Cybercrime in Social Media

Buying illegal items: By creating fake profiles, cybercriminals use social media to trade illegal or banned items.

Common tricks used by fraudsters on social media

We all are active on social media nowadays for various reasons; professionals use social media to hire people to showcase their professional skills and achievements. Likewise, students and housewives have reasons to be active on social media. People are even addicted to it, and many countries now have addiction centers to treat the social media addiction of people. Therefore, there are plenty of opportunities for cybercriminals to trap and dupe ordinary, innocent citizens. Since the internet has no boundaries, cybercriminals can reach their target from any country. Some common types of social media crimes are lottery and free gift card scam, free shopping voucher scam, cryptocurrency (bitcoin) scam, collection of your personal information from social media websites. Cybercriminals advertise their posts or send emails to lure innocent people. They say that you have won a lottery or free gift coupons. Sometimes, they clone's the identity of an individual to commit the crime.

Figure 3.6: Social media frauds

Some of the common tricks used by fraudsters are as follows:

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  Look over your keyboard when you type the password
  
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  Use your mobile phone or laptop to check browsers for saved passwords
  
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  Installation of malware and keystroke logging software into your devices
  
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  Look for login credentials in public cybercafés computer
  
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  Creation of social media accounts in someone else's names and posting their publicly available photographs
  
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  Cracking Wi-Fi passwords and committing cybercrime using the real owner's name
  
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  Avail medical treatment on your health insurance
  
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  Stalking of one's activities on social media, commenting, and messaging even though not being on the contact list
  
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  Sending a friend request to the victim's contacts to access his/her complete profile information
  
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  Posting proposals, vulgar comments, pictures, or videos on victim's profile page
  
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  Spreading rumors, false information, defamatory comments, swear words among victims' friends, and contact list on social media
  

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  Tricking teens into sending obscene pictures and later blackmailing them
  
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  Unwanted game invites, pokes, pings, or comments asking for dates, and so on
  

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  Hacking, stealing victim account's password and messaging, proposing, posting obscene content using their profiles resulting in their contacts believing the user does it
  
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  Phone on behalf of banks or bank wallets such as Paytm, BHIM, and so on
  
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  Persuade customers to download and install some thirdparty applications
  
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  Ask for OTP
  
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  Sending mails and asking to fill in KYC details or click on a link
  
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  Giving reference examples of victim's contact lists or believable references for persuading victims
  
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  Misuse of photocopies to get a driving license or passport
  

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