Since the emergence of social networks, their popularity has been growing every day. And it is so high that almost every Internet user is registered in one or another social network. We all know about the advantages of this virus-like segment of the Network, but do we think about its disadvantages?
Some social networks have a simply colossal number of registered users – for example, one of the networks recently celebrated the registration of its forty millionth user. Just think about this number! As is known, since ancient times, mass gatherings of people have always attracted lovers of profit and deception of gullible citizens. In this article, we will talk about the real dangers and harm that social networks cause us.
The first danger I described is not only related to social networks, but also to the Internet as a whole. We will talk about mobile scammers.
Types of fraud
If you are an active Internet user, you have often noticed that some sites offer to perform some service only after sending an SMS message. For example, in order to download a movie, book, game, etc., you need to send an SMS message.
In addition, recently all banner and contextual advertising is full of announcements of the following type: “Send us an SMS with a person's number, and you will find out all the information about him, which is contained in a single closed database.” Or here's another: “You can find out all the correspondence by sending us a message with a person's number” … and so on. There are also cases when you have passed some test, but in order to find out its results, you need to send an SMS.
These are all different cases of the same type of fraud. What is the connection between this type of fraud and social networks?
And the connection is very simple, because all advertising on these malicious sites is distributed through social networks. As a rule, the real cost of the sent SMS message is much higher than that stated by the site. If you have already fallen for the bait of mobile scammers, that is, sent an SMS message, you can contact your mobile operator with a statement. In the statement, it is worth describing the problem in detail. Often it is possible to return the money back.
Addiction
The second danger that virtual social networks represent is related to dependence on these networks. Modern virtual networks contain some paid services. For example, one of the well-known networks provides the ability to send messages using regular SMS: when a message arrives to your account, you receive a notification on your mobile phone and can respond to it with an SMS message.
Naturally, a highly addicted person strives to use social networks to the fullest extent, without any restrictions, and, as a rule, pays for such dubious services. In addition, many social networks have integrated online games that require real money to play.
The purpose of the next type of fraud is to take over your page on a social network. Having taken over the page, the fraudster can find out detailed information about you, your contacts, information about your acquaintances, friends, and he can also conduct fraudulent activities from your page. The scheme of this fraud is very simple.
In fact, such fraud can be attributed to a type of hacker attack called phishing. It consists of the fact that the hacker slips you a fake page instead of a real page where you enter your login and password to enter the social network, and thus you yourself transfer data from your page to the fraudster.
The forgery occurs in the following way. A message is sent to the user's email with an offer to become friends on a social network, download music, videos, games, etc. The message contains a disguised link that leads to a copy of a page on a certain social network. For security reasons, we advise you to never follow such links and enter the page address in the address bar.
Trust
Another type of fraud is based on trust. Imagine the following situation. You receive a message from a friend or a good acquaintance asking you to borrow electronic money, download some content or follow a link. Sitting on the other side of the screen, you cannot know for sure who sent you the message – a friend or a fraudster who has taken over his page, and, as a rule, you, without thinking about it, fulfill the request.
It is very easy to protect yourself from this scam, you just need to contact the friend who sent the message with the request through another communication channel (for example, by calling on the phone) and ask for confirmation of the request.
I have listed only the most popular types of fraud using social networks. However, remember that new, more sophisticated fraudulent schemes are invented every day. Be careful. As trite as it may sound, your safety is in your hands.
