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Don’t fall victim to these common social networking scams
When we consider phishing scams, we tend to think about email, but many cyber criminals target popular social media channels to hook their prey. The central goal is still to persuade someone to click a link, reveal logins and passwords or share other sensitive details. Victims may unwittingly trigger the download of malware, installing keyloggers that record keystrokes and Trojans that send them to cybercriminals. Sometimes victims will enter login details onto fake websites or answer queries that are presented as legitimate requests or fun activities, like quizzes.
Social networking is all about interacting with people, and familiarity with social media platforms can cause us to let our guard down. It’s easy to emulate official services like Twitter or Facebook, and hacked accounts can be leveraged to cause all sorts of mischief.
In this article, we’re going to delve into some common scams on four of the most popular social media platforms.
Typical Facebook Phishing Scams
As the largest social media platform on earth, Facebook has become an all too popular hunting ground for cybercriminals. Despite Facebook’s efforts to combat spam and scams, it remains a hotbed for phishing attacks. There are many kinds of phishing scenarios at play on Facebook.
Cybercriminals will often send emails that purport to come from Facebook and closely imitate the look of genuine emails. These phishing emails will typically include an alarming message stating that your password has been reset and you must click on a link or open an attachment to sort things out or risk losing access to your account.
Invariably, the link or attachment triggers malware. But this kind of thing is a typical email phishing ploy that’s counting on your familiarity and trust with Facebook.
Some of the sneakier phishing attacks will use the platform itself. You may be befriended by fake accounts that cybercriminals have set up specifically to harvest personal details.
To read the complete June 24, 2020, article posted to Forbes.com, click HERE.