CHICO — Buckle up for my spooktacular column about the biggest scammers of all: people who don’t hand out candy on Halloween.
I’m kidding, but tricks and treats aside, there is a very real, and very creepy threat that can often rear its head around holidays that lend themselves to high social media picture traffic.
We all want to show off our costumes and the candy we get as part of the parent tax for buying our kids’ costumes and taking them out for the free-treat fest, which is a great time for scammers to stock up on photos to use on fake profiles.
Costumes, masks and makeup work wonders for turning us into ghouls, monsters, pirates and the back of a horse that’s totally fine and cool because the front of the horse is definitely not going to get sick and bail on you, leaving you a literal horse’s ass, but it also makes for excellent photos to snatch by scammers.
Once the holiday is over and everyone starts using their costume profile pictures in the following weeks, scammers that steal online personas grab their share knowing it will be harder to identify the person in the picture.
Stay vigilant online and if you see a “people you may know” profile with a costumed picture featuring someone you’re already following or are friends with, double check it with the individual and report it as needed.
Spooky masks aren’t just for All Hallows’ Eve, they’re used by internet scammers as well.
As always, never hand out personal information to someone you…
