With the growth in social media platforms and engagement, one becomes more vulnerable to cybercriminals. These bad actors are always on the lookout for your personal information. One mistake and boom, they will track and hack your account. While social media platforms are a mode of entertainment for people, they are a spot for scammers. They have adopted various strategies to trick people into falling into their fake traps and get their desires fulfilled.
With 59% of the global population using social media and spending about 147 minutes daily, it becomes difficult to distinguish between genuine users and scammers. Instead, we can stay cautious while using social media platforms to prevent ourselves from getting into a scam. But how? To get tips on how one can stay away from social media scams, we talked to Faisal Abidi, Co-Founder of RNF Technologies. This company provides online marketing, web/mobile app development, and gaming app development solutions to its global clients.
Let’s delve into the quick tips of RNF Technologies’ Faisal Abidi on how to stay safe and cautious on social media platforms.
- Be Suspicious About Your Clicks
Every social media scam begins with a click! RNF Technologies’s Faisal Abidi underlines that scammers send viruses, malware, phishing messages, legitimate-looking emails, and even texts from friends or relatives (by hacking their accounts) with a link redirecting you to some other fake website, page, or trigger a download in your device. All these are tricks to obtain your personal or banking information. It is why Faisal Abidi, RNF Technologies, shares a list of things that one needs to consider before clicking on a random link.
- Always be careful of the URL while logging into a social media platform to confirm that you’re using a genuine version.
- Skip downloading an update or visiting a login page via a link in an email; instead, type the web address into your browser.
- Be aware of the shortened links, and check their expanded forms first. They may not have the content you were looking for, and it could be a simple scammer’s strategy.
- Think Before Sharing
Scammers always look for ways to get your personal or banking information. Social media platforms are full of fake accounts looking for your details. It is why Faisal Abidi, Co-Founder Of Resourcifi, asks people to be cautious while sharing their essential information online. One can do the following-
- Stay careful while accepting requests.
- Check the online information available for your organization. It helps you know about your available online data.
- Think twice before sharing any news, pictures, or videos highly significant to your business.
- Verify Requests
Often, these online scammers hack your or your friend’s accounts and send links making people believe that their known person is sharing the link or asking for money. In reality, the scammer is trying to avail your information. The simplest way to avoid such scams, shares Resourcifi’ Faisal Abidi, is to verify the authenticity of the user by approaching the known people who approached you.
- Don’t Fall For Unbelievable Offers
Various companies try to sell you, online followers, for your business at reasonable or significantly lower prices or offer heavy discounts for their services. These attractive offers gain people’s attention and encourage them to avail of their services. Once the user pays the amount in advance, the scammer runs away or doesn’t deliver the promised benefits. Resourcifi’Faisal Abidi recommends that one should always check for the authenticity of these companies by visiting their websites, following the ratings and reviews, and avoiding payment until they are sure of the service providers.
These are a few ways by which one can stay cautious and avoid falling for the scammers’ tricks and strategies. Faisal Abidi, RNF Technologies, concludes, “If something doesn’t feel right, avoid trusting it. Not every experimentation leads to great results.”