Analysis of scam cases in social media apps

Abstract

Social Media apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter are
playing a major role in connecting over billion peoples worldwide. At this moment
social media is great way to connect with peoples while pandemic has us keeping
our distance. The use of these apps continues to grow in popularity as they enable
users to communicate and share information. However, with providing ease in life
these social media apps can also do harm and they have also increased the risk of
frauds. Online privacy and security have become the biggest concern. Reports
about scams on social media have been increasing for years. The purpose of this
paper is to understand the common scams cases on social media apps experienced
by users, to analyze them and to find some techniques to prevent from scams.

Keywords:

Social networking/social media sites: The websites and applications used for
communication

Scams: illegal use of internet resources

Threats: malicious software used to damage or steal personal data

Introduction

Today, social media is the primary way of global communication. Social media
sites such as WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter, Instagram are the most famous and
used sites to connect with family, friends and others. However, it is imperative to
note that these social media sites can also harm users through different online
frauds and scams. Security and privacy have become most important aspects in
social networking. As users are getting more and more interested in social media
sites, serious security risks, threats and frauds/scams have increased to individual
users and also to the organizations or companies. So, there is a crucial need to cater
this negative aspect of social networking by gaining more and more knowledge
about these types of crimes and following some safety measures to fight against
those.
What is scam?

Scam is a technique or way used to do any type of fraud or to cheat someone.

Persons who do scams are called scammers. Scams can be done in various ways;
these can be done in real life as well as in social networking. In real life, for
example, scammers may call a person, pretending to be someone from bank in
which user has his/her account, and asks him to tell credit card information or
social security number. Banks never asks any of its customer about their credit
card or SSN, if something like that happen then obviously it’s a scam.

With the advancement of technology in the modern world, emergence of new

social media apps and their use has become common. Almost everyone is familiar
with the use social networking. By the use of social media communication among
individuals or groups has become easy and its popularity is increasing day by day,
but risks of frauds/scams have also increased. Scammers now turned to social
media for committing scams with the increase of their use.

Social Media Scams

There are some ways which are commonly used by scammers for online
scamming:

1. Downloading apps

Apps often ask users to give their personal details for downloading, and those are
usually based on some illegal sources. These apps pretend to be real but in actual
they often download malware on devices.

2. Unseen URLs

It’s often happens that websites contain hypertext links that direct users to other
pages, or ask the users to see the full text of the page by clicking on links. By
clicking on these links, there is a chance of installation of malwares. This is a
common way of scamming.

3. Fake friends
Scammers often try to make online friends to gain trust of them and try to get their
personal information. These types of scammers ask for money or send any link as a
friend which takes to malwares.

4. Account Problems

Sometimes users get emails from service about any account problem which needs
to be fixed urgently. Users often trust on this type of emails and this trust leads
them to scamming. For example, Netflix users are often told that there are certain
problems with their payment accounts, so fill out some form by entering your
credit card information here so that problem can be fixed. It’s a type of phishing.

5. Digital kidnapping

Digital kidnapping means hackers take control over user’s profiles or accounts and
asks them to pay in order to gain access to those. They may threaten users to post
harmful or illegal content by their profiles.

Types of Scams
While social media sites allow us to communicate with others, they can also be
dangerous if we aren't careful. Scammers abound on these social media platforms.
Scammers use a variety of techniques to get their purpose. To stop scams and
frauds, we must remain vigilant.

Here, I'll go through some of the three most dominated scams that take place on
various social media platforms.

1. Imposter Scams

https://www.ferris.edu/it/security/top-ten-scam.htm

An imposter scam occurs when a dishonest person deceives you into paying money
to them. They could call you, write you an email, or text you. Imposters may ask
you to buy a gift card or send money in order to convince you to pay them.

https://www.consumer.gov/articles/imposter-scams
Don't make a payment or give someone who calls out of the blue offering tech
support remote access to your computer. Sending money to someone you don't
know, someone you suspect you know but aren't sure about, or someone you've
only met online is not a good idea. If you want to know if a call is legitimate, don't
rely on caller ID.

