Scammers, con artists, and criminals often target Facebook with a range of phony ads and fake items as the network grows and its user base expands. While Facebook fights back, you must ensure that you are aware of the hazards before using the site or any of its services.
Three of the Most Common Facebook Scams
It's nearly difficult to have a secure online presence, but you can better protect yourself if you can recognize a scam early on.
1. Event Ticketing Fraud and Fake Products
Victims of bogus merchandise and event ticketing fraud are aplenty on Facebook's support sites. Scammers get to bypass the platform's algorithm by replicating or hacking legitimate profiles. These profiles are used by criminals to list bogus products, tickets, services, and other items on the marketplace or community pages.
Always verify the seller's profile before buying something from someone on Facebook. It's probably a fraud if the offer appears to be too good to be true. Check out the seller's page for reviews as well. If the account was just created and there are no reviews, it's more likely that it's a scam.
2. Fake Advertising Campaigns
Facebook keeps track of everything you do there. This information is used by the company to personalize ad campaigns for you. Fake campaigns continue to gain popularity, despite the fact that Facebook advertising benefits many businesses. Some adverts will employ phony celebrity endorsements, while others will simply try to steal your financial information.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, Facebook projected that there were 116 million bogus accounts on the platform. Any of these could broadcast advertisements directing you to a discount website. The scammers have all of your credit card information once you attempt to make a purchase.
Only give your financial information to reliable websites to keep it safe. Instead of following the link from Facebook, you can type the URL into Google to ensure you're on the appropriate brand's website. Because criminals are quite effective at imitating legitimate websites, always check the URL before making any purchases.
3. Impersonating and Using a Good Samaritan Scam
When criminals don't have access to legitimate accounts, they can clone your information and use it to impersonate you on the site. The con artists will send friend requests to your friends, claiming that you have lost access to your previous account. The hacker would employ a Good Samaritan scam to ask your pals for money for an accident or hospital expense once your contact adds the false profile as a friend.
Keep your profile settings secret to prevent hackers from impersonating you. If you get a second friend request from someone you already know, notify the affected user on the old account right away. Another general rule is to never accept a second friend request without first confirming with the sender that the account is legitimate.
