DANGERS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Social engineering or social hacking is the act of manipulating people through social interactions in person, over the phone, or in writing into breaking normal security rules. It has become the greatest threat being faced by many including organizations. These social engineers know that humans are a weak link in cyber security. They strategize their plans to look legitimate and appear harmless so as to trick people to beat security walls. Being a victim of these hackers could be damaging and frustrating.  

Posting on Social Media Sites

Posting updates and other information on social media sites is aim at enlightening, educating and informing the social network community, but care must be taken on the type or kind of information you post. Once information is posted to a social media, it is no longer private.  The more update you post, the more vulnerable you may become. Even if you did a thorough security setting on your account, friends or websites may inadvertently leak your information. The more personal, family, friends, business associates information you share, the more likely someone could impersonate you and you your account for nefarious activities. You must be conscious of the fact that hackers and scammers troll social medias sites like a roaring lion looking for information or people to target and devour. Let me share a confession of a fraudster known as “king of 419”. According to him, he started by procuring foreign sim-cards from UK and USA so as to deceive potential victims, and specifically targeted wealthy foreign ladies in North America.

“I had pictures and pre-recorded videos of a white man. There is software which will replay these videos on Skype. So, if I am Skyping with you, you will not see my present self – you would see this video on a webcam. I had about 20 different videos with the same white man and I had created stories behind each clip. When I showed my victims, they all believed it was real.”

According to him, facebook is the easiest medium to lure prospective victim and he uses the same profile he had in the doctored video.

“Sometimes I would ask them to help me look for a property agent to buy a house. I would tell them I am ready to pay for the house as soon as I come. I would send them a fake e-ticket and tell them I would be arriving in two weeks. I even had a pre-recorded video of a 12 year old girl who I pretended was my daughter. I had this assistant who would help me in speaking like a small girl. There is no way you would see that video on Skype and not believe it is real. They buy into it immediately. That was how I was able to draw them to get money from them. To make it look real. I would send them gifts – rings, champagne, credit cards to shop. We would have ‘phone sex’ to draw their attention even more – that is how they believed. Sometimes, I could be talking to 10 different women simultaneously and I never forgot their names. Once the naïve trust is establish, I would tell them to contact my bank. Once they give me their details, I would make a fake wire transfer. They would see the money moving into their account. When it stops, I would tell them that they have to contact the bank and pay the ‘cost of transfer’ I could make $30,000, $80,000 – even $250,000 on a single victim. I was living in very luxurious and expensive hotels. I preferred people who were educated – people that would say, ‘It is not possible for me to be scammed’. I attacked lawyers through Yellow Pages in USA. I would tell the lawyer that someone owes me money from Michigan and the person is living in Alaska. The person the lawyer would contact in Alaska would be me also. Once he talked to this ‘person’, I would say, ‘I really owe him money and I want to pay back $300,000’. I would send the lawyer a cheque and once I sent it, they would not find out from the bank if the cheque was real; they would just deposit it.”  

To the glory of God, he was arrested by the Holy Spirit and turned a new life.

Be very careful on the conversation you make on social media. These social engineers may be using conversation to extract information from you without you having the feeling you are being interrogated.

Be on the alert when on the computer

Hackers may give you a USB or other electronic media that is preloaded with malware without you knowing in the hope you will use the device on your computer. Do not use any electronic storage device unless you know its and safe and legitimate, and scan all devices before using it on your computer. Always type a website address rather than clicking on a link. Hackers sometimes mimic legitimate web address with the hope extracting private data from you. When you see a deal or offer that sounds too good to be true, watch carefully, it is most likely a scam. Hackers use popular events and news stories as bait for people to open infected email, visit infected websites, or donate to a fake charity organization.