Don’t become a victim of cyber-crime during the upcoming holidays.
Holiday Hackers!
Don't become a victim of cyber-crime during the upcoming holidays.
FUSE3 cares about our community and as the year approaches the holidays, during a pandemic; while our society gets comfortable doing EVERYTHING online, hackers are harder at work now more than ever. We shop online for just about anything and everything we could want or need. This means that there are lots of opportunities for hackers to catch you. Here are some scamming statistics that may have you thinking twice before clicking a link or shortcut to an unbelievable deal!
Did you know?
Did you know, scamming incidents have increased by 519% in 2020 compared to 2019? Researchers compared their own data to a recent report from the Federal Trade Commission. That report found that scams on social media have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic earlier this year. ZeroFOX, an independent research company, says their data aligns with the findings in the FTC’s report, and they’ve observed a significant year-over-year increase in scams:
- “423% increase in Financial Services (scammers/money mullers targeting banking customers)
- “1579% increase in Retail scams
- “226% increase in Consumer Goods scams
- “295% increase in HR scams, which could align with scammers looking to capitalize on work from home opportunities and lay-off/furloughs due to the pandemic
- “164% increase in crypto giveaway scams, where an account is taken over or an impersonator profile is created to look like an influencer to peddle the scam
- “609% increase in money flipping scams
- “100% increase in impersonating profiles that have someone who claims to work for a company in HR, but does not.”
Since scammers have no reason to change their methods, it is believed that this activity will continue to multiply.
Will it ever end?
Scammers will likely continue to use the pandemic as an opportunity to tak
e advantage of desperate consumers. Emotional and economic distress can leave victims vulnerable to these scams, especially ones designed to alleviate stress and reduce the impact
t of the pandemic. These sca
m types will remain constant and we will not see many new scams, mostly due to the years of experience and resources available for tried and tested scams. The old adage “If it ain't broke, don’t fix it.” applies to bad actors as well.
As always, be mindful when using social media for business, or for personal use, to prevent yourself from becoming the next victim to a social media scam.
Falling for a scam or getting hacked can happen to anyone. Even the big guy up north!