Yahoo Finance 'Sophisticated' fraudulent accounts now outnumber real business accounts on social media
The number of sophisticated social media scams has exploded with a fivefold increase since the start of 2018, meaning there are now nearly three times as many fraudulent online accounts then verified business profiles online.
Researchers have revealed that the activity of bad actors using “angler phishing” scams has soared in the last six months, with data scientists first thinking their readings were a mistake.
Angler phishing attackers create fake customer-support accounts on social media to trick people looking for help into visiting a phishing site or providing account credentials.
The accounts, also known as social media support fraud, use the same names and logos of the real business profiles and engage in conversation with users.
The only difference is the fakes do not have a verified “blue tick” which is given out by moderators at Facebook and Twitter.
Security software company Proofpoint, which produced the findings, claims that while common link spam on social media showed some seasonal variations, the more sophisticated angler phishing scams have increased by around 200pc quarter over quarter this year.
The issue with the scam is it is very difficult for to produce an automated solution to address all the fake accounts, and relies on users to flag them to the social media websites.
Kevin Epstein, Vice President of Proofpoint’s Threat Operations Center, said: “For some reason people are comfortable conducting what should be private transactions on social media these days.
“So if someone has an issue with their bank, so instead of telephoning them, or even sending a secure email, they shout out about it on Facebook, even admitting there is an issue with their bank account.
“And criminals, not being idiots, will look up your social media profile and will communicate back to you using these sophisticated and very convincing accounts.
“This type of Angler phishing scam has been going up radically, I questioned my team that first produced the data on it, and told them it must have been an error.
“The weakest link in your cybersecurity is between your keyboard and seat. People should get more informed about these scams and completely avoid giving private details over social media.”
