Social Media Fraud Was Big in 2021 – Over $770 Million

Social Media Fraud Topped $770 in 2021

Social media fraud is nothing new to the cybersecurity world. People are increasingly targeted by scammers on social media, according to a report by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2021. The report revealed that over 95,000 US consumers reported losses of roughly $770 million after getting scammed on social media platforms.

Social frauds have increased 18 times from the $42 million reported in 2017

Investment, romance and e-commerce scams, combined, accounted for 70% of social media scams in 2021

 Most Profitable Social Media Scams in 2021:

Online shopping: Close to 70% that report the incidents said they place an order, typically after seeing and ad but the product was never delivered after the purchase. Per FTC report, "Some reports even described ads that impersonated real online retailers that drove people to lookalike websites."

Investment Opportunities: Aka ”Fake Investment Opportunities” were the most profitable. More than half of reports in 2021 mentioning money and cryptocurrency lost to promises of huge returns.

Romance: This is the second most profitable fraud on social media after reaching record highs during the last years. These scams would begin with a seemingly innocent friend request, followed by sweet talk, then a request for money, the report explained.

Based on the social media platform identified in the reports of investment, romance, and online shopping scams, the most popular platforms among fraudsters were Facebook and Instagram.

Many employees are using their personal devices for social media which could lead to costing you a lot financially and possibly your reputation. Social Media fraud is going nowhere, hackers will continue to get more sophisticated.

CorpInfoTech is here to help you, whether it be with Security Awareness Training or setting controls/limits on the internet. With many employees working at home, this can be a reason secure to your organization today. Don’t let your employees fall victim to a social media fraud.

CorpInfoTech (Corporate Information Technologies) provides small to mid-market organizations with expert I.T. services including compliance assessment, cybersecurity penetration tests, and comprehensive business continuity planning services. CorpInfoTech can help organizations, quantify, create, refine, and mitigate the risks presented by business threatening disasters in whatever form they may be disguised.