Social Media Scams

While social media is a fantastic way to keep in touch or interact with people, social media scams are everywhere. 

Social media scams take many forms, and many are native to one particular platform as Facebook scams, Twitter scams, Instagram scams (separate categories), and more are operating and trying to fleece people of money or use their personal information for nefarious purposes. 

Facebook scams include messages from fake profiles, malware hidden in Facebook apps and games that are part of phishing attacks, and classified ad scams in the Facebook Marketplace.

 

Social Media Scams: List Below

Twitter scams can include emails sent from “Twitter,” and links in messages that are part of phishing attacks. 

Multi-Level marketing scams are also common on social media and their empty promises of easy riches. 

Social media can be wonderful, but be careful. Keep your eye on this space, and learn about the scams on social media as they emerge.

Your Campaign Has Stopped

How the scam works: If you have a small business and use Google Adwords to promote it, you might receive an e-mail (from scammers) informing you that your campaign has stopped running. In order to resume it, you need to log into your Adwords account. The message provides a link to click in order to […]

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Your Friend Got Robbed

How the scam works: If you have not yet received an email similar to the one we are about to tell you about, you probably will, so be aware. Scammers hack into email accounts and send a message to all the contacts in the address book: "Hi Dear, just writing to let you know my unexpected […]

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Your Lover is Cheating

Cheating Partner Scam: How It Works Imagine this scenario. One day you get a Facebook message, email or phone call from somebody claiming she/he wants to help you. After introducing themselves they say the reason for the call is that your partner (they will give your partner’s full real name) is cheating on you. What […]

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Music: Celebrity Band

How the scam works: If you are an aspiring singer or a band, one day you might get invited through e-mail, Facebook or MySpace to perform a concert either out of town or as an opening act for a celebrity. You are invited to confirm if you can make it. This is what you’ve been […]

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Music: Celebrity Visit

How the scam works: You see online advertising for an upcoming show featuring one of your favorite singers or bands. You want to attend and call the number listed to get tickets. The scam usually has two variations. Scenario 1. The headliner doesn’t perform that night, as he probably never knew his name was listed […]

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Music: Song Contest Awards

How the scam works: (with video below) This scam targets musicians, singers and artists and make them believe they have won an award, such as the “Director’s Award” or “Breakthrough of the Month”. The scammers harvest all the victims from websites like MySpace, YouTube, SoundCloud or Facebook, where everybody tries to promote their music, looking […]

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Online Friends

How the scam works: Online social networking has become a phenomenon in the last few years. People add friends and connect with old buddies all the time. You might accept people who request your friendship although you don’t know them. What happens is that after being accepted by thousands of “friends” on Facebook or “followers” […]

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Pay for Facebook

How The Scam Works: Facebook constantly changes its design leading criminals to experiment on new scams, relying on the novelty aspect. One of the latest ones is the Facebook Membership, aka Pay for Facebook scam. Scammers require users to pay different monthly amounts (under $10) per memberships of all kind (Gold, Silver, etc). In the […]

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Pet Adoption for Free

Pet Adoption Scam: How It Works (with video below) Be careful if you’re trying to adopt a pet. Scammers advertise dogs for adoption all over the Internet. Beware of the Adopt A Pet scam! Let’s take a look. You want to get a puppy and come across an Internet post or classified ad from somebody […]

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Pet in Airport

How the scam works: The crooks send emails claiming to be airport employees. In the message, they notify you that a pet is being held at the local airport and request money to pay for vaccinations before the animal can be shipped to its final destination. To make it look more realistic, they also claim […]

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Pills Offer Scam

How the scam works: You really want to get a date but your confidence is down after losing hair, gaining weight and not feeling like your charisma is what it could or should be. Desperate for a confidence boost, you sort through your spam and order a few patches, liquids and pills. You try them all out […]

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Poetry Contests

  Fake Poetry Contests: How The Scam Works Do you think you are good to try out for Poetry Out Loud with your poems? We hope so, but be aware of many fake poetry competitions and contests popping up everywhere this time of the year — especially with the stay at home imposed quarantines — […]

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Psychic/Astrologer Readings

Online Psychic Reading: How the Scam Works (with video below)  Are you looking into a psychic reading these days? If yes, be careful about the Online Psychic Reading Scam, including numerologists, astrologers, tarot card reading, and fortune-tellers. Read below and feel free to report the scammers' names at the end of the article, under the […]

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Publishing Contest

How the scam works: With the worldwide spread of the Internet, it is much easier nowadays to find talented people in all industries. Unfortunately, scammers are right on the ball in this aspect, too. It has been reported that several crooks create fake publishing contests, apparently organized by famous companies. One of the examples is […]

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Referrals for Your Convenience

How the scam works: Let’s say you are an aspiring writer. Established publishers accept new books only if they are submitted by an agent. Meanwhile, agents don’t take any new writers under their wings unless they have a publishing record. When you approach them with a book, because you are new, most agents might tell […]

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