Social Media Safety: Identifying and Avoiding Scammers | Gulf Coast Bank & Trust

What to Look For:

1. The message contains multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Many scammers aren’t native English speakers, so their messages tend to include noticeable errors such as poor spelling, awkward formatting, or unnatural language.
2. The profile is newly created with a small number of followers and little content. Scammers will quickly create multiple profiles with little content, increasing their chances of finding potential victims.
3. A friend request coming from someone you are already friends with. Scammers will clone profiles to appear as a friend or family member to make it easier to deceive you into sharing personal information.
4. Random messages that include a link. Scammers will use random messages with links to lure you into clicking on a link that may potentially steal your information or download malware onto your device.
5. A request to send money. Once a scammer has gained your trust, they will request money be sent online via a gift card, wire transfer, or a payment app such as Cash App or Venmo.
6. Deals that are too good to be true. Scammers will create ads that offer unbelievably good deals to lure victims to a false website where the victim is tricked into providing their debit card information.
7. A request to move the conversation off social media. To avoid being reported or banned, a scammer will request to take the conversation elsewhere such as text messages, email, etc.

(See more below)

How to Stay Safe:

1. Never click on any pop-up messages or unsolicited links.
2. Avoid giving out personal information.
3. Adjust social media settings to ensure your profile is private.
4. Use a strong password that includes a variety of letters, numbers, and special characters.
5. Be wary of urgent requests for information or action.
6. Do not send money to anyone through social media.
7. Before clicking on the link, inspect the URL to verify the legitimacy of the link.
8. Enable multi-factoring authentication.

Best Practices:

Facebook

1. Hiding Your Friends List
   1. Menu
   2. Settings & Privacy
   3. Settings
   4. Audience and visibility
   5. How people find and contact you?
      1. Who can see your friends list? 
      2. Choose “only me.”
         
         
          
2. Enabling Login Alerts and Notifications
   1. Menu
   2. Settings
   3. Account Center
   4. Password & Security
   5. Login Alerts
   6. Choose your account
      1. Check the box to turn on notifications

Instagram

1. Making Your Account Private
   1. Go to Profile
   2. Settings and Activity 
   3. Account Privacy
      1. Switch on to make account private
         
         
          
2. Disabling Your Activity Status
   1. Go to Profile
   2. Settings and Activity 
   3. Messages and story replies
   4. Show your activity status
      1. Switch off to disable
         
         
          
3. Disabling Group Chats for Non-Followers 
   1. Go to Profile
   2. Settings and activity 
   3. Messages and story replies
   4. Message controls
   5. Who can add you to group chats
      1. Choose Only people you follow on Instagram