Unlike April Fools, which only happens once a year, scammers make a living off of fooling users 365 days a year. Here are a number of tricks that scammers use.
Phishing Scams: Whether it’s pretending to be your financial institution or a tweet from someone you know, asking, “Is this photo of you?”, phishing scams are after your login credentials to sites that are important to you. Recently, users of Google Drive and Google Docs were targeted in a sophisticated phishing scam. Phishing remains one of the most common scams used because they work, and as these scams become more innovative, they will continue to be one of the
Free Stuff: Who wouldn’t want a free iPhone or $100 gift card? Scammers know that free stuff is enticing to most people, which is why these types of scams never go out of season. As you might expect, nothing is truly free on social networks, so you should always be careful about sharing a photo, clicking on links, filling out surveys, or giving away any personal information.
Diet Craze: Every year, there’s a new diet craze making waves. Over the years, these diet pills and drinks have been pushed out in a torrent of email spam. However, as social networks have become more popular, scammers have begun using these services as vehicles to peddle the latest diet craze. Snapchat users recently saw this first hand. While the offer of free diet pills might seem appealing, it is often followed by unwanted charges in excess of $100.
Mobile Scareware: With more smartphones in circulation today, an old trick has found new life on mobile devices. The idea of “scareware” was to instill fear in the user, convincing them to download additional software. Android users recently saw scareware ads claiming that their device was infected with a threat known as “Tapsnake”. This scare tactic led to a set of instructions on how to download software claiming to be mobile antivirus. Only install applications from trusted app stores and use mobile security software from reputable vendors.