Almost everyone I know has fallen for an internet scam, I’ve almost fallen for a few myself. So being clued upon the current/popular scams doing the rounds online at the moment, will help keep you; your details, your money and your business safe.
With the majority of businesses being online, and with us having to run a large amount of said business online, it’s important to know your way around internet safety, to avoid damage to your business, and your bank account!
Here are a few popular social media and mobile scams that are currently catching a lot of people out:
False Facebook and Instagram notifications. I must receive these daily. They look very convincing to business owners as they appear to come from Meta, claiming that you've violated some kind of rule, or you need to verify your account. In reality, these posts come from pages/people who have named their profiles official looking account names, and tag various businesses in statuses claiming you've done something wrong, and need to take action immediately. There's a few examples of what these posts look like below:
2. Duplicate profiles.
Recently, it's become a popular scam on social media, that scammers duplicate/copy your account information, create a new one, and add all your friends in an attempt to capitalise on the existing trust between you and your friends. You've probably had a friend request from a family member, where the pictures are the same as their old profile, name is the same, everything looks legitimate, but your family member hasn't created a new account. The original account hasn't been 'hacked', just copied. These people often message your existing friends asking for money, or to meet, or do them a favour.
3. Post sharing.
Very recently I knew kind of social media scam is post sharing. Often it's a missing dog, missing person, injured animal etc, asking you to share with urgency, to help locate an owner etc. These posts are designed to tug on your heart strings, and make more and more people share the post. Multiple people share the post, and a few days or weeks later, the original poster (the scammer) will change the post to something along the lines of 'this product is amazing, i can't stop using it, purchase it here!". As it's a trusted friend thats shared the post, you're more inclined to click the link to find out what your friend loves so much. Clicking these links can open you up to a whole manner of problems.
The easiest way to spot these posts, is:
- They're likely posted on community pages first, but misspell the town name or aren't very specific about location. For example, my town 'Long Eaton', the posts often say "Found in Eaton".
- The posts encourage you to share and and imply urgency. The aim of the sharer is to get you to share as quickly and as much as possible.
- Misspellings and other errors. As above, the post may contain location errors, or other misspellings of what should be common knowledge if you genuinely live in the area.
- Lack of information. The post will never specify where the injured animal was actually found, where the animal was taken (like a vet), how to contact the sharer/contact information, what actually happened or any specifics, just the urgency to share.
4. "Hi mum!" Text Messages. A popular scam doing the rounds on Whatsapp and text messaging services, is what we call the "Hi Mum!" scam. You will receive a text message from an unknown number, saying something along the lines of "Hey Mum, it's your favourite child! I'm texting from my friends phone cause mine is broke, can you please send me some money for a new one? Love you xx". It's easy to fall for a scam like this, thinking your child is messaging you sometimes they will even find the name of your child on Facebook, and include this in the message to prove authenticity. They'll then ask you for rent money, or to pay a bill they're struggling with, or get them a new phone. They'll say they are having problems with their bank account and to send it to a friend or via paypal. if you receive a message like this, it's best to contact the person they're claiming to be on the number you currently have, to confirm whether or not it's them, or ask the person contacting you to ring you.
The best way to spot any kind of scam, whether they over the phone, text message, email or on social media, is to look out for the following markers:
Urgency: Scammers hook you in by implying urgency. Telling you to ACT NOW. This bill needs to be paid immediately, your account will get shut down, you'll get in trouble etc if you don't do what they ask immediately. ry to take a minute to think if you receive something you're not 100% sure about. The reason these scams work is because they shock you into acting irrationally and quickly.
Spelling and grammatical errors. Scam posts or emails often are littered with spelling errors, factual errors, and grammatical errors.
Unknown sender source. The message (scam) will likely come from an unknown sender source. For example, a person/page on Facebook that you've never seen before, unverified accounts, unknown number, unofficial email addresses etc. Take a moment to properly check the sender of the message you've received before taking any action.
If you're ever unsure, it's best to ask someone who's educated on the internet, a social media manager, marketing specialist, your teenager, for example ;)
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