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- Limit who can see your posts and information on social media. All platforms collect information about you from your activities on social media, but visit your privacy settings to set some restrictions.
- Check if you can opt out of targeted advertising. Some platforms let you do that.
- If you get a message from a friend about an opportunity or an urgent need for money, call them. Their account may have been hacked – especially if they ask you to pay by cryptocurrency, gift card, or wire transfer.
- If someone appears on your social media and rushes you to start a friendship or romance, slow down. Read about romance scams. And never send money to someone you haven’t met in person.
- Stunning Statistics
- Losses by Category
- Why Scammers Love Social Media
- How to Protect Yourself
The 18-fold rise in social media fraud losses over the past four years alone is a staggering statistic. Combine that with some of the other data from the FTC report and it's clear that this problem deserves a great deal more attention than it is receiving. Consider, for example: 1. 95,000 people—more than twice the number in 2020—reported losing mo...
In terms of the amount of money lost, investment scams topped the FTC list. The majority of these scams involved bogus cryptocurrency investments. Not only that but, unsurprisingly, the preferred method of payment for criminals waging investment scams was—you guessed it—cryptocurrency. After investment scams, romance scamsare the second most profit...
If you're a scammer, there's a lot to love about social media. First, it's cheap—as in almost free. You can reach billions of people all over the world, and you can adopt a fake personality that the average person will likely not be able to penetrate. Many scammers actually hack into existing identities and scam friends of those people. Scammers of...
Vigilance is important if you want to avoid being scammed on social media. The FTC suggests the following steps: 1. Limit who can see your posts and information on social media by adjusting your privacy settings to a comfort level you prefer. 2. Opt out of targeted advertising if the platform you are on allows it. 3. Messages, even from friends, th...
- Jim Probasco
- Fake Friend Requests. The fake friend request scam involves receiving friend requests from strangers, often using photos of attractive people.
- Like-Farming Pages. Like-farming scams involve pages promising rewards or prizes in exchange for liking, sharing, and engaging with their content.
- Fake News and Hoaxes. Fake news and hoaxes on Facebook refer to false stories or claims spread while posing as legitimate news. Scammers and dubious websites publish sensationalized or completely fabricated content to profit from engagement and clicks.
- Facebook Charity Scams. Facebook charity scams involve fake fundraisers claiming to raise money for sick individuals or good causes. Scammers create compelling stories to exploit people’s generosity.
Dec 31, 2021 · Fraud was rampant in Canada in 2021 with scammers stealing more than $230 million from Canadian consumers. Tomasia DaSilva reports – Dec 31, 2021. 2021 was a costly year for scams and frauds in ...
- Tomasia Dasilva
May 9, 2024 · Over $2.7 billion was lost to social media fraud in the US between 2021 and mid-2023 - more than losses from web scams and email phishing combined. More than a third of Facebook Marketplace ads could be scams , with UK customers potentially losing nearly £60 million in 2023
Jan 27, 2022 · Of those who reported losing money to fraud in 2021, more than 95,000 indicated that they were first contacted on social media—more than twice the 2020 number. Investment scams topped the list of total reported dollar losses, followed by romance scams. The largest number of reports came from people who lost money to online shopping scams.
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Oct 6, 2023 · Since 2021, Americans lost $2.7 billion in scams from social media, the Federal Trade Commission said in a scam report published Friday. And that figure is only a fraction of the actual harm, as ...
