Facebook and other social media platforms have a severe problem, and this problem is only growing by the day. Scammers are finding more creative ways to take hard-earned money and are becoming more frequent. The original intention of stories was for users to create short content for their friends and followers, but some use this as a malicious means to scam people, and since they disappear after 24 hours, it becomes hard to prove.
Although Facebook can have a wide variety of legitimate content, the wolves are starting to wear sheep clothing. They often hack users social media accounts attempting to fool others into trusting them, luring them in with promises of money down a yellow-brick road. This road leads to nothing but pain, disappointment, and a negative or drained bank account.
Pennsylvania local Regina Marie allegedly was scammed by people in India. The alleged scammer pretended to be someone else on Facebook, a seemingly harmless older woman.
When asked how this occurred, Marie responded, “This woman sent me a friend request promising me money, and that all I had to do was fill out a survey and give my Cash App info, days later they do a video call with me bragging about how they hacked my Facebook. My debit card was attached to Facebook Pay, and they transferred my entire account, a total of $750 at the time to one of theirs. Luckily my bank was able to give me a $550 partial refund,” said Marie. The hackers were not found or prosecuted, as convicting those in another country is difficult.
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One of the red flags to watch out for involves messages such as You got cash app or You got PayPal? Many are preying on lower-class people who struggle financially, pretending to be someone you know. It might be that friend from high school you forgot about, your long-time friend, or a co-worker. They are not trying to give you $6,000 or a refund for something from an amazon purchase you made.
Scammer culture is growing, according to AboutFraud, a site dedicated to preventing, educating, and prosecuting cybercrimes. These scams do not require you to buy gift cards or send stacks of money to a mailing address anymore. Some of these scams directly happen by just getting your Ca$h Tag from Cash App or PayPal. Scammers will ask you to send a screenshot of your Cash App or PayPal. While this may seem harmless as you getting them any login info, the username has become enough to take over your account and transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to morioh.com.
Even Facebook and Instagram advertisements you see scrolling the page promise up to $750 in Cash App rewards, making their appearance on WhatsApp and Facebook groups. According to Snopes, a site dedicated to fact-checking, these scams have been running since May of 2021. These scams will have you complete a survey asking for personal information, such as your name, address, phone number, and even your social security number. A now-defunct Facebook group known as Cash App/PayPal Blessing, which promised blessings and no scams, was full of scams.
Other Cash App Scams include:
People impersonate customer support, pretending to be Cash App employees through text, phone calls, or social media direct messages (SDM).
“Cash Support will never ask you to provide your sign-in code, PIN, or other sensitive information like your bank account information,” according to the Cash App website.
#CashAppFriday is another way these scammers have been getting to people where you send over some information and money with the promise of a chance to win but never do.
Covid-19 affected the world health-wise but has also been a platform on which Cash App scammers have been using to steal money, according to Reader’s Digest. The scammers offer money for those vaccinated, having them provide information or their Cash App username and scam them.
Cash App and other social media scams have been more frequent as of late if you notice anything suspicious, please alert About Fraud.
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