![]() Alternatively, they’ll clone the account of someone you know and try to contact you while impersonating your friend or relative. To quote The Office’s Dwight Schrute, “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!” In this scenario, the scam is quite straightforward with the cybercriminal cloning your entire social media profile to a T and trying to impersonate you. And if you’re looking for a loan it is probably better to seek out a reputable institution that provides them, rather than be scammed by a dubious loan shark advertising on social media. In this case, the smartest course of action is to ignore these posts and report them. Beyond that, it is hard to prove any of the claims since those are just the words of the scammer, trying to coax potential victims out of their money. However, one of the telltale signs of the scam is that it is usually written in broken English, with multiple grammatical and syntax errors. The text usually includes some kind of backstory attempting to inspire confidence, such as the lender being a successful businessman with a “proven” track record of lending money to a ton of satisfied customers. The premise of the loan involves the scammer sharing public posts where they claim to offer instant loans for very low interest rates all they need is a minuscule advance fee. ![]() These types of scams are quite a regular occurrence on the popular social media network and are easy to spot. You can brush up on your phish-spotting prowess by quizzing yourself here. Another telltale sign is if the email is riddled with spelling mistakes. After you receive the official email from Facebook examine the “From:” field, which will show you what email address Facebook uses to contact its users. You can check the proper format of the support email address by going to your account and requesting a password reset. Or, if the email address of the sender seems off or isn’t associated with an official Facebook email. There are several signs that you might be dealing with phishing – for example, if the email starts with a generic greeting or uses your associated email handle, instead of being personalized. Fake (L) versus legitimate (R) Facebook login page However, the link will direct you to a bogus copy of the Facebook login page, which will then harvest your access credentials and give the fraudsters access to your account.įigure 1. To this end, the cybercriminal will impersonate Facebook, saying that someone may have logged into your account or your password has been reset or anything else that will instill a sense of urgency, and include a link to log into your account. The general aim of cybercriminals is to acquire your personal information so that they can use it further in other criminal activities, ranging from identity theft to selling data on dark web marketplaces. They have been around for eons, at least in internet terms, and are an evergreen that cybercriminals use continuously. Phishing scams could be considered the mother of all scams. In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common ways scammers try to dupe Facebook users out of both their personal data and money. And even though Facebook has multiple defensive measures in place to stop scams from making their way to users, some, inevitably, make it through the cracks. Of course, this attracts all flavors of scammers who are looking to make a pretty penny at the expense of the unsuspecting users. Case in point, per its most recent Earnings Report, Facebook has more than 2.85 billion monthly active users. While various social media platforms have popped up over the years, Facebook remains one of the most popular of them all.
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