Social media influencers are attractive targets for identity thieves.
With large followings and a literal influence on their followers, it's no wonder they are targeted by scammers and spreaders of fake news.
Such a person influences the financial investment decisions of their followers by doling out advice or recommendations.
This comes in the form of get-rich-quick schemes, cryptocurrency related advice, stock investment, financial planning, or just about anything people can do to make money.
On the platforms that matter these days, like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, the number of followers of some of the well-known finfluencers far exceeds the numbers of followers of some of the biggest broking houses.
In May of 2023, India banned a YouTube finfluencer with over a million followers from the securities markets for a year for allegedly providing advisory services-daily stock investment/trading calls-without registering with the regulator.
With enough followers that heed their advice, these finfluencers also can have an effect on the financial markets.
As an exit scam in which you make one big whopper and then disappear, that's a very profitable strategy.
Most influencers are in it for the long run and don't want to ruin the reputation they built.
In October of 2023, the Federal Trade Commission warned people with a lot of social media followers they might be the target of scammers.
Typically, the scammers say they'll send you free products and pay you large amounts of money to promote those products in your social media posts.
What the scammers are really after can vary from cleaning out the influencers' bank accounts to taking over their social media accounts.
The scammers will then leave the influencer behind with an account that has a bad reputation and lost a good part of its followers.
The governments of ten nations have called on social media operators to improve their ability to detect and prevent fraud on their platforms.
In a communiqué issued as a result of the Global Fraud Summit, which also included representatives from INTERPOL, the Financial Action Task Force, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the European Union, the partakers listed 29 action points that should help reduce online fraud.
Australia also reported progress towards their vision of making Australia the world's hardest target for scammers with, for example, a 38% decrease in losses due to investment scams.
What can influencers do to protect themselves Check your digital footprint.
If you want to find out how much of your data has been exposed online, you can try our free Digital Footprint scan.
SCAN NOW. We don't just report on threats - we help protect your social media.
Protect your social media accounts by using Cyrus, powered by Malwarebytes.
This Cyber News was published on www.malwarebytes.com. Publication date: Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:43:07 +0000