Online Fraud Now Sky-high With ‘Tinder Swindler’ Romance Scams Costing Hundreds of Millions
A new article in Bloomberg focused on new sky-high online fraud numbers, they are horrendous. Here is a short summary and I recommend you read the whole article.
“The pandemic led to a boom in dating fraud. Digital romance scams have surged over the past two years, leading to millions of dollars in losses for people who were wooed and then duped out of money. While con artists have long been a part of life on the internet, experts say the trend exploded as COVID lockdowns created the perfect opportunity for swindlers seeking lonely targets.
Fraud losses on social media last year were 18 times higher than in 2017
More than 95,000 people in the US reported fraud initiated on social-media platforms in 2021, with losses totaling about $770 million, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That was more than double the year-earlier figure and up from just $105 million in 2019. Scams tied to romance were the second-most profitable on social media, after investment fraud, the agency’s data show.
Recovering funds is very rare, Ambrose said. And while victims often are senior citizens or part of an older demographic, even those in their 20s and 30s who grew up with the Internet can fall for the scams.
“The younger crowd likes to think they are more tech savvy, but there are a huge amount of the younger crowd being victimized,” said Kathy Waters, founder of Advocating Against Romance Scammers. “All of them say, ‘I never thought it could happen to me.’”
Social engineering attacks like this can be devastating. Stepping your users through new-school security awareness training will train them to be a lot more skeptical and make smarter security decisions at work but also in their private lives. Full article at Bloomberg.
Don’t get hacked by social media phishing attacks!
Many of your users are active on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Cybercriminals use these platforms to scrape profile information of your users and organization to create targeted spear phishing campaigns in an attempt to hijack accounts, damage your organization’s reputation, or gain access to your network.
KnowBe4’s Social Media Phishing Test is a complimentary IT security tool that helps you identify which users in your organization are vulnerable to these types of phishing attacks that could put your users and organization at risk.
Here’s how the Social Media Phishing Test works:
- Immediately start your test with your choice of three social media phishing templates
- Choose the corresponding landing page your users see after they click
- Show users which red flags they missed or send them to a fake login page
- Get a PDF emailed to you in 24 hours with your percentage of clicks and data entered
PS: Don’t like to click on redirected buttons? Cut & Paste this link in your browser: https://info.knowbe4.com/social-media-phishing-test-partner?partnerid=001a000001lWEoJAAW