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Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

theguardian.com

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Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#61

Post by jsbg »

rocketnasa wrote: post #11

On Facebook, any time I see someone post with the words 'my account was hacked' they get a dozen automated replies from other users offering services to fix their account. In most cases, the person isn't even hacked, their account was cloned/impersonated. With the kind of money Facebook has, they can't set a honeypot account up and post 'my account was hacked' on it? This has been going on for months.

It's astonishing how few patterns there are for scams on fb/ig that anyone with introductory statistics knowledge could build a classifier for even with hand-collected data, but meta lets them go on for years.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#62

Post by marcosdumay »

skciva wrote: post #41
totallywrong wrote: post #8

I've been thinking for a while now, as we've had social media for many years already. What good has it brought to society? Scams, addiction, FOMO, cancel culture, gossip, missinformation, bullying, and the most self-centered generation in history, to name a few. All of it instantly and on a global scale. It's truly one the worst things that ever happened to society IMO.

Your username is hilarious in context of this post. Sure there are a lot of horrible things that it's introduced. Replace social media with any other technology..what good have computers brought? What good has the automobile brought? It is all perspective and humans will use tools for good and bad. There is plenty of good in the world thanks to social media.

I don't think there is any other technology that compares with social networks on the rate of bad to good consequences and is still widely adopted. Maybe mass manufactured military-spread drugs like they used in WWII. But it's quite hard to quantify those.

But, of course it created a bunch of good thing. Nothing that spreads that widely has only bad consequences. And yes, I like the good consequences quite a lot too. It's too bad most of the companies keeping those networks are adamant in destroying all the good value and keeping only the bad.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#63

Post by pengaru »

twilightzone wrote: post #59
pengaru wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media (or any other means of advertising, past or present) has affected these things everywhere. Even I complain about my inability to be alone on a trail in CA, or struggling to find campsites, occasionally shaking my fist at social media for it. But the linked images from India showing extreme overcrowding has far more to do with the population size than social media. When you have that many people, any litt…

There are plenty of trails in India, this one just got advertised. You shouldn't conclude the world is overpopulated by looking at footage from a football cup match.

> You shouldn't conclude the world is overpopulated by looking at footage from a football cup match.

You shouldn't deny India is overpopulated when riding a train there resembles a footclub cup match.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#64

Post by totallywrong »

skciva wrote: post #41
totallywrong wrote: post #8

I've been thinking for a while now, as we've had social media for many years already. What good has it brought to society? Scams, addiction, FOMO, cancel culture, gossip, missinformation, bullying, and the most self-centered generation in history, to name a few. All of it instantly and on a global scale. It's truly one the worst things that ever happened to society IMO.

Your username is hilarious in context of this post. Sure there are a lot of horrible things that it's introduced. Replace social media with any other technology..what good have computers brought? What good has the automobile brought? It is all perspective and humans will use tools for good and bad. There is plenty of good in the world thanks to social media.

I think any technology must be judged based on what it turns out to be long term. Computers and vehicles, for all their issues, have brought untold advancement and comfort to society. Social media.. well you tell me.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#65

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

SkipperCat wrote: post #35

I think a lot of this is because a large amount of our society grew up without the Internet. To them, everything that looks professional is professional. They are easy targets for scammers. Millennials and Gen-Z were raised on the Internet and therefore have an innate understanding of what is real and most importantly, what can be faked. Its a lot harder to scam. them. If I told my parents about a Nigerian oil execut…

> So, maybe in 20+ years, nobody will fall for these scams anymore.

I do IT security; people send dodgy stuff to me for vetting. But I'm naturally on my haunches for those.

I once got an gift card scam email sent from a friend's account. Scam was newish and arrived while I navigating a parking garage after a concert, car full of family. I initially responded ("w/ family, back to you soon") and was a few miles down the road before I had enough brain free to properly consider it.

These guys spray and prey. Eventually they hit something.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#66

Post by BrandonS113 »

SkipperCat wrote: post #35

I think a lot of this is because a large amount of our society grew up without the Internet. To them, everything that looks professional is professional. They are easy targets for scammers. Millennials and Gen-Z were raised on the Internet and therefore have an innate understanding of what is real and most importantly, what can be faked. Its a lot harder to scam. them. If I told my parents about a Nigerian oil execut…

The demographic most likely to fall for scams is the 20 year old. So. no.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#67

Post by stickfigure »

totallywrong wrote: post #8

I've been thinking for a while now, as we've had social media for many years already. What good has it brought to society? Scams, addiction, FOMO, cancel culture, gossip, missinformation, bullying, and the most self-centered generation in history, to name a few. All of it instantly and on a global scale. It's truly one the worst things that ever happened to society IMO.

What on earth? I keep up with my (physically) distant friends through Facebook, people who I would have completely lost touch with if it weren't for social media.

This reads like you trying to stand between me and my friends. If you don't like social media that's fine for you, but the rest of us quite like it and that's no business of yours. Butt out.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#68

Post by vaidhy »

pengaru wrote: post #63
twilightzone wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of trails in India, this one just got advertised. You shouldn't conclude the world is overpopulated by looking at footage from a football cup match.

> You shouldn't conclude the world is overpopulated by looking at footage from a football cup match. You shouldn't deny India is overpopulated when riding a train there resembles a footclub cup match.

Is Japan over-populated? Tokyo's trains are extremely crowded. Is US over-populated? LA traffic jams are crazy.

What is the definition of over-population? Over what area are you measuring it? Those train images are likely from just one city. There are other places where the trains just run like any other place.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#69

Post by expertentipp »

I remember my trauma after watching grim and depressing movie "Requiem for a Dream" including the scene when mother of protagonist joins some cult or MLM and becomes addicted to some drugs. In the end I realized "it's just a movie, it's all good". Now I see my parents uncritically consuming mostly on mobile portals with "news", social media, obvious propaganda which agitates and addicts them. What's worse they ask me whether I'm with or against them on the topics. I'm terrified and heartbroken.

Re: Victims speak out over ‘tsunami’ of fraud on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp

#70

Post by iJohnDoe »

I got “scammed” three times on social media.

1. Purchased electric scooters by following an Instagram ad. It was around Christmas time. The scooters were really cool looking. Turned out, they used the promotional videos from another company’s real product. I did get the money back from the credit card company.

2. Purchased a pillow by following an Instagram ad. Never received it. It turned out to be a fake store to just steal people’s money. Wasn’t enough money to worry about it.

3. Followed an ad from Twitter for a marshmallow company. Placed an order as a gift for someone else. Turns out they never actually send orders. They just take people’s money. The online store was amazingly designed. Awesome photos and functioned really well. I think it was a legitimate business at one point, but decided it was easier to just steal people’s money. There wasn’t any reason to think the store was a scam. If I checked online reviews first though, I would have found the warnings posted everywhere not to order from them.

Came close to placing an order from a clothing store. Prices were slightly too good to be true. This time I checked online reviews and it turns out they never ship orders either.

All three times were years apart. Happened while mindlessly scrolling and when your guard is down. I don’t order stuff from random sites either, but the products were just the right thing to peak interest.

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