Why fraudsters love facebook

By: Dave Schippers Email used to be the delivery method for scams and malware. Examples include: Direct Messages with links or attempts to get you to look at something. Within a short period of time, they promise money or ask for it. Many scams revolve around large sums of money if you provide a fee or personal data.

They can be grouped into two primary categories: For the Lulz — Some people create and operate fake accounts for their own personal needs or dysfunctions. They may not ask for money and simply crave attention. For the Money - These scammers are versed in spending time to build up a dependency. They may send you small amounts of money to build up their credibility. The first time, the ring tone startles me. My heart races, but then I realize the Facebook tab is still open on my laptop.

I fumble to close it. The call is not coming from inside the house. He also shares his Instagram message about scammers who filch his photos:. I send this exact same message to many people. This is horrible and something called Catfishing. These scammers take my pics. My IG page is meant to inspire and educate people! I chose to make my account public to HELP ppl. I hope u have a great day and understand it was NOT me.

Nice to meet you. Being called mom or a variation thereof by someone I did not give birth to or adopt becomes a theme of my Facebook suitor experience. You can protect yourself online generally by keeping current on software updates on your web browser. Facebook has recently put more resources into weeding out scams. You can report suspicious content to Facebook directly.

Report the scam to Action Fraud on or use their online reporting tool. Check out our full commenting guidelines. By clicking on 'Post Comment', you're agreeing to our Commenting Policy. How to spot and avoid Facebook scams Just like callers pretending to be from your bank , or hoax messages from strangers on WhatsApp , Facebook is also used as a way to defraud you of your money. How scammers target you on Facebook Facebook has over a billion users each month.

Scams sent from Facebook friends or fan pages Scam artists leverage the trust that you have in your friends, in popular brands or in social network founder Mark Zuckerberg by impersonating them on Facebook. How scammers can use your Facebook profile Lots of the personal information that fraudsters need to steal your identity can be found on your Facebook profile. Fake offers of products and services Ads, messages or content in your timeline about miracle diet pills and physical enhancers are often too good to be true.

To protect yourself from these scams: only buy from sources that you trust. Fake profiles used for online dating If you receive a friend request from a stranger, think twice before accepting.

Extortion messages A particularly nasty scam involves you receiving a message from a stranger suggesting that they have filmed you using your webcam, and that you need to pay to keep the footage secret.

Which Harry Potter house would you belong to? Or, my personal favorite, which Disney princess are you? But ask yourself - is the answer really worth compromising your bank account information? These quizzes aren't about testing your personality at all - they are disguised clickbait and phishing methods. Take one sinister quiz and you could unknowingly be giving up personal details like answers to the standard security questions used to lock down your financial accounts first car, birth hometown, etc.

At the very least, you could be playing into the hands of a big data company like Cambridge Analytica , which used online quizzes to harvest personal data from millions of social media profiles prior to the election.

Finally, security researchers at Symantec have warned against another type of sinister quiz , one that tricks users into exorbitant text message charges by requiring a mobile phone number to view the results.

Get-rich-quick ploys, pyramid schemes and job offer scams are nothing new, but social media has provided a fresh platform for con artists to squeeze money out of unsuspecting victims. If something sounds too good to be true on social media, it usually is.

So the most important thing to remember is to protect your online safety and think before you click! As cyber attackers become savvier, it's important for you to stay aware of the threats they pose. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay updated on the latest scams and ways to avoid them.

Whether your wallet is lost or stolen, here are six things to do right now to prevent identity theft and start getting back to normal. Watch out for email scams asking for gift cards - especially ones that come from your boss.