The internet continues to grow on a daily basis with upwards of one billion people now having access to the world wide web.
On the positive side that means there be more great content to be found, more conversation to have and more people to connect with.
Conversely, it also means the number of scammers will multiply too, leading to more dodgy emails, phishing attempts and, increasingly, more socially engineered situations.
Social networks are being targeted more than ever now as the con artists and criminals realise what easy prey some of the users are.
Not only will you find links to the typical Nigerian 419 type of scam but also there are outright liars on these sites who make wild claims about their earnings from multi level marketing and other suspect schemes too.
A newer shift, however, is that the scammers will now attempt to take over accounts and pose as the legitimate owners in an attempt to con their online friends and acquaintances.
For example, I read a tweet from @MitchWagner a day ot two ago about how somebody’s Facebook account was hacked into.
The scammer then tried to convince one of the account holder’s ‘friends’ to wire him $900 as he had found himself stranded in London.
It was only due to the scammer’s poor command of English that the ruse was uncovered.
For the person behind that scam $900 would have been a huge amount of money, equivalent to around 9 months salary for the average Nigerian.
Maybe his personal circumstances make him desperate but I, for one, believe that his motivations were simple : greed is the most reliable emotion.
What do you think?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
People give out way too much info on social sites. Wise up suckers.
I’ve had similar experiences on Twitter and Facebook too where friends accounts have been compromised and then used for scams.
I take it you saw straight through them right away???
You’re not wrong, I’ve seen people give out names, addresses, dates of birth and all sorts!