Crooks prey on the emotions of the victims

Nov 7, 2014 10:35 GMT  ·  By

Thousands of scams are run on Facebook on a regular basis, each devised to make as many victims as possible; out of these, five specific lure-themes stand out, and despite the many warnings and advice from the company and the security industry, they still manage to ensnare unsuspecting users.

A recent study from Bitdefender delves into the psychological mechanism behind the tricks and the prerequisites of the victim falling into the trap.

Emotion, improved image and free treats are top triggers

The differences between the five types of baits are significant, the one at the top of the list being used in 45.50% of all the scams run on Facebook; it pretends to provide a tool that can reveal the identity of those visiting the profile of the potential victim.

According to the report, published in October, the reason pushing users into this scam is the desire to see if they their profile is still accessed by persons they have feelings for.

Obviously, the most prevalent victims are emotionally motivated individuals that have just got out of a relationship. And there should be plenty of breakups cybercriminals can take advantage of, considering the over 1.3 billion Facebook users.

Coming on second place are the scams promising increased Facebook functionality, such as changing the profile color or theme. These account for 29.53% of the incidents, and their success relies on the desire of the user to improve their image.

Cybercriminals are aware of how difficult it is for many to resist the temptation of gift card or a significant discount; as such, giveaway scams also found their place in this top, occupying the third position (16.51%).

This type of deceit ranges from free tickets to shows or amusement parks to gift cards and huge discount coupons for meals, drinks or games.

Celebrity hoaxes and atrocities see a rise

Interestingly, the bait with fake celebrity news is at the end of the top, on fourth place. It appears that scammers do not believe too much in this type of lure, or they have trouble running a trick involving public figures because users can easily verify the information on reputed websites.

However, Facebook is a social community that is interested in the life of artists, socialites and celebrities in general.

Recently, the crooks spread the fake news that Miley Cyrus died, the still for the promoted video suggesting drug overdose. Even if this scam has already been run on Facebook several times this year, many users continue to fall for the trick.

The last type of bait used by the crooks to lead users on the social network to malicious locations consists in the promise of violent content. The trigger for this scam is curiosity, which is present in high levels among the younger audience.

Bitdefender says that they observed a steady growth of the last two categories, thousands of victims being made with each new campaign.

Millions of fraudulent accounts exist

The risk associated with these campaigns is serious as they could lead to malicious locations serving malware; there are plenty of cases where the purpose is to dupe the victim into completing online surveys, for which the crook gets paid.

Facebook is known to take immediate action when accounts used for fraudulent activities are identified; and there are millions of them used for spreading spam or to deceive users into accessing dodgy pages outside the social network.

To reach a conclusion, the company analysed more than 850,000 Facebook scams in the past two years. These are not the only lures crooks rely on, but are the most prevalent.

Most common scams on Facebook (6 Images)

Most scams leverage user desire to view who visits their profile
Scam with tool promising to reveal profile visitorsCrooks lure with fake Facebook color changing solution
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