Top Social Media Scams in 2016

Nowadays, scammers are often targeting social media sites to get a lot of victims. It's no surprise that social media holds great power today because almost every individual is using those platforms for various purposes. Alfa One Corporation understands that the personal and financial information of a person are not perfectly safe online. And based on their reviews, they discovered that the following are the most common social media scams this year.

Fake customer service accounts

Criminals' username may look similar to the original one. However, there are characters that don't match or does not belong to the genuine one, such as an extra underscore or other keyboard characters. Here is an example of this scheme: when a customer tweets their problem at a bank on Twitter, the scammer will divert the conversation by replying with an answer that seems to be coming from the real bank support. A fake support site is included in their tweet, which attempts to steal the customer's actual banking account information.

Fake comments

The scammer will take advantage of a popular social media post or news story. They will pretend to be a user and will comment on posts with links that may catch the interest of many that often leads to a credit card phishing scam.

Fake discounts

Based on Alfa One Corporation, this appears to be similar to fake customer service accounts wherein the scammer will create a social media account identical to a real business and pretend to offer real deals and discounts to a customer. This scheme leads to stealing the customer’s personal and financial information.

Fake live-stream videos

Live-streaming is popular these days and scammers see this as a new opportunity to target a lot of people. They usually offer a link to a free live streaming of a particular show through a Facebook or Twitter comment, which takes you to a fake website and asks for your personal information in order to start the live stream.

Fake surveys and contests

Surveys and contests that demand you to provide your sensitive information through personal questions are often scams. Scammers can mine and sell your personal data through this scheme. They usually offer fake online surveys and quizzes on the comment section of a social media platform. The link appears to be legit because of URL shorteners and their profile picture has that normal-looking feature.

Be wary on the scams mentioned above and make sure to keep them in mind so that you can protect yourself from being a victim of those evil doings. Alfa One Corporation Accounting Solutions needs you to note that the only one responsible for your own safety is yourself. Put extra caution in doing activities online because not every post you see on the internet is real.

Summary:

For over two decades, the financial experts of Alfa One Corporation Accounting Solutions in Tokyo, Japan have provided a one-stop financial-services source in management of business practice, tax and financial planning, accounting, transition, investment counseling and retirement planning consultancy especially for the dental industry in Malaysia, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Since our company started its operations, dentists have relied on our knowhow, expertise, and experience to help them attain their business and personal objectives with excellent results. Our well-trained staff of Certified Public Accountants, Certified Financial Planners, accountants and bookkeepers are ready to provide dentists the assistance they require on a day-to-day arrangement. We aim to enhance all our clients' financial productivity as well as the quality of life.