What could go wrong?
Social media can be the source of a great enjoyment, but a recent study warns that it can also result in some serious financial misery.
There are scammers lurking in the internet wilderness, just waiting to separate people from their cryptocurrencies.
‘Most Vulnerable Sites’
Meta Platform’s (META) – Get Meta Platforms Inc. Report Instagram accounts for 32% of all fraud cases on social media, according to a study by TradingPlatforms, while Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp came in second and third with 26% and 9%, respectively.
Investment frauds were the most recorded crypto scam originating on social media, TradingPlatforms said, resulting in the loss of $575 million worth of crypto, “significantly higher amount than any other sort of fraud.”
“The most vulnerable sites for scamming are Meta-owned,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “This raises questions about Meta’s capacity to protect its users’ personal information and privacy.”
Meta Platforms did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the social media giant has said in the past that “we use technology to detect and block scam ads and work to get ahead of scammers’ attempts to evade our detection systems.”
Crypto trading doesn’t involve banks, making it difficult to flag fraudulent activities, and, TradingPlatforms noted, “most victims are ignorant of how cryptocurrency works.”
‘The Dangling Carrot’
“The stories that people tell about these frauds describe a perfect storm,” the…
