Insidious scams are being found on social media sites that use recognisable faces and clickbait headlines to entice people to click on ads — it's just one tool scammers use to prey on vulnerable people and harvest personal information.
Cert NZ Threat and Incident senior analyst Sam Leggett told Breakfast this morning that if an online ad "seems too good to be true, it probably is". He advises everyone "take a sec to check".
Leggett said scammers might use recognisable faces for two possible reasons: one is as an easy way to create lots of fake profiles quickly, and the second is to exploit trust in familiar people to coerce victims.
Often these scams are trying to take people to an external website by having them click a link in a text message or social media ad. These sites may be trying to sell a fraudulent product or scheme, or they might open up direct contact with the scammer by email or WhatsApp, Leggett said.
"Ultimately what scammers are after is your personal information, such as your login details, your financial information, so things like obviously credit card details and even in some cases they’re really trying to get access to your devices."
When it comes to spotting these scams, he said it's worth taking a moment to "just take a moment, think about the narrative that's being played out for you and whether or not it really makes sense".
"A lot of times we see scam messages, quite basic in the sense that you might have car registration that needs to be renewed for example. If you've recently renewed your registration or you don't even have a car then that narrative doesn't make sense for you.
"The other thing that we see is that sense of urgency, and even consequences, created in the messaging of these scams... you might even see a message that says if you don't click this link and you go through this process you might suffer a fine or something like that, so the messages are creating a consequence for the individual."
Leggett recommended if people get a message purporting to be from their bank to call their bank directly on a number they've used before and verify its authenticity.
"Nine times out of 10 the bank will know immediately that what you’re dealing with is a scam and they’ll direct you away from falling victim to that."
In the event that someone finds they've fallen victim to a scam, it's important not to be embarrassed. If there's a financial loss they need to contact their bank first and foremost. The sooner they're made aware of that financial loss, the more likely it is that money can be recovered.
Reporting scams to organisations like CERT at cert.govt.nz is essential, Leggett said, "because there's actions that we can take behind the scenes to hopefully prevent anyone else from falling victim to those scams".
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