Cybercriminals are constantly coming up with new ways to steal our data or money. For years, however, they have been extremely willing to use the proven method of phishing. The key is to gain the trust of a potential victim, e.g. by impersonating a well-known company, person or institution, and then phishing information by trickery – for example login details on a social networking site or credit card number.
Have you violated Instagram rules? It could be a scam
Now scammers have targeted Instagram users. Our reader and user of this website has now received a message about alleged copyright infringement in one of her posts. She received the information from the “Contact Center” account impersonating the Instagram administration. Both the name, nickname and picture of the account are supposed to suggest that it is the official communication channel of the social platform. It also has almost 500 followers, but it is not difficult to guess that we are dealing with a scam here.
Cybercriminals claim in the message that someone has filed a complaint against the Reader and must respond to the message within two hours. If he does so, he will receive a link that probably leads to a crafted website of scammers. Typically, in such places, cybercriminals ask you to “log in” to your account in order to clarify the matter, but in fact they intercept your login details. Fortunately, the reader was not fooled, and her account – contrary to the claims of criminals – was not blocked. As she describes, earlier this week she already received a similar message sent from an account that also impersonated the administration of Instagram.
It is therefore worth being careful, because similar scams have recently flooded the network. In order not to fall into the trap of cybercriminals, it is worth checking the sender and carefully reading the content of the received message, because fake e-mails are often full of language errors. If you receive such a message, it is best to delete it immediately. Also, do not download attachments as they may contain malware. Let us also remember that real social, streaming or shopping platforms never ask for e.g. a bank card number to confirm account user details, and real bank consultants do not ask for an SMS password confirming online banking transactions. More on how to defend yourself against phishing
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
