SCAMS THAT START ON SOCIAL MEDIA

We have seen an explosion of scams last year. There was an increase of *156 %* in social media scams in India in the year 2020.

India has been ranked as the second most targeted country in Asia and was also ranked third in the world with *3.4 %* of the total scams of the world, after China(23.7%)  and US (18.9%).

These days, scammers have found a new hiding place i.e Social Media. 

The biggest group of reports were about online sellers that didn’t deliver the goods. There were more than half quarter of all reports about scams that started  on social media through fake advertisements and offers. 

Other category is of "Romance Scams" : a large number of romance scams were reported previous year. People also told FTC (Federal Trade Commission) about the social media messages that pretended to offer grants and other financial relief during the pandemic, but were in actual trying to get money, personal information or both. 

Some of the recent incidents are : 

1)  TRP SCAM

A leaked conversation between famous news reporter Arnab Goswami and former CEO of broadcast audience research council (BRAC), Partho Dasgupta , shared a conversation about TV ratings. 

2) Wirecard

The German payment processing company-Wirecard, came up with an "accounting error" which showed a difference of $2.3 billion in their balance sheet. 

3) Wells Frago

The company revealed that more than 100 employees created *fake profiles* to file  fraudulent applications. 

4) Zoom

2020 would have been a massive success year for zoom but *lack of security* caused heavy damages to the company. 

Scammers can hide behind phone profiles on social media. They can take over an account or join virtual community to encourage you to trust them . But you can make it harder for scammers to target you by :- 

•Reviewing your social media privacy settings and limit what you share publicly.

•Before you buy a product based on an ad or post, check out the company's authenticity.  Type it’s name in search engine with words like 'scams' or 'complaints' , so as to get a clear picture. 

•If someone appears on social media and rushes you to start a friendship or a relationship. Read about *romance scams* because they are increasing rapidly nowadays. 

•If you get a message from your friend about grant or financial relief, call them immediately and verify if they really sent you that message. If they have not sent you the message, it means their account has been hacked. 

•Check out before your any act . If you spot a scam, report it on the social media site and FTC at ftc.gov/complaint . 

STAY SMART , STAY SATARK !

                            By - Rinkle and Pranjal