Phishing
Today Instagram is practically a world of endless possibilities, from communicating with loved ones to building a business without leaving your home. Unfortunately, the number of cybercriminals who use the social network to steal not only money, but also personal data is also growing. Here’s how to recognize the most common types of Instagram fraud.
The most popular type of online fraud has made its way to Instagram. Phishing links are sent from hacked pages, thrown into private messages with enticing text, and placed on fake profiles, for example, in online stores. When you follow a link, you risk giving someone your passwords or other data.
2. Cash Fees
A hackneyed scam that is very popular on social media. Fraudsters set up fake accounts to collect money for treatment (usually a child), compose or borrow a tragic story, and post stolen photographs and documents.
Recently, another type of fraud has become especially popular. Posts with a call for help are published from the hacked page, and the scammers manage to study the victim’s profile and write a post in her style, collecting money, for example, for the treatment of her relative who got into an accident. They also post fake documents with account owner data. Subscribers massively send money, which, of course, no one will ever return them.
3. Fake shops
Fraudsters create a store page with product photos taken from official sources, but the price is very attractive, much lower than usual. Users read fake reviews, see winding up subscribers and pay for the product. In the future, they either will not receive their parcel at all, or they will be sent a fake.
4. Love scams
Using photographs of attractive men or women, attackers start communicating with the victim and start a virtual romance with her.
After the victim is hooked, scammers usually write that they are in a difficult situation and ask to send money. Then the fraudster either disappears, or for some time extorts money from his victim.
Unfortunately, this method works better than you might imagine.
5. Jobs with quick earnings
Everyone is familiar with the message “I am on maternity leave and earn 50 thousand rubles a month.” The essence of these and other proposals boils down to the fact that you can earn, if not a huge, but quite decent amount, without making any effort. True, as a result, you may be offered to sell useless information products, or you may undergo paid training in order to look for people like you, collecting money from them. By the way, scammers are very convincing – even a notorious skeptic can believe them.
So, stay vigilant:
- carefully study the reviews of the stores and go to the pages of those who left them;
- don’t transfer money to strangers;
- try other channels to contact your friends asking for help;
- let you be alerted to the need to pay even purely symbolic amounts when you applied for a vacancy;
- and, of course, don’t click on unknown links.