According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more scams in the United States are started on social media than on any other platform at a cost  of 1.9 billion dollars  in 2024 and that figure is probably low because many victims, often out of embarrassment, do not report being victimized.  A study done by the Fin Tech company Revolut found that 60% of all scams in the UK originated on the Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with investment scams being the most common form of scam.  Revolut referred to social media as a “hotbed” for scams.

Social media based scams take many forms, but are often based on our trusting the people we encounter as friends on social media.  Remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”  Scammers harvest information about you that you post on social media to learn about your identity and interests and use that information to target you with a wide variety of scams including investment scams, romance scams and sales of phony products.

One way to recognize a scam is when you start communication with someone on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram or even through email and they want to move your discussions to WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal which are all legitimate encrypted messaging platforms, but are favorites of scammers because they are encrypted and not monitored as well a other social media where the platforms may be using AI for scam detection.

TIPS

Don’t accept friend requests from everyone who asks to be your friend on social media and don’t trust communications on social media merely because they appear to come from your friends.  Often social media accounts are hacked or cloned and the scammers, posing as your friends, leverage the trust that you have in your friends to lure you into phony investments, phony sales and romances.  Further, even if a communication comes from a real friend, often people will forward scams that they have been fooled into thinking are legitimate.

Use your privacy settings to limit who can see the information you post on social media.

Remember it is good rule to never click on links that may appear on social media, text messages or emails unless you have absolutely confirmed that they are legitimate because the risk of downloading malware is too great.

As for WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, no legitimate employer offering a job or financial advisor will switch platforms after they have made initial contact with you.

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