Identity theft: Your personal information is valuable to criminals. Protecting yourself against fraud also means securing and protecting your personal information.
How does this work?
Even if you have configured your social media accounts as 'private' and properly protected, or if you are careful and don't reveal much information within your profiles (pictures, videos, status updates, etc.), scammers still use various techniques, to trick you into revealing your personal information (name, email, password, credit card number, etc.) - information that can then be used to steal your identity.
Identity theft: Your personal information can help fraudsters:
- Make unauthorized purchases using your credit card, open bank accounts or enter into telephone contracts;
- to take out loans;
- resell your personal information to other fraudsters;
- conducting illegal business under your name.
Many identity theft attacks follow a similar pattern; the classics include:
- Twishing (a combination of the words Twitter and phishing): this is where a message is sent to a Twitter user instructing them to visit a website. When the user logs in to this fraudulent website, the attacker obtains their account details (name and password).
- Who viewed your social media profile or page? This service will ask you to consent to access to your profile. He will then direct you to a fraudulent survey and get you to reveal your personal information. For each person who fills out the questionnaire, the spammer receives a commission. You'll never find out who was looking for you. ( Continue reading… )
- “Is that you in this video?” If you click on these videos, you will end up in a survey that the spammer uses to make money. It could also lead to infecting your device with malware. ( Continue reading… )
- “Your account has been deleted”, “confirm your email account”. The goal of this scam is to trick you into revealing your private information and account credentials.
- Fraud using gift vouchers and fictitious offers from popular high street stores or high-quality brands. This type of fraud is intended to trick the user into disclosing personal information or ordering expensive services. The offers appear in a new form every month and sound too good to be true - the requested service is never provided, the ordered product never arrives.
- Miracle product, free trial offers! This online scam uses free trials, fictitious recommendations and surveys to trick you into paying for products and subscriptions without knowing what you are paying for or signing up for (e.g. regular shipping costs).
- “Make tons of money from home”. A job that requires you to pay a fee to even begin is likely based on fraud. These ads can be found on social media and will direct you to an offer that will charge you for a basic piece of equipment that will help you make thousands of dollars. You may be asked for a lot of personal information, including your tax number and copies of your passport or driving license. Some of these job offers could be a cover for illegal money laundering activities, where you are asked to receive funds into your bank account in exchange for a commission and then send them to a foreign company. You then act as a financial agent for criminals. This is a criminal offense.
- Help, I'm in trouble! A person posing as a relative in urgent need of money contacts you via social media message. The scammer acts desperate and asks you to transfer him cash. Telephone, email or text message are other ways to contact you. ( Continue reading… )
What can you do about identity theft?
- If you want to verify information about a social media account, go directly to the website - don't trust any link that claims to take you there.
- Be careful about how much information and images you post on websites and social media. Fraudsters can use this to create a false identity or target you as a potential fraud victim.
- Review your personal and security settings on each of your social media accounts. Take the time to understand what your profile tells the public about you. – Do an internet search. Search for the name of the product or job opportunity to see what others are saying about it. You can combine this with words like “review,” “ad,” or “scam.”
- Report profiles that you suspect to be fraudulent to the social media platform. If they “follow” or “friend” you, you should definitely block them and stop any further interaction.
- Check your debit and credit card statements regularly. If you're charged for something you didn't order, contact your bank and card provider.
Source: Internet Crime Guide | Police Lower Saxony | Joint cyber fraud awareness campaign between Europol and the European Banking Association (EBF) as part of the European Cybersecurity Month (ECSM)
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

