A small business owner recently alerted our team of a new scam going around on Facebook. In this guide, we discuss how to identify scams on social media and the best ways to safeguard your accounts.

Scammers will go to all sorts of lengths to trick people into giving away money or sensitive information. In 2022, Australians lost more money to scams than ever before with over 3 billion dollars being stolen.

On social media, scammers often create fake accounts pretending to be someone they are not or compromise existing accounts to deceive you.

As these scams are becoming more sophisticated, it’s becoming harder to tell whether they are real or not. In this blog, we discuss how to spot a scam on Facebook along with the best ways to keep your account safe.

New Scam on Facebook Targeting Business Owners

One of the small businesses we work with, Andres Mobile Window Tinting, recently alerted us of a new scam going around on Facebook.

The business received a scam notification to say their Facebook account had been reported and was going to be deactivated if they didn’t click the link provided. Luckily, Andres Mobile Window Tinting identified the scam and reported it immediately.

Top 3 Ways to Spot a Scammer

1. Create a sense of urgency.

Scammers often try to create a sense of urgency by saying something is wrong with your account and threaten you with losing it.

As you can see in the example provided by Andres Mobile Window Tinting, the scam says, “If you don’t cancel the blocking, your Facebook will be deactivated without further notification.”

These online scammers want you to act quickly before you realise what they are up to, so always take your time and think it through before acting.

2. Incorrect spelling or grammar.

Look for strange phrases or misspelled words, as scammers often make basic mistakes that an official organisation wouldn’t.

In the example above, you can see that they use a capital for Facebook in some cases, but in others they don’t capitalise. Additionally, notice after the word “true” where the rest of the sentence is on the next line, leaving a huge gap that shouldn’t be there.

3. Use authority to build trust.

Online scammers use organisations and names you trust to lower your guard, such as a bank, email provider, or social media platform.

The scammer in the example above poses as “Security Facebook” to try and gain the trust of the Facebook user they are targeting.

If you get a suspicious email or message claiming to be from Facebook, don’t click any links or attachments. You can view recent emails sent from Facebook in your Facebook Settings.