Exclusive: most social media users encounter scams on a weekly basis at least
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Social media users are becoming more adept at recognizing scams, but many still need to stay alert, according to an exclusive TechRadar Pro study.
First, respondents were asked which social media platforms they used. Facebook came out on top with just under 80% active on the networking site. Instagram was next with 68.1%, and Tiktok and Twitter were closely contested for third place with just under 50% each (49.8% and 47.5% respectively).
LinkedIn and WhatsApp rounded out the last two mainstream platforms with 35.8% and 33.4% respectively. 6.6% said they used other social media platforms to do this, while 3.7% used none at all.
Scam
The results for how often scams were found on social media platforms were fairly evenly split. Just over a third encountered them once a day, and just over a quarter said once a week. Only 15% said once a month, and less than a third said less than a month.
Scams on social media platforms have been on the rise since the pandemic, peaked in 2021 and remain prominent this year. It is not surprising that during prime sales periods, such as Black Friday and the holiday season, there is often an increase in scams.
Fortunately, most were confident or very confident – 30.9% and 34.4% respectively – that they could identify them. A quarter said they were a little, and only 10% said they were not a big deal.
That confidence may be misplaced, however, as other reports have shown that a fair number of users fall for popular social media scams such as phishing campaigns and bogus gift card offers.
Cryptocurrency scams have also become increasingly popular on social media in recent years. Advertisements for bogus exchanges will promote ‘investment opportunities’, promising to significantly increase a victim’s wallet. Some have even used videos of Elon Musk discussing crypto to lure people in.
However, there are countless ways to spot social media scams. A telltale sign is that if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Another way is to check the address of any links before clicking them to make sure you are actually going to the official site of the company in question.
Checking that a website looks professional and is free of obvious spelling and grammatical errors is also key to spotting fake websites.