Elderly
Although almost all types of electronic fraud target anyone, many of them are specifically designed to defraud the elderly, where fraudsters believe that the deception of the elderly is relatively easy, here are some of the most common types of fraud related to the elderly:
Investment Tricks
Elderly people usually look for short-term projects to invest their money in, to increase their monthly income, which is often a pensionable salary. Investment scams are one of the most tempting ways for older people to send their money to the thief.
Health Tricks
With age, the likelihood of deteriorating health and the need to use medicines increase. Some pharmacies on the Internet offer drugs at a price below the average, but these drugs are false and ineffective.
Ransomware
It is among the most powerful types of extortion and fraud on social media. The perpetrator sends a malicious program to your device and encrypts your important files and promises that you will decrypt them when you pay him money.
One of the most well-known ransomware cases is that of the attack called WannaCry 2017, where blackmailers managed to get an estimated $140,000 in Bitcoin by targeting nearly 400,000 machines. Regularly backing up your files can help overcome this kind of blackmail.
Extraction
The perpetrator here secretly depicts the victim during sexual activity or while changing clothes, and then asks the victim to send money if they do not want their pictures posted on social media or shared with specific people.
Hitman
Here the victim is threatened with physical violence or even murder by email, phone call, or the like. Usually, the sender claims that money has been paid to kill you and that he will not do so if you pay him some money. The email may contain some of your personal information to make it more honest.
DDoS Attacks
Your site stops on social media platforms suddenly, so you know soon afterwards that someone has managed to stop it by manipulating the servers on it. That person will promise to return it to work if you pay him money.
Important Tips for Protecting Against Fraud on Social Media
Change the password for your accounts continuously and regularly
Change your password regularly to reduce the possibility of your account being compromised. Check the complexity of the new password, and avoid using numbers only. The longer the password, the better. It should at least consist of eight letters that combine numbers and symbols in it.
Download an online application to monitor your accounts
Using an application to monitor the activity of these of your accounts on social media. An application such as Social Media Vault enables you to manage your accounts on social sites easily and safely and supports most popular social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Install an Anti-Virus Program
If you use a Windows or Mac personal computer, you must install a powerful antivirus program. Sometimes, some viruses open a back door for third parties to access user data on social networks, so it is very important that you do everything in your power to prevent these viruses from being present. On your computer
Avoid Suspicious Content
You should stay away from clicking on links that you do not know their source or that you do not fully trust, as hackers may have upgraded them to social networks.
Beware of Fake Gifts, Contests, and Prize
Some phishing sites provide prizes and gifts in exchange for filling out a specific questionnaire, but these are traps, either to obtain permission to enter your information on social media (for example, you need to allow the Facebook application to access your account to earn the prize) or to collect personal information.
Avoid Clicking on Tempting Ad Links and Headlines
You may receive allegations of news reporting on the news of some celebrities, or publishing exciting pictures of some of them or some secret information that helps you to earn money quickly by investing some stocks, often directed to malicious sites.
Avoid Overestimating Posts
Do not post what you do not trust; exaggerated sharing gives criminals the information they need to attack your account, or helps them catch your friends or coworkers as victims of such deception.