Always beware of social media scams. While it’s fun to connect with friends and family, you need to beware of your online presence on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Next Door, Google Hangouts, Words with Friends and more, always keep your guard up. Here are a few social media scamps you should be wary of.
The Gift Card Scam
The gift card scam goes like this. You want to buy something, lets say a puppy and you find a great deal on one of the social media sites. Cute little puppy for a great value. You reach out and the seller asks you pay with gift cards from various stores. They come up with a great excuse on why they need the gift cards. You send them the gift card numbers and they’ll ship you the cute puppy. Your monies gone and guess what, the do never shows up.
The Celebrity Scam
The celebrity scam goes like this. A “Celebrity” reaches out to you and asks for a donation to their favorite charity. They do this through their social media sites. The issue is it’s probably not them and someone has created a spoof site making you believe it’s the celebrity. Before you know it, you’ve made a donation to a celebrity scam. Saw a stat that over 8,000 Americans lost $10,000 in scams in one year resulting in millions of dollars per year in scams.
New Job - First Month’s Pay in Advance
Your on Google Hangouts or Facebook and mention that you need a new job. Someone reaches out to you with a great new position. You talk for a while and they give you and interview. The best part of the deal is they offer to pay you a weeks advance that goes with the new job offer. All they ask is for you to send them a couple hundred dollars to handle the job processing fees and we’ll be good to go. Guess what, your out the money, their check will bounce and you never hear from the company again. Anyone offering a legitimate job will not ask you for money in advance. You’ll have to work first, for which you will receive a pay check.
Word with Friends… Not Really a Friend
My mom loves to play Word with Friends, she plays every night. If you didn’t know it, strangers can reach out to you and ask for a game. The same stranger reaches out to her time after time and before you know it she has a new “friend”. They continue to play and talk about their family. All of a sudden they have a family emergency, maybe they allege their grand child needs an emergency surgery, they ask Mom for $1,000 to help them out. She sends it, just helping a friend. Happens every day of every year. Don’t let this happen to you, don’t send money to people you don’t know!
NextDoor Social Scam
Great app to learn about what’s going on in your neighborhood. Picnics, parties all kinds of run with friends. Contractors also lurk on NextDoor looking for new business victims. They contact you them. They quote your job and ask for a deposit never to be heard from again. Beware!
Facebook Friend Requests
Really simple, only accept friend requests from people you know. If you friend someone you don’t know, they gain access to your profile. Once they know you and who you are, it makes it easier for them to spoof your ID and who your are. Certainly don’t friend a second friend request, could be someone you know who had their account stolen by a Facebook scammer.
More Advice with Online Scams
Online scams are prevalent and fraudsters will do anything to get into your accounts. Here are a few ways you can stop them:
- Don’t click on pop-ups or attachments if you don’t know who they’re from
- Never share your password with someone on the phone
- Don’t allow anyone to control your computer remotely
