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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.
Dec 28, 2021 · In the first half of 2021, criminals in the UK stole over £750m through fraud – a big portion of which came from online scams. This was an increase of over 30 per cent compared to the first ...
1 day ago · In an update to a 2021 study, BBB's International Investigations Initiative found that online purchase scam reports are up over 125% from last year, driven in part by ads for hot-ticket items on ...
Jan 31, 2022 · Published January 31, 2022. Scams that started on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites doubled year-over-year in 2021, leading to $770 million in consumer losses, a federal agency warns. Calling social media a “gold mine” for scammers, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says these platforms were far more profitable than any ...
- 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
Jan 28, 2022 · According to the FTC, more than one in four people who lost money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media in the form of an ad, post, or message. Findings also show that social media was ...
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Feb 15, 2022 · There’s millions of dollars to be made in social media. For scammers. New data from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suggests that Americans lost nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars to social media fraud in 2021, signaling that social media may be the most profitable method of scamming victims—marking an 18-fold increase over ...
