How scam artists choose their victims
Social media users always seems surprised when their account gets "hacked" or when a friend advises them they have been posting explicit pictures on groups without their knowledge. It further amuses me when I chat to people who claim that only stupid and gullible people can get scammed. Although the shot gun approach is still popular with scam artists (such as receiving an email advising you have won the lottery) this is nowhere near as effective as adding the personal touch. Scams are far more effective if they use emotional buttons to manipulate people into a scam. The first order of business is to create data bases of like-minded individuals. Scammers do this by posting religious memes, animal photos, various disease awareness posts and the very popular "win a car or free flight" post. The text usually encourages people to SHARE the good, tragic, amazing or shocking news with friends. On all Facebook business pages there is analytics information and anyone sharing or commenting on a post is permanently recorded and available to the original creator of the post. Very often subtle clues are added to a fake post such as the example shown. To anyone with even basic computer knowledge should realise immediately that these pictures are fake; the result of photo editing. In the prize like/share scam deliberate grammar and/or spelling errors are included for the same reason. Scam artists don't want observant people in their data base - they are not easily scammed. The scammers want the people that BELIEVE this stuff and don't realise that it is a con. By sharing, commenting and liking posts of this nature, it is tantamount to raising a red flag with a huge "pick me for your scam" sign. Most scammers pick certain areas for their targets. Again Facebook analytics neatly divides the people that have shared posts into groups; language, geolocation, age and gender. Not all of the hundreds of thousands of people that share these posts will be scammed but of course they increase their risk. The end games are varied and creative. If you shared, commented on and liked the example pictures, the scammers might contact you privately for donation requests to "Save the Rhino" as just one example. You have already identified you are pro the cause and you have identified yourself as someone that doesn't take notice of small details. In the prize like/share scam you could be advised that you have won a prize but have to pay an admin cost or such. The danger is that personal scams range from small amounts right up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the research for my book on scams, I interviewed dozens of individuals and businesses that have lost close on a million Rand per scam all through Facebook. Sadly because of how Facebook is designed once someone falls for a share/like scam they don't only put themselves at risk, but also all their friends. As a matter of course you should hide your friends list from view to protect them, but this only works if every one of your friends does the same. A combination of apathy, ignorance and sometimes greed will ensure that scam artists continue to flourish in the social media platforms and that scams are becoming the crime of choice in this decade.