Scammers impersonating the Whatsapp brand are the most common type of
impostor scam. Scams are often spread using compromised accounts, where a
fraudster hacks into a genuine account then sends out links to harmful downloads.
In types of imposter scams Catfish and Dating scams are the most commonly
happening scams.

2. Ecommerce Scams

https://deliverr.com/blog/how-to-protect-yourself-from-ecommerce-scams/

It occurs when a scammer uses stolen personal information to gain fraudulent

access to your online or financial accounts; this is known as identity theft. When a
scammer gains access to your account, they can make unauthorized purchases,
withdraw money, and even change your account's details.

The increase in these frauds is directly linked to the growth of the Ecommerce
industry, as well as the increase in payment methods such as cards and online
payment solutions.

https://thegood.com/insights/ecommerce-fraud/

Every type of fraud that occurs on an ecommerce platform is referred to as

ecommerce fraud. Ecommerce fraud includes the use of a stolen or fraudulent
credit card, the use of a false identity, and affiliate fraud ads. When a customer
commits fraud on your online store, you, as the merchant, bear the expense, which
has a negative impact on your sales.

3. Finance and Crypto Currency Scams

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-
cryptocurrency-and-scams
In these scams false advertising, news stories, and tweets entice consumers to
invest in crypto currencies like bit coin. Consumers lose either their money or their
personal information, or both.

Scammers are always coming up with new ways to steal your cryptocurrency.
Anyone who insists on paying in cryptocurrency is a sure sign of a scammer.
Anyone who suggests paying by wire transfer, gift card, or cryptocurrency is a
scammer. Of course, once you've paid, there's almost no chance of getting your
money back. This is exactly what the scammers hope for.

Impacts and Harms of Scams

https://consumersinternational.org/media/293343/social-media-scams-final-
245.pdf
A person's mental health, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships may all
suffer as a result of falling victim to a scam. As a result of their fear of
victimization, people may experience worry, anxiety, and maladaptive coping
strategies.

In the aftermath of a scam, victims may experience recurrent anxiety, ongoing

frustration and rage, shame and humiliation, hopelessness, loss of ability to trust,
sense of injustice, questioning of moral values, depression, and even suicidal
thoughts. In addition to financial losses, scam victims may suffer mental and
emotional harm. It is possible that they will feel ashamed and socially isolated,
which can be harmful. Consumer trust in digital marketplaces, social media
platforms, and genuine brands may be eroded, affecting future online behavior and
interactions.
It's important to keep in mind that social media scams can hurt both brands and
customers. So we should be careful for that and must take precautionary measures.

Some precautionary measures against social media scams

There are some safe steps that can be taken out in order to prevent from scamming:

1. Install any anti-virus software

Anti-virus programs can protect devices from any type of malware or suspicious
programs that can be installed intentionally or unintentionally on devices. If a user
installs an app or open any unknown content on web, that there is possibility of
malware entering into respective device. Anti-virus programs can detect and
remove these malwares and prevent from scams.

2. Don’t use public networks

People often use wi-fi networks that are publicly available and provide ease of
access. However, scammers can hack into these public networks and can steal the
information that is being shared using wi-fi. So, it’s the responsibility of users not
to share their personal and sensitive information over public networks.

3. Strong & unique passwords for social media accounts

Passwords should include some characters, numbers and signs so that scammers or
hackers can’t even imagine other’s passwords. Moreover, passwords must not be
same for all accounts because same passwords can open the possibility of
password hacking. For example, if a user has same passwords for their gmail
account and banking account, and if user has unintentionally saved the password
on his/her gmail account, which is the option given every time user log into gmail
account, then any scammer who is trying to hack your password can see this saved
password and can use this for your banking account. So, all the passwords must be
unique.

4. Keep personal details private

Users should not share their nicknames, address and about holidays or travelling
because it opens the ways for scammers to accumulate information about users
which can be later used for scamming.

5. Make private accounts

Always keep accounts private because by this, only user’s trusted people can see
their posts or personal details etc.

6. Don’t make unknown friends

Social media is a way of connecting to people around the world, and scammers or
hackers use this key to get personal details from users by making them friends.
Users should keep their social media circle limited to their friends or family, and
even if users make unknown friends so they should hide their personal details from
them.

