Social media is an invaluable tool for making and maintaining connections, sharing memories, and creating communities. However, it can also be used maliciously as an avenue for impersonation, bait-and-switch tactics, and using emotional manipulation, deceptive practices, and outright lies. Additionally, many people who share details of their lives on social media may be unknowingly providing bad actors with the puzzle pieces they need to enact a scheme.
Despite social media platformsòòò½ÊÓƵ™ efforts to protect users and create safe online environments, everyone needs to play defense and protect their information to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, especially during the holiday season. Using themed approaches that seek to capitalize on festive spirits, scammers traditionally employ various tactics to obtain personal information, money, or account details.
This year, keep a lookout for some of these social media schemes:
Social Media Gift Exchanges
Gift exchanges are a great way to have fun with a close group of friends or family but can quickly spiral out of control when strangers are added into the mix. Every year, social media posts promoting gift exchanges for bourbon, wine, pet gifts, or an assortment of other products are frequently encountered. While some of these may be innocent attempts to create a community, others are strategically designed pyramid schemes that result in participants losing money and risking their personal information.
Be careful who you share personal information with, such as your name, email, and physical address, or answering seemingly innocent questions that may help criminals gain access to online accounts.
How to identify and avoid:
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Check to see who is organizing the gift exchange and ask them who is participating. Decide if you trust those people to know your personal information.
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Ask about the requirements to participate. If you must recruit other people to receive a gift, chances are good you are getting involved in a pyramid scheme.
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Be wary if you must purchase a gift through a specific vendor or provide payment details through an unrecognized website. You may be placing your banking information at risk.
Seasonal Events, Festivals, or Fairs
Communities across the nation often host a variety of holiday events for residents, providing a great opportunity for friends and families to create memories together. However, not all social media posts promoting an upcoming local event are legitimate. From winter fairs to ice-skating and Christmas lighting displays, scammers sell tickets to fabricated events and, on the day it supposedly occurs, customers arrive at vacant lots and parks.
This tactic is also commonly used by fraudulent traveling shows and exhibits.
How to identify and avoid:
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Check the cityòòò½ÊÓƵ™s or hosting venueòòò½ÊÓƵ™s official calendar to verify the event is listed. Make sure the date matches with what is posted on social media.
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Search for reviews or complaints about a traveling show or exhibit online before booking tickets. Pay particular attention to the titleòòò½ÊÓƵ”scammers will create event names that closely match legitimate ones.
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Use reverse image search on a few event photos to make sure they were not stolen from other organizations and repurposed under a different name.
Requests for Assistance or Unverified Public Notices
Often found in community groups, these posts seek to create emotional responses to fuel engagement and can range from outrage to sympathy, depending on the specifics included. For example, they may claim that a lost child or pet was found that needs help, a family member has been hospitalized, or that they were a victim of a crime. Regardless of the strategy used, their goal is for the post to be widely shared or to ask for money. They may also send direct messages to people who interact with the post to ask for assistance.
During the holiday season, these scams use made-up issues that have connections with holiday trends, such as package theft, destruction of Christmas decorations, or car wrecks during a family trip.
How to identify and avoid:
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Check with law enforcement about any claimed criminal activity occurring locally, if the post is not originating from the departmentòòò½ÊÓƵ™s official social media account.
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Use reverse image search to see if the included photo in the post has been used elsewhere under similar or different contexts.
òòò½ÊÓƵ¢ Be wary of vague messaging that could apply to any city if you changed only one or two words, like the city name.
Better Business Bureau also reminds online shoppers to be careful when interacting with social media marketplaces for holiday gifts and to use payment methods that include buyer protection policies.
For more information about how to have a safe, scam-free holiday season, visit .
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