Tips from TotalDefense on how to identify and avoid frauds on social network. Visit http://blogs.totaldefense.com/securityblog.aspx for cloud-based endpoint security solutions for home and businesses.

1. How to avoid common social network frauds
Since the last blogs posted about multiple social networks frauds, I‟ve been getting multiple questions
so I‟ve decided to publish the common fraud attack methods and how to recognize and avoid them.
The social networks are very fertile ground for cybercriminals, and sometimes it is difficult to
distinguish between true stories and those who spread viruses or other scams. Here are some common
scams you should avoid on the social networks:
1.
"One fact"
The format of Twitter, which is only a short text message, subjected to attacks when used in
scandalous headlines to lure unwary users that share them without reading or checking if they are
correct.
An example is the hacked Twitter account of celeb news channel „E!‟ earlier this year, a series of false
tweets began with news coming out about Justin Bieber allegedly being gay, who shared 1,200 times
within a few hours. It would be much safer to verify the news with other sources than to click on links
attached to such news.
2.
“News from around the world”
You should start to suspect if a news story appears on the social network only once. Global scale news
using rapidly spreading, with stories and angles distributed by friends and different sources. Hackers
often use scandalous or outrageous headlines to get readers to click on the link to spread viruses and
malware on Twitter and Facebook. If you see such titles, you can check them on other sites or Google
them before clicking the provided links.
3.
“Stories begging you to „Like‟ them”
Have you ever pressed „Like‟ on a post that offers something for free? Or to help someone get a million
Likes so their parents buy them a dog/cat/send them on a trip around the world?
All such request should encourage you to „Like‟ suspicion. Many scams on the social network are
distributed to collect your „Likes‟ then sell them to other companies, which in turn start spreading you
and your friends adverts. If you suspect you have done something like that and now regret it, you can
always remove it using the Activity Log from your profile.
4.
“Amazing stories about diets”
The phenomenon of obesity is so prevalent that it has received the nickname "the epidemic of the 21st
century", which means that many people will look for information about obesity and ways to get rid of
it.
One of the biggest attacks focused on this issue was distributed via Instagram last July using a picture
of tropical fruit. Clicking on the image transferred users to a fake BBC site with the title "tropical fruit
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2. to drop you 8 pounds in 22 days”. Of course, that issue was a scam and clicking on the link caused
Instagram accounts to distribute the spam to other unsuspecting friends and followers.
5.
“News sites you never heard of”
At the height of the hysteria surrounding the royal baby's birth of Prince William and his wife Kate
Middleton, the rate of related Tweets was around 23,500 Tweets per minute. Network criminals could
not ignore the situation and sent their own tweets with links to news sites pose with promises you will
not of course find anywhere else. Needless to say that the links lead to sites that in turn spread viruses
and other malicious software and did not provide any news about the royal birth.
6.
“Gift Cards”
Gift cards can be quite tempting, especially when they are shipped to you from a friend.
Unfortunately, most of them are frauds. "Gift cards" that offer you all kinds of free products are usually
scams and recently observed on photo-sharing social networks like Pinterest, when one of the steps for
getting the “gifts” was that the surfer prompted to share the post with friends. Needless to say that
the “gifts” do not exist at all and eventually you will find yourself revealing personal information, or
worse install a virus on your computer.
About TotalDefense:
Total Defense(@Total_Defense) is a global leader in malware detection and anti-crimeware solutions.
We offer a broad portfolio of leading security products for the consumer market used by over four
million consumers worldwide. Our solutions also include the industry‟s first complete cloud security
platform, providing fully integrated endpoint, web and email security through a single Web-based
management console with a single set of enforceable security policies
Total Defense is a former business of CA Technologies, one of the largest software companies in the
world, and has operations in New York, California, Europe, Israel and Asia.
Visit http://www.totaldefense.com/ for web, cloud & mobile security solutions for home users and
businesses.
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