Taking actions against scams

Strong actions against scamming are very important to lower down the loss of
users. Following are some basic possible actions which can be deployed by
individuals or organizations to tackle the scam challenges:

1. Official Reporting

Research shows that victims of scam cases often do not report to the official
sources due to various reasons such as not knowing whom to contact or
embarrassment of being scam victim etc. However, there are a number of
organizations around the world which are there to collect data about scams and to
take immediate actions against those.

2. Recognizing harmful content

Identifying harmful or suspicious content, often in the form of ads, is the most
important factor to avoid social media users from camming. In some counties,
large authorities conduct checks on companies before allowing them to create
accounts, advertise or publish. Some projects such as ScamAdviser that first
authenticate advertiser companies using Artificial Intelligence. Also, social media
apps should take charge using digital tools such as algorithms or AI to identify
advertising ads which contain harmful content.Some organizations are using digital
tools to identify any scam before it reaches the users. For example, Google, which
is the global platform, has improved its security measures using digital tools to
identify and block spam emails, emails which contain malware etc.

Case study: ScamAdviser Tool

ScamAdviser.comis a tool,which is developed by Ecommerce Foundation, for

social users to identify the credibility of a website. When a user opens a website,
many factors are checked by ScamAdviser.com algorithm e.g., IP address, security
and privacy aspects, and reviews about particular opened site which tells about
overall authenticity of the website.

3. Fight against scams

It is imperative to spread knowledge about common scams and the ways in which
these scammers make people victims of scams. To do this, a culture should be
developed in which everyone can freely and easily talk about scams without fear of
embarrassment, judgment, or blamed. As scammers depend upon victim’s silence
in order to doing frauds. To break this silence, all we need is the deeper knowledge
of the technology used by them, as well as more research to find more effective
precautionary measures against scams.

Data Analysis

1. Why do you use social media?

 Why do you use social media?
28%

2%
70%

Personal purposes Business purposes For both

2. Which social media platform has the most phishing scamming?

Phishing Scams

10%

20% 40%

Microsoft PayPal
30%
Netflix facebook

3. Which social media platform do you use the most?

 Most used social media apps

Facebook
10%
Twitter
all of these 21%
55%
Instagram
14%

Facebook Twitter Instagram all of these

4. Do you use the same passwords for all of your social media accounts?

Same Passowords
100.00%

90.00%

80.00%

70.00%

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
YES NO

5. Which type of posts or information you share on your accounts?

 shared Content

various
10% your
content
30%

other
events
content
10%
50%

your content events other content various

Research Methodology:

The entire research procedure is described and disseminated in a systematic

manner. It includes a comprehensive literature review as well as survey-based
studies from IEEE Xplore, Consumers International and Google Scholar, among
others.

The data and knowledge used in this paper are both primary and secondary.
Structured forms were created with several questions related to over topic for the
respondents, in order to obtain primary data. Number of peoples took part in
survey according to which we analyzed the data.

Related Work

Rakesh Singh Kunwar & Dr. Priyanka Sharma According to them, the Internet and
social media have opened up new channels of contact in an increasingly connected
society. This article goes into the threats, security hazards, and many sorts of social
media attacks in great detail. Information gathering via social media, building a
large social network, sniffing through personal malware attacks, disclosure of
products and usage, and other types of threats are some of the steps used to attack
via social media. Spamming in social networks, malware attacks in social
networks, manual script attacks, and malicious application permission dialogue are
also covered, as well as click jacking, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site
request forgery (CSRF). They also claim that social media contains a large amount
of data that is spread across multiple servers and protected by multiple layers of
security.

May 2019 Social media is a relatively new phenomenon that is changing the way
people get information, communicate with one another, and interact with
businesses. This paper focuses common social media scams, how they work and
why social media platforms are rapidly becoming the number one choice for online
fraudsters, it also explores how consumers get information about social media
scams and highlights good practice systems for detection, reporting and
enforcement, puts forward recommendations for effectively tackling social media
scams at both a national and international level. As social media grows in size and
influence, it's more important than ever that consumer protection is prioritized in
platform design and delivery. To address global challenges, those responsible for
consumer protection must collaborate to drive improvements, reduce harm, and
create a safe digital world that consumers can trust.