The ease of creating a profile in networks social may involve different people choosing to do fraud, these are the most common of Instagram.
The world of social networks is increasingly crowded, with a greater number of users and more time occupying these. According to the Digital 2021 report carried out by We Are Social and Hootsuite, this year the Internet users in the world have had an increase of 7.3 percent, growing the number of users in social networks to the figure of 1,200 million people, in other words, 53.6% of the world population uses social networks, 490 million more compared to 2020. In the global average of time users stay on the internet, It was seen that the average is around 6 hours with 54 minutes connected daily, of which the average on mobile devices is 3 hours and 39 minutes. Similarly, Statista shows that the average time Internet users spend on social networks is 2 hours and 25 minutes a day.
In a world full of different social networks, there are some that manage to dominate the preference of users, which according to IEBS are:
- Facebook with 2.449 million users
- YouTube with 1,000 million users
- Instagram with 1 billion users
- TikTok with 800 million users
- LinkedIn with 610 million users
- Twitter – 339.6 million users
Among these, there is one that stands out for its mandatory use of images in its publications, Instagram. This platform is one of the favorites to create, publish and share purely visual content, getting millions of people around the world to upload, download or take photos and videos that they can easily share and that could even reach people we might not be looking at.
Social media scams
With millions of images and users accessing daily Instagram, there must have been some people who wanted to get the most out of the app with profit-making purposes, so that in fact various fraud in this app.
In accordance with Latam Kaspersky, the scams by Instagram have become very popular with cybercriminals at the ease of a stranger gaining the trust of his victim by posing as people or brands. Even if you seem to approach as someone trustworthy through messages and even images, it can take weeks for them to carry out their fraud.
In the same way, the evolution of this scams with the passage of time, since netizens have already shown their ingenuity when browsing the web and not falling for the ads where they congratulate you on having won a new Smartphone, a million dollars, an all-paid trip to Paris, etc., users become smarter and tend to fall less and less into these types of traps, so people who seek to commit some type of fraud They have also managed to sharpen their strategies.
Not all scams seek to impersonate you on social networks or simply take over your photos, but they can even get valuable information from you, money among other things, even with a virus that will be transmitted to all your contacts.
The most common scams on Instagram
We Live Security shows us some of the most common ways we can suffer fraud on Instagram, for instance:
Phishing – It is the most common and oldest, a type of scam that seeks to trick the user into Steal its information people and access credentials, in order to make Identity Theft. Among some examples of this, you could find a message in your email saying that they claim about someone who logged in from your account, along with a fake link and if you select it you will allow scammers to access your account.
Accounts cloned – While you are looking for a famous or influencer in Instagram, you may come across accounts that pose as the official ones to impersonate them and communicate with their friends or family.
Verified account fraud – To see one verified account on Instagram is generally a symbol from security that claims about the account of a celebrity or a person who is recognized by the platform. Being verified on this platform has some benefits, in addition to the recognition of a large audience that follows you and indicates you as an influencer; If you have this blue icon that verifies you, you will be able to access the function to monetize your content. One of the fraud here is that a swindler could arrive to offer you one of these verifications that, if you select it, you will proceed to deliver your data.
Sellers of doubtful origin – Instagram, like other social networks What Facebook, It has become an effective way of selling, either by using its store section, because two people manage to agree to see each other at a specific point or even for a sale that will be sent to them by means of a taxi. To avoid falling into this type of fraud from Instagram, it’s best to first check how reliable a store or seller’s data looks before making a purchase.
Romantic scams – Instagram, despite being a social network to share photos and stories with our followers and friends, it has also managed to be used by some others such as “dating app“, Where the hoaxes are present after a while gaining the trust of the victim (liking their publications and even sending direct messages). In effect these seek “make the victim fall in love“So that later it transfers money to you.
These were some of the most common Instagram scams, that although, for some these types of scams might sound quite obvious, some others could fall. Lowering your guard is something very common in a place that we trust, so we recommend that you be more careful or careful when browsing social media.
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