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NEWARK
– Social media scams, using hijacked
user accounts on Facebook and other social
media sites, are on the rise and Attorney
General Paula T. Dow and Acting Consumer
Affairs Director Thomas R. Calcagni are
warning New Jersey consumers to be wary
of “friends” who ask them for
money.
A
typical scenario involves everyone listed
in the address book of a hacked user’s
account being asked to wire money to a foreign
country where the “friend” is
vacationing and needs money because the
“friend” was purportedly robbed
or has a medical emergency.
“People
lower their guard when someone they know
from a social networking site needs their
help. Rather than sending an email to random
people, these thieves have learned they
can improve their chances by hacking into
social networking accounts and then directing
pleas for money to the account holder’s
list of friends,” Attorney General
Dow said.
Some
common warning signs that a criminal is
trying to hijack a user’s account
while on the social networking site include:
-
Anything that asks you to paste a code
or URL into your browser;
-
Quizzes, polls or contests that require
you to provide personal information such
as your social security number, credit
card number or bank account information;
-
Requests that you update Flash Player
or other programs, or that you download
a new program; and
-
Anything that requires you to link to
another page and invites your friends
to that page.
In
order to protect yourself, you should be
wary of these warning signs and guard against
any actions that would provide cyber criminals
with the tools necessary to break into your
account.
If
you can’t log into your account, this
is a warning sign that it’s been hacked.
Contact the social website to report this
and to have your account disabled. Email
accounts can be disabled by contacting your
service provider. To protect your accounts
from being hacked, use strong passwords
and change them regularly. It is also recommended
that you use different passwords for different
accounts. Strong passwords contain a larger
number of characters and the characters
are a mix of upper and lower case letters,
numerals and symbols.
Consumers
can verify if an email from a social network
“friend” asking for money is
legitimate by checking its point of origination.
To do this:
- Go
to the “help” page of your
email account and find out how to check
the source and routing of an email. Multiple
forwarding of the email through various
accounts before it reached you is a warning
sign of a possible scam.
“Technology
has unfortunately brought con men into our
homes via the internet, emails and social
networking sites. These criminals are using
the mask of false identity to rob consumers
of their hard-earned money. We want to empower
consumers by educating them how to spot
these scams and avoid becoming victims,”
said Thomas R. Calcagni, Acting Consumer
Affairs Director.
The
Division of Consumer Affairs reviews consumer
complaints about suspected online scams.
To file a complaint about a suspected scam,
go to www.nj.gov/oag/ca/ocp/ocpform.htm
or call 1-800-242-5846
(toll-free within N.J.) or 973-504-6200.
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