While social media has given us the capability to communicate beyond anything we’ve seen since the popularization of the Internet itself, this isn’t all a good thing. These platforms have made it easier for people to scam others, after all, making it necessary for everyone to take their personal cybersecurity and that of their company even more seriously.

Let’s talk about how these scams commonly work.

What is a Social Media Scam?

As the name suggests, a social media scam is a scam carried out via a social media network.

Generally speaking, an attacker will create fake profiles on applications and platforms that carry some inherent trust, posing as an entity that also carries some inherent trust with it—be that a family member or friend, romantic prospect, government entity, business, or otherwise. From this position, the attacker will manipulate their target based on what they can glean from their social media activity, impersonating someone, falsely claiming to represent an organization, or otherwise trying to gain people’s trust.

From there, the scam can take many forms, such as:

• Offering a means of making fast money with little work or associated risk
• Offering a sale of a valuable item, sight unseen
• Offering a heavily discounted sale of a big-ticket item
• Offering a sale, despite living overseas or otherwise being unable to meet in person
• Offering something with the endorsement of a public figure
• Pleading for financial support—despite never having met you in person—to assist with some personal emergency
• Threats to share images of you unless some financial compensation is received 

You must watch for these warning signs and always do what you can to protect your data. For instance:

Do What You Can to Confirm the Poster’s Identity

Carefully consider any account that reaches out to you, noting how long it has been around, how active it has been, and how many followers it has. This could indicate that the profile is fraudulent. The same goes for unsolicited job offers and otherwise too-good-to-be-true opportunities. Do some digging to gauge the legitimacy of anything you see online.

Keep Private Information Private

If someone reaches out to you requesting financial assistance or photos of a particularly personal nature, stop and think for a moment. If it is someone you have ever only met online, stop. Even if you’ve met this person, it pays to consider how much you trust them and what ulterior motives they may have.

While We Appreciate Large Companies Spreading Awareness, You Need to Be the One to Act

To give credit where it is due, this conversation was inspired mainly by the guidance that Chase Bank provides about social media scams on their website, citing that almost half of all scams reported to the financial institution originate on social media. The bank has reportedly received reports from users that people are using Zelle to request electronic transfers to scam them from social media platforms and the integrated marketplaces found there.

While we have to give Chase a little credit for being open about the situation and offering a little guidance, it is crucial to recognize that Chase is also trying to mitigate its losses here. After all, its privacy and security page that discusses social media scams also establishes that various forms of payment—including Zelle, crypto, and gift cards—don’t give the consumer purchase protection.

Nevertheless, a bank has provided this information. While it is essential to pay attention to it, this advice cannot be restricted to Chase Bank or any other singular institution, for that matter. Instead, you should follow our advice—do all of the above, but everywhere, with every account.

We Can Assist Businesses in Educating Employees with Such Information

You can trust First Column IT to do everything possible to protect your business against cybersecurity threats, from implementing practical protections to educating your workforce on the best practices that will help keep them safe. Give us a call at (571) 470-5594 to learn more.

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