5 Network Scams That Hackers Use Social Networking for Cyber Attacks | Enterprise Networking Magazine
Enterprise networking magazines help users to fight against scams. Cyber attacks are constantly on the increase. This article will help you to know more about scams. Read on these to learn more about each of these scams, as well as how to spot and avoid them.
Internet social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook have revolutionized how we communicate and dealing business. Tweeting, liking, and Googling have become the most action verbs of the 21st century, same as how faxing and texting entered our vocabulary in the 20th century.
Today, Facebook has over 1.4 billion members. If it is a country, it will be the most populous nation on Earth. Like any large population base, there are people on Facebook trying to escape with various scams.
From fake applications to fake like buttons and more, cyberattacks are emerging on social networks at an alarming rate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a webpage devoted to the subject. It’s a recommended read for any individual or small business owner with a social media presence.
There are a lot of risks in social media, and here are 5 of the most popular social networking scams currently out there:
Fake news
Fake offers
Fake apps
Like Jacking
Clickjacking
Read these to learn more about each of these scams, as well as how to spot and avoid them.
1. Fake News
One version of this hoax performs Facebook itself, and it spreads quickly. A scam message says that Facebook has released a new membership coasting structure with gold, silver, and bronze levels of membership. It claims you can avoid paying by sharing the message’s text with your family members, relative, and friends before midnight. If not, it will say the news; you’ll be forced to pay next time you sign on Facebook.
Image Source: Facebook to start charging $2.99/month? It’s nonsense! from WeLiveSecurity.com
This scam spreads because it appears friends are doing their friends a favor by sharing it. Facebook is a free service, but Facebook has also publicly stated several times that it will always remain so.
Although Snopes, WeLiveSecurity.com, and many others have debunked this scam multiple times since 2009, it continues to resurface again and again.
The purpose of this ruse seems to be to gather passwords or credit card numbers. Could you ignore it?
2. Fake Offerings
Many invitations or requests came to join fake events or bogus groups, with incentives such as gift cards, abound on social networks. Joining requires the user to share passwords, permissions, access, or financial information with the attacker, or at the very least, send a text to a premium rate phone number.
Sometimes these fake offers use an old but surprisingly still successful technique — the chain letter. Twitter messages claiming that retweeting them will result in Bill Gates or some other billionaire donating a massive amount of dollars to some charity or disaster relief fund are completely fraudulent offers. That’s not how charitable contributions work.
The reason behind these types of scams seems to be to gather “friends” to be exploited later in more nefarious scams or collect credit cards or other financial information once again. Breaking the chain by do not retweet, re-send or forward any such fake messages, and please don’t fall for fraudulent appeals for charitable donations. Before donating, you have to always fact-check via the charity’s website, Google search results, and sites like CharityNavigator.com, an online resource for investigating and evaluating charity organizations.
3. Fake Applications
According to the Cheetah Mobile Threat Lab investigation and charted by Business Insider Intelligence, there has been a sharp increase in fake applications targeting the social networks sites. They are planned to trick people into disclosing personal data and granting permissions so scammers can access their pc, mobile devices and steal passwords, credit card info, and more.
Last year in just eight months of the year, over 15,000 fake applications affected more than 100 million users across all the major social networks. More than half (8,107) were on Facebook alone. Before downloading any app, always check the file size and privacy policies — fake apps are usually tiny. If the app asks to send text messages or access the Internet for you, it is likely affected. Think twice when apps request permissions to access information stored in your device or other apps or perform actions on your behalf. Finally, any app that wants a password or additional confidential information from you should be avoided at all costs.
4. Like Jacking
The ubiquitous Facebook “like” button is easy to abuse. Put it on your page, and if a Facebook user visits your site and clicks on it, a link to your page gets added to their activity stream. Suddenly, their friends can see that link, click on it, and be led directly to your page. When that second person arrives, the Like button is personalized for them — it shows which of their friends have already clicked it, and when they click on it, a link to your page gets added to their stream.
Like jacking attempts to get people to falsely endorse products, using posts that are likely to attract viewers, such as offering a gift, it then spreads through automatically generated shares and likes. The initial position may be enabled through a hacked account or the acceptance of a request to add a friend who turns out to be a scammer.
To protect yourself from like Jacking, use caution in clicking, liking, or sharing the posts and be extremely wary about any free offers. Facebook users are encouraged to be skeptical of messages posted on social networks, even from friends and an unknown person. Users should also avoid downloading files or filling out some questions to see a picture or a video.
5. ClickJacking
Clickjackinghappens when a scam artist or cyber crook places an invisible button or other user interface element over a seemingly innocent web page button or interface feature using a transparency layer, which you cannot see.
Facebook Like and Share buttons have been hidden under other controls so that, when clicked, users would voice their preference for something or share something with their friends unknowingly to generate viral marketing for a product or to propagate malware.